Remote Principal Data Scientist — AI Leadership & Production ML

Optum; Minnetonka (MN); Remote; USD 113,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits package

Equity stock purchase

401(k) contribution

Remote flexibility

Job summary

Optum seeks a Principal Data Scientist to design, develop, and deploy scalable AI solutions. You will lead architecture and hands-on development across ML initiatives, including generative AI, with a focus on governance, reproducibility, and security. Remote-friendly role with in-office requirements for certain locations.

You will collaborate with research, data engineering, and product teams to translate cutting-edge AI into production-ready capabilities, leveraging cloud ML services and MLOps.

Qualifications

• 10+ years designing, building, and deploying production ML solutions.
• 3+ years building generative AI applications using LLMs and orchestration frameworks.
• Deep expertise in NLP or Computer Vision with hands-on solution ownership.
• Solid foundation in core ML and statistical methods with deep learning experience.
• Experience with cloud ML services and architecture on AWS/Azure/GCP, including containers and MLOps.
• Proven track record moving models from research/POC to production at scale.
• Hands-on Python programming and DL frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• Solid background in probability, linear algebra, and statistical inference.
• Strong problem-solving and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy scalable, production-grade AI solutions addressing complex business challenges with responsible AI.
• Lead solution architecture and hands-on development across AI/ML initiatives using traditional ML, DL, and LLM-based approaches.
• Lead POC experiments in generative AI and evaluate tools/frameworks to drive strategic innovation.
• Collaborate with research, data engineering, software engineering, and product teams to translate AI advancements into scalable capabilities.
• Define enterprise practices for model governance, versioning, reproducibility, security, and MLOps pipelines.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers and data scientists.

Skills

ML architecture

Generative AI

NLP or CV

ML methods & deep learning

Cloud ML & CI/CD

Python & DL frameworks

Probability & linear algebra

Communication

Problem solving

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

LangChain

LangGraph

PyTorch

TensorFlow

MLflow

Kubeflow

TFX

Airflow

Job description

Optum seeks a Principal Data Scientist to design, develop, and deploy scalable AI solutions. You will lead architecture and hands-on development across ML initiatives, including generative AI, with a focus on governance, reproducibility, and security. Remote-friendly role with in-office requirements for certain locations.

You will collaborate with research, data engineering, and product teams to translate cutting-edge AI into production-ready capabilities, leveraging cloud ML services and MLOps.