Vice President, People Data Strategy & Operational Insights

UnitedHealth-Grou; Eden Prairie (MN); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 344,000; Full time

Job summary

UnitedHealth Group seeks a senior leader to own the enterprise People data strategy and operational insights. You will govern workforce data, define data ownership, and drive AI-ready data products across HR domains.

The role partners with Tech, COEs, Finance, and business leaders to enable trusted, usable data at enterprise scale. The role emphasizes operational insights for HR reimagination, data quality, and governance, with remote work flexibility within the U.S.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in data strategy.
• Proven ability to define enterprise data strategy, governance, stewardship, or data product capabilities.
• Experience with enterprise data platforms, BI tools, data catalogs, lineage, and observability.
• Experience partnering with senior leaders in Technology, HR, Finance, Legal, Privacy, Security, or Compliance.
• Ability to translate data issues into business decisions and executive-ready narratives.
• Experience defining metrics, measurement frameworks, scorecards, or operational health indicators.
• Track record of delivering measurable results in a large matrixed organization.
• Proven leadership building teams and influencing across functions.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the enterprise People data strategy across workforce domains (e.g., workforce, talent, payroll, benefits).
• Govern data structures, security, maintenance, and fitness for use across analytics, reporting, and AI-enabled workflows.
• Build a roadmap to improve trust, consistency, usability, and readiness of People data at enterprise scale.
• Partner with People Technology and Optum Tech to reflect requirements in data platforms and pipelines.
• Clarify ownership: People own business meaning and readiness; Technology owns architecture and security.
• Mature data governance with clear ownership, stewardship, and decision rights.
• Lead modernization of data definitions, rules, and source-of-truth standards across People domains.
• Define operational metrics and ensure consistent definitions across COEs and leadership reporting.
• Develop routines to improve data trust beyond governance documentation.
• Oversee data quality, validation rules, thresholds, and remediation governance.
• Ensure data used for payroll, benefits, compliance, and reporting is reliable and controlled.
• Lead AI data readiness and ensure governance for AI-ready data assets.

Skills

Data strategy

Governance

Leadership

Analytics

Data quality

AI readiness

Tools

Oracle HCM

Workday

SAP SuccessFactors

Job description

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

Job Description - Vice President, People Data Strategy & Operational Insights (2387916)

UnitedHealth Group is a health care and well-being company that’s dedicated to improving the health outcomes of millions around the world. We are comprised of two distinct and complementary businesses, UnitedHealthcare and Optum, working to build a better health system for all. Here, your contributions matter as they will help transform health care for years to come. Make an impact with a team that shares your passion for helping others. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

The Vice President, People Data Strategy & Operational Insights will lead the enterprise People data strategy for UnitedHealth Group, ensuring workforce data is trusted, governed, secure, AI-ready, and fit for use across operations, analytics, reporting, decision support, and intelligent workflows.

This leader will own the People Team’s data operating model, including data governance, stewardship, data quality, business definitions, source-of-truth logic, semantic consistency, data product strategy, and AI data readiness. The role will partner closely with Tech, Operations, COEs, Finance, and business leaders to ensure People data is used responsibly and consistently at enterprise scale.

A second critical focus of this role is operational insights. As UnitedHealth Group continues to reimagine the People function, this leader will build the insight and measurement discipline needed to understand how HR work is performed today, where operational friction exists, where AI and process redesign can create value, and whether transformation efforts are improving outcomes. This includes defining operational health metrics, measuring the success of People Team Reimagination initiatives, and helping leaders make fact-based decisions about service delivery, workflow design, automation, shared services, and employee / manager experience.

This role is not a traditional reporting or dashboard leadership role. It is a strategic enterprise role focused on making People data trusted, usable, governed, and actionable — and using that data to help reimagine how the People function operates.

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.

Primary Responsibilities:

Enterprise People Data Strategy

• Define and lead the enterprise People data strategy across workforce, talent, recruiting, learning, payroll, benefits, time, employee support, employee relations, and other People domains
• Establish how People data is governed, structured, secured, maintained, and made fit for use across operations, analytics, AI, reporting, decision support, and enterprise workflows
• Build a practical roadmap to improve trust, consistency, usability, and readiness of People data at enterprise scale
• Partner with People Technology and Optum Tech to ensure People data requirements are reflected in data platforms, integrations, pipelines, metadata, lineage, observability, reporting architecture, and AI-enabled capabilities
• Create clarity on People-side data ownership, including the principle that People own the business meaning, stewardship, readiness, and value of workforce data, while Technology owns architecture, engineering, integration, security, and runtime
• Mature the People data governance model, including ownership, stewardship roles, decision rights, issue escalation, and domain accountability
• Lead the modernization of common People data definitions, business rules, metric logic, source-of-truth standards, and semantic consistency across People domains
• Ensure critical workforce metrics are consistently defined, calculated, interpreted, and used across COEs, HR Operations, PBPs, Finance, business leaders, and executive reporting
• Partner across the enterprise to resolve conflicting metric definitions, source-of-truth disputes, and inconsistent data usage
• Build practical stewardship routines that improve data trust, not just governance documentation

Data Quality, Controls & Operational Data Discipline

• Upgrade the People data quality framework, including standards, validation rules, thresholds, scorecards, audit routines, defect tracking, root-cause analysis, and remediation governance
• Oversee operational data disciplines that support trusted People data, including data corrections, mass data loads, M&A data conversion, recurring audits, cyclical cleanup, and security / access controls
• Partner with HR Operations, Payroll, Benefits, Talent, Recruiting, People Technology, and Tech teams to reduce recurring data defects and strengthen upstream data quality
• Ensure People data used for payroll, benefits, compliance, reporting, analytics, operational insights, and AI is reliable and appropriately controlled
• Create transparency into data health and ensure leaders understand where data quality issues create operational, compliance, experience, or AI-readiness risk

AI Data Readiness

• Lead the People data readiness agenda for AI and intelligent workflows
• Define what makes People data fit for AI use, including quality, permissions, lineage, metadata, source-of-truth logic, structured and unstructured content readiness, privacy constraints, and risk controls
• Partner with appropriate internal groups to assess AI use cases for data readiness, risk, scalability, and value
• Ensure AI use cases are grounded in trusted, permissioned, governed People data and content
• Help the People Team avoid scaling AI use cases where the underlying data, definitions, content, controls, or operating model are not ready

Operational Insights for People Team Reimagination

• Build the operational insights capability required to support the People Team Reimagination agenda.
  Establish the measurement framework to understand how HR work is performed today, where friction exists, where manual work persists, where defects originate, and where workflow redesign or AI can create value
• Partner with HR Operations, Payroll, Benefits Administration, Leave / Absence, Talent Acquisition, People Technology, AI Enablement, and COEs to define operational health metrics across the People function
• Create insight routines that help leaders understand volume, quality, cycle time, cost, capacity, case trends, employee experience, manager experience, service performance, and risk
• Translate operational data into actionable recommendations that inform process redesign, service tiering, automation, shared services strategy, AI use-case prioritization, and investment decisions
• Ensure operational insights are used to support decisions, not just report activity

Data Products & Technology Partnership

• Define the People data product strategy, including reusable workforce data assets that support analytics, operational insights, reporting, AI, decision support, and enterprise workflows
• Own People-side business requirements for data products, semantic layers, AI-ready data assets, reporting datasets, workforce intelligence capabilities, and operational insight products
• Partner with Optum Tech on data architecture, engineering, integration, metadata, lineage, observability, BI platforms, and production delivery
• Ensure People data products are designed around business meaning, usability, security, quality, scalability, and measurable value
• Improve the partnership model between People, Technology, Analytics, AI Enablement, and operational owners
• Lead Enterprise People Analytics and Workforce Intelligence, converting trusted workforce data into actionable insights, executive narratives, operational health metrics, and decision support
• Deliver insights that help leaders understand workforce trends, talent risks, labor dynamics, employee experience, operational performance, transformation progress, and emerging business needs
• Elevate analytics from reporting and dashboards to decision enablement, strategic insight, operational improvement, and measurable business action
• Support OCEO, board, and CHRO analytical needs
• Ensure analytics products are built on governed definitions, trusted data sources, and consistent interpretation
  

You’ll 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 provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• 15+ years of experience in data strategy
• Demonstrated experience defining or leading enterprise data strategy, governance, stewardship, data quality, semantic standards, or data product capabilities
• Experience with enterprise data platforms, BI tools, semantic layers, data catalogs, lineage, metadata, observability, and/or data quality tools
• Experience partnering with senior business leaders in Technology, HR, Finance, Legal, Privacy, Security and/or Compliance
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex data issues into business decisions, operating model implications, and executive-ready narratives
• Experience defining metrics, measurement frameworks, scorecards, operational health indicators, or value realization methods
• Track record of driving measurable business results in a large, complex, matrixed organization
• Proven leadership experience building teams, developing talent, and influencing across functions

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience defining AI data readiness requirements, governed data products, or data foundations for GenAI / intelligent workflow use cases
• Experience measuring transformation value, business case realization, productivity, capacity release, cost avoidance, service quality, adoption, or experience outcomes
• Experience in a regulated, highly matrixed, enterprise-scale environment
• Experience working with Technology teams where business data ownership and technical engineering ownership are split
• Experience leading analytics, insights, or measurement functions that support executive decision-making and operational improvement
• Understanding of workforce data and HR processes across areas such as core HR, talent, recruiting, learning, payroll, benefits, time, employee support, or employee relations
• HR data, workforce analytics, people analytics, enterprise analytics, data governance, data management or transformation analytics
• Experience with Oracle HCM or comparable enterprise HCM platforms such as Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, or PeopleSoft
• Experience supporting large-scale HR transformation, shared services transformation, AI-enabled workflow redesign, or enterprise operating model change
• Experience building operational insights capabilities for HR, shared services, payroll, benefits, talent acquisition, customer operations, or other high-volume service environments
  

*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 $200,400 to $343,500 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

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 a regulato...