Lead AI/ML Engineer – Eden Prairie

UnitedHealth Group; Eden Prairie (MN); Hybrid; USD 146,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

Equity stock purchase

401(k) contribution

Job summary

Optum, a global health technology leader, seeks a Lead AI/ML Engineer for the Behavioral Health Technology team. The role is remote within the U.S. with an in‑office requirement of at least four days per week for hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C.

area. You will own discovery, design, and deployment of production ML models and scalable AI solutions, build end‑to‑end MLOps pipelines, mentor junior engineers, and partner with data scientists, software engineers, and product managers to

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in software development.
• 2+ years of AI/ML engineering experience with production models.
• 2+ years of hands-on Python experience with core ML libraries.
• 2+ years building end-to-end MLOps pipelines using MLflow, Kubeflow, Airflow, or similar.
• Experience with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) and Docker/Kubernetes.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals: Git, CI/CD, and unit testing.
• Preferred: Generative AI, LLMs, prompt engineering, or retrieval-augmented generation.

Responsibilities

• Own discovery, scoping, system design, build, and deployment of production ML models and scalable AI solutions.
• Design end-to-end MLOps pipelines for data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, validation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners to turn business needs into robust AI capabilities.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to junior engineers while promoting engineering best practices.
• Troubleshoot, optimize, and maintain deployed models and pipelines for high availability and performance.

Skills

AI/ML engineering

Python programming

CI/CD & version control

Model deployment & monitoring

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related quantitative discipline

Tools

MLflow

Kubeflow

Airflow

Docker

Kubernetes

Git

CI/CD tools

Job description

Requirements

Must have:

• We require a bachelors degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline, or an equivalent international degree
• We require 10+ years of experience in the software development industry
• We require 2+ years of AI/ML engineering experience, with a demonstrated record of designing, building, and deploying production machine learning models
• We require 2+ years of hands‑on experience with Python and core machine learning libraries
• We require 2+ years of experience building and automating end‑to‑end MLOps pipelines using tools such as MLflow, Kubeflow, Airflow, or cloud‑native alternatives
• We require experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform, as well as containerization technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes
• We require strong software engineering fundamentals, including Git‑based version control, CI/CD pipelines, and unit testing
• Preferred: experience with Generative AI, large language models, prompt engineering, or retrieval‑augmented generation frameworks
• Preferred: experience with distributed computing tools such as Spark or Ray, and with high‑performance computing
• Preferred: experience in healthcare, especially clinical or behavioral health technology
• Preferred: strong understanding of data engineering principles and relational or non‑relational databases, including SQL, NoSQL, and vector databases
• Preferred: excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to explain complex AI/ML concepts to non‑technical audiences

Responsibilities

• We own discovery, technical scoping, system design, build, and deployment of production‑grade machine learning models and scalable AI solutions for complex business challenges, with a strong focus on responsible and ethical AI use – We design and implement end‑to‑end MLOps pipelines covering data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, validation, deployment, and automated monitoring – We evaluate emerging AI/ML trends, frameworks, and methods to guide solution design, support strategic innovation, and continuously improve existing models – We collaborate with cross‑functional partners, including data scientists, software engineers, and product managers, to turn business needs into robust, reusable AI capabilities – We provide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to junior and mid‑level engineers while promoting engineering best practices and architectural standards – We troubleshoot, optimize, and maintain deployed models and pipelines to keep production systems highly available, scalable, and performant – We use enterprise‑approved AI tools to streamline workflows, automate tasks, and drive continuous improvement across the engineering lifecycle

Company

We are Optum, a global organization that uses technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. We offer a culture built on inclusion, talented colleagues, comprehensive benefits, and career development opportunities. This Lead AI/ML Engineer role sits on our Behavioral Health Technology team, where we advance clinical and administrative excellence by building enterprise‑scale machine learning and artificial intelligence solutions that improve health outcomes. The role is remote within the U.S., with an in‑office requirement of at least four days per week for hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area. We offer a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase, and 401(k) contribution, with a salary range of $145,500 to $249,500 annually based on full‑time employment. We are committed to health equity, environmental responsibility, and equal employment opportunity.