Associate AI/ML Engineer

UnitedHealth Group•Basking Ridge, NJ

9h•$60,200 - $107,400•Remote

About The Position

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 diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together. You will enjoy the flexibility to telecommute from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree
1+ years of experience in software engineering or ML engineering building software components production
1+ years of experience in Java or Python, including ability to write readable, testable, maintainable code
1+ years of experience building or integrating REST APIs; familiarity with Spring Boot or similar backend framework
1+ years of experience using Git and collaborative development practices (branches, pull requests, code reviews)
1+ years of experience with Basic test automation experience (e.g., JUnit or Python testing frameworks)
6+ months of experience of MongoDB (or other NoSQL) and general data modeling/querying concepts

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with event-driven architecture concepts and/or messaging systems such as Kafka (hands-on preferred)
Foundational knowledge of AI/ML concepts, with exposure to NLP and/or LLM-based applications (e.g., summarization, extraction, Q&A)
Exposure to GenAI patterns such as prompt engineering, RAG, and/or agent workflows; ability to evaluate outputs for correctness, safety, and consistency
Familiarity with containerization (Docker) and basic understanding of deployment environments (cloud and/or Kubernetes), CI/CD fundamentals
Strong communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills; comfortable working in an Agile delivery model

Responsibilities

Assist in designing, developing, and supporting GenAI/LLM-enabled features under guidance, from prototype through production
Implement and iterate on prompt engineering patterns (prompting, prompt chaining, structured outputs) and contribute to basic evaluation approaches (quality, safety, hallucination risk, latency)
Support agent-building efforts (tool use, multi-step workflows, orchestration) and help define goals, constraints, and guardrails for safe behavior
Build and maintain backend services using Java + Spring Boot and REST APIs to expose AI capabilities to applications; integrate with Database and event streaming via Kafka where needed.
Contribute to UI/API integration work (as needed) using React to deliver end-to-end features
Write clean, maintainable code in Java and/or Python, applying engineering best practices and participating in code reviews
Create and maintain automated tests (e.g., JUnit) and contribute to CI quality gates (linting, unit/integration tests)
Package and deploy services using Docker and support runtime deployments on Kubernetes; contribute to CI/CD pipelines
Monitor and troubleshoot services using logging/observability tools (e.g., Splunk), assist with incident triage, and document fixes/runbooks
Follow Responsible AI and secure engineering practices, including safe handling of sensitive data and adherence to internal SDLC/AIDLC standards
Use approved productivity tools such as GitHub Copilot and Gemini to improve development speed and quality while complying with security and data-handling guidelines
Design, develop, and deploy AI-powered solutions to address complex business challenges with emphasis on responsible use of AI