Director, Non-Clinical Competitive Intelligence, Optum Payment Integrity, Operations

Optum; Leinster; Hybrid; EUR 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Optum is recruiting a Director of Non-Clinical Competitive Intelligence in Ireland. You will lead CI across non-clinical Payment Integrity, driving medical cost savings, revenue growth and market share gains.

The role spans global teams and requires delivering measurable value while partnering with product, operations and analytics. You will build AI-enabled intelligence, govern portfolios, and develop a high-performing global team, splitting time between Dublin/Letterkenny and remote work in a

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Health Administration, Business, Data Science, Public Health, or related field.
• Extensive experience in healthcare payment integrity, claims auditing or related functions.
• Extensive people leadership across multiple locations/time zones.
• Experience taking payment integrity opportunities through full lifecycle.
• Strong background in competitive intelligence and market strategy.
• Experience applying AI, ML, analytics or automation to operations.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise Competitive Intelligence portfolio and growth for non-clinical Payment Integrity.
• Own external signal detection and opportunity generation from trends and activity.
• Drive end-to-end opportunity lifecycle from identification to value realization.
• Reduce leakage and displace vendor spend through internal capability growth.
• Build AI-powered intelligence and automation into workflows.
• Partner across Product, Operations and Analytics to advance lifecycle innovation.
• Provide executive governance and ensure visibility of market dynamics and value realization.
• Build a high-performing global team of CI, audit and analytics professionals.

Skills

Leadership experience

Competitive intelligence

AI/ML adoption

Data analytics

Healthcare industry knowledge

Strategic thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Job description

Improve the lives of others while Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Job Description - Director, Non-Clinical Competitive Intelligence, Optum Payment Integrity, Operations (2383124)

Director, Non-Clinical Competitive Intelligence, Optum Payment Integrity, Operations - 2383124

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Operations Payment Integrity within Optum Payer Operations is responsible for driving the development and execution of medical cost savings growth for UnitedHealthcare and Commercial client health plans by ensuring payment accuracy to support the enterprise objectives. The Operations Ideation & Growth function drives significant medical cost savings from claims received by health care providers through all lines of business / Health plans in parallel to other operations within Payer Payment Integrity, technology, analytic & enablement teams.

This is a global leadership role, hired in Ireland, leading the Competitive Intelligence function within the non-clinical payment integrity portfolio. Competitive Intelligence exists to ensure that overpayment value present in the market is identified and recovered by our own operation rather than lost to third-party recovery vendors. The team pairs experienced claims platform auditors with business analysts to uncover overpayments through exploratory auditing and self-generated analytic inventory, and to detect, size and recapture value leaking to the external market beyond the standard post-payment review window. The successful candidate will define the competitive strategy, lead the ideation and audit engine that delivers it, and produce measurable outcomes in market share, medical cost savings, revenue and affordability.

Careers with Optum offer flexible work arrangements and individuals who live and work in the Republic of Ireland will have the opportunity to split their monthly work hours between our Dublin or Letterkenny office and telecommuting from a home-based office in a hybrid work model.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead the enterprise Competitive Intelligence portfolio and growth strategy across non-clinical Payment Integrity products delivering medical cost savings, affordability, revenue and market share growth
• Own external signal detection and opportunity generation. Build an intelligence-led model that surfaces new opportunity from provider billing trends, competitor activity, payer behaviour, claim patterns, regulatory change, rejected inventory and white space
• Drive the end-to-end opportunity lifecycle, signal detection, lead generation, sizing, financial validation, business case, governance approval, deployment and realized value, against affordability and growth commitments
• Reduce external leakage and displace vendor spend. Quantify and eliminate leakage, expand internal capability to displace third-party vendors, and convert market share gains into measurable external spend reduction
• Build AI-powered intelligence and automation capability. Lead adoption of AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, agentic workflows and contract intelligence to improve signal generation, identification precision, auditor productivity and deployment velocity
• Accelerate claim lifecycle innovation and prevention. Partner with Product, Operations, Analytics and Technology across pre-payment prevention, payment accuracy, post-payment recovery and root-cause remediation to shift value upstream
• Provide executive portfolio governance. Maintain visibility of market dynamics, competitive positioning, vendor performance, pipeline health, forecast accuracy and value realization through established operating reviews
• Develop a high-performing global organization. Build and lead a distributed team of competitive intelligence, audit and analytics professionals, deepening market and platform expertise and a culture of accountability and innovation

You will be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role, as well as providing development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Health Administration, Business, Data Science, Public Health, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience
• Proven extensive experience in healthcare payment integrity, claims auditing, medical cost management, or related healthcare functions
• Proven extensive experience in people leadership, including leadership of leaders across multiple locations or time zones
• Proven extensive experience taking payment integrity or recovery opportunities through the full lifecycle, from identification and sizing through deployment and value realization
• Proven solid experience in competitive intelligence, third-party vendor performance analysis, market share strategy, or insourcing strategy
• Proven experience applying AI, machine learning, advanced analytics, or intelligent automation to operational or analytical processes

Preferred Qualifications:

• Project management and/or Agile/Scrum certification
• Proven solid experience with U.S. non-clinical payment integrity products, including Coordination of Benefits, data mining, provider outreach, contract auditing, or recovery programs
• Proven solid experience in financial analysis, opportunity sizing, and pipeline prioritization
• Proven experience deploying machine learning models or AI-assisted review capabilities into live operational workflows
• Proven experience influencing executive-level stakeholders within matrixed, multinational organizations

Please note you must currently be eligible to work and remain indefinitely without any restrictions in the country to which you are making an application. Proof will be required to support your application.

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone–of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income–deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes — an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: Optum is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age, race, and membership of the Traveller community, or any other characteristic protected by law. Optum is a drug-free workplace. © 2026 Optum Services (Ireland) Limited. All rights reserved.

UnitedHealth Group is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with physical and mental disabilities.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.