Senior AI/ML Engineer- Hybrid Eden Prairie, MN

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 inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Welcome to the Optum Health AI team. Our mission is to use advanced AI technologies to transform healthcare operations, improve patient experience, and scale high-value capabilities. This role focuses on Voice AI, a strategic Optum Health AI initiative designed to create seamless member and agent experiences, reduce manual work, and improve operational scalability.

As a Senior AI/ML Engineer, you will build foundational Voice AI capabilities, including language translation, accent harmonization, and real-time transcription. These capabilities will extend across Optum Health AI pillars, including Provider Scheduling, Prior Authorization, and Summarization, while helping define enterprise standards for external AI vendor evaluation. Partnering with ECS Business, you will support estimates, solution architecture, roadmap alignment, and engineering delivery of reusable, scalable, secure, and compliant prototypes.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and deploy responsible Voice AI solutions across speech handling, enhanced ASR, bilingual switching, slurred speech recognition, dynamic personality, and multi-modal interactions
• Translate advances in real-time transcription and speech processing into scalable, reusable, production-ready capabilities
• Partner with ECS Business on solution architecture, cost estimates, and roadmap alignment across modern and legacy platforms
• Embed ethical AI, fairness, transparency, accountability, and HIPAA-compliant security throughout the model lifecycle
• Develop dynamic interactive forms and adaptive updates that improve patient-agent interactions
• Define enterprise AI standards for evaluating and vetting external AI vendors
• Apply enterprise-approved AI tools to automate tasks, accelerate development, and improve engineering productivity
• Evaluate emerging AI/ML trends, research, and technologies to inform solution design and innovation

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:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience; 4+ years of software engineering experience may substitute for a degree
• 5+ years of software engineering or development experience building and deploying production-grade systems
• 3+ years of hands-on experience building, deploying, and evaluating ML, AI, LLM, or agentic AI solutions in production environments
• 3+ years of professional programming experience with Python, SQL, and ML frameworks such as Scikit-Learn, TensorFlow, or PyTorch
• 2+ years of experience building cloud-based applications, backend services, APIs, or CI/CD pipelines using AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Azure

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical field
• Hands-on experience with Databricks, Azure AI, Azure Transcription Services, RLlib, PyTorch, OpenAI, or related AI/ML platforms
• Experience developing full-stack capabilities using frameworks such as React or React Native and REST or WebSocket APIs
• Healthcare technology experience, including EHR integration and secure, HIPAA-compliant AI application development
• Broad ML domain knowledge across NLP, speech, personalization, recommendation systems, anomaly detection, or computer vision
• Proven solid ownership, curiosity, adaptability, and learning agility, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and deliver impactful technical solutions

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.

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.

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