Senior AI/ML Engineer Remote Nationwide or Office-Based in MN/DC/NJ

Optum; Basking Ridge (NJ); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 215,000; Full time

Job summary

Optum Tech is hiring an AI/ML engineering leader to scale responsible generative AI, NLP, and RAG across provider workflows. You will design, build, and deploy production-grade AI services and APIs with strong governance and security.

Hybrid work is supported with in-office three days per week for New Jersey-based staff. You will collaborate with product managers, data scientists, and platform teams to deliver scalable health care AI solutions and measurable outcomes.

Qualifications

• BS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field (or equivalent experience).
• 6+ years of software engineering experience.
• 4+ years designing and building AI/ML solutions, including LLMs.
• 4+ years web services, RESTful APIs, microservices, and system integration.
• 4+ years cloud deployment; AWS experience preferred.
• 3+ years experience with chatbots/conversational AI / NLP / RAG.
• 1+ year with orchestration frameworks (MCP) and agentic AI.

Responsibilities

• Lead responsible adoption of AI/ML across the team using Generative AI, NLP, RAG, and related techniques.
• Design, build, evaluate, deploy, and improve production-grade AI/ML services and APIs.
• Engineer responsible AI with guardrails, privacy, security, and governance.
• Mentor engineers on AI architecture, Python/Java, and production practices.
• Collaborate with product managers, data scientists, and platform teams to translate healthcare needs into scalable AI solutions.
• Align architecture with enterprise AI strategy, reusable platforms, cloud modernization, and measurable outcomes.

Skills

AI/ML design

Python/Java

Cloud AWS

REST APIs

NLP

MLOps

Leadership

Security & compliance

Education

BS in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Git

CI/CD

Job description

Optum Tech is a global leader in health care innovation. Our teams develop cutting-edge solutions that help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. From advanced data analytics and AI to cybersecurity, we use innovative approaches to solve some of health care's most complex challenges. Your contributions here have the potential to change lives. Ready to build the next breakthrough? Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together. The Provider Digital Technology team delivers a unified, intuitive digital entry point for UnitedHealthcare providers and partners to access tools, services, and information. We build secure, scalable capabilities that simplify how providers discover, navigate, and engage across the Portal, API, EDI, Chat, and Voice channels. Our AI/ML engineering team develops production-grade intelligent solutions, including generative AI assistants, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic workflows, conversational AI, predictive models, and intelligent automation. We partner across UnitedHealthcare and UnitedHealth Group to integrate enterprise applications and data sources while applying responsible AI, privacy, security, safety, observability, and human-centered design principles. This work reduces friction, improves provider workflows, and enables faster, more effective problem-solving across the health care ecosystem. You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of four days per week. For all hires in New Jersey, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days per week.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the responsible adoption of AI/ML across the team, applying Generative AI, Agentic AI, NLP, predictive modeling, and traditional machine learning to high-value provider use cases
• Design, build, evaluate, deploy, and continuously improve production-grade AI/ML services, APIs, and applications that meet customer, business, reliability, and scalability needs
• Engineer responsible AI solutions with appropriate guardrails, privacy and security controls, human oversight, auditability, and compliance with enterprise and regulatory standards
• Develop LLM-powered capabilities using prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), embeddings, vector search, tool use, structured outputs, and model evaluation techniques
• Provide technical leadership for Agentic AI, chatbots, voice assistants, conversational AI, and workflow automation, including orchestration through MCP or similar frameworks
• Partner with product managers, architects, data scientists, platform teams, and engineering leaders to translate complex health care needs into scalable AI solutions
• Align solution architecture with enterprise AI strategy, reusable platform capabilities, engineering standards, cloud modernization, and measurable business outcomes
• Establish high-quality engineering practices for experimentation, automated testing, model and prompt evaluation, CI/CD, observability, performance, resiliency, and production support
• Mentor engineers on AI/ML architecture, Python and Java development, responsible AI, LLM application patterns, evaluation frameworks, and operational excellence
• Integrate AI capabilities with enterprise data, APIs, event-driven services, cloud platforms, and digital channels while maintaining secure and reliable data flows
• Exercise independent judgment to prioritize technical work, manage delivery risks, communicate tradeoffs, and drive AI initiatives from proof of concept through production scale

Required Qualifications

• BS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field (or equivalent experience)
• 6+ years of software engineering experience
• 4+ years of hands-on experience designing and building AI/ML solutions, including LLM applications, Generative AI, NLP, predictive models, or traditional machine learning
• 4+ years of software engineering experience with web services, RESTful APIs, microservices, and system integration
• 4+ years of experience deploying and operating applications in cloud environments; AWS experience preferred
• 3+ Solid programming experience in Python or Java, including clean code, automated testing, source control, and modern software engineering practices
• 2+ Hands-on experience with chatbots, conversational AI, NLP, RAG, embeddings, vector databases, and semantic search patterns
• 1+ Hands-on experience with Agentic AI, tool-calling workflows, MCP or similar orchestration frameworks, and Strands Agents

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven solid knowledge of AI/ML production operations, including security, access controls, responsible AI guardrails, evaluation, logging, monitoring, performance tuning, disaster recovery, and incident support
• Experience delivering production AI/ML solutions in the health care industry or another highly regulated environment
• Full-stack engineering experience and familiarity with modern web frameworks, cloud-native architectures, and infrastructure-as-code
• Experience with LLM evaluation, prompt testing, RAG quality measurement, model monitoring, and AI observability
• Experience with MLOps or LLMOps, CI/CD, containers, Kubernetes, feature or model lifecycle management, and production telemetry
• Proven knowledge of data engineering, vector stores, enterprise search, and secure integration of structured and unstructured data sources
• All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy.

Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, we offer benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with us, you'll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives. The salary for this role will range from $120,100 - $214,500 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

Application Deadline: This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

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.

UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer under applicable law and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.

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