Lead AI/ML Engineer - OptumHealth- Eden Prairie
About The Position
The Lead AI/ML Engineer will help the Optum Health AI team use AI to transform healthcare operations, improve patient experience, and enhance scalability. The role focuses primarily on Voice AI, a strategic initiative intended to create a seamless experience for members and agents, reduce manual work, and improve scalability. The engineer will establish foundational capabilities such as language translation, accent harmonization, and real-time transcription for reuse across Optum Health AI pillars, including Provider Scheduling, Prior Authorization, and Summarization. In partnership with ECS Business, the role will lead estimates, solution architecture, roadmap alignment, and engineering to deliver reusable, scalable, secure, compliant, production-ready prototypes and capabilities. The role is remote within the U.S.; hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area must work in the office at least four days per week. Remote employees must follow UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical field.
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including designing, building, and deploying production-grade AI/ML models and systems.
- 4+ years of experience developing applications using Large Language Models (LLMs), LLM workflows, Agentic AI, evaluation techniques, and observability platforms.
- 3+ years of experience leading engineering teams, mentoring engineers, defining technical standards, and driving solution architecture.
- Experience with Python, backend services, cloud platforms, and CI/CD pipelines for delivering scalable, secure, production-ready solutions.
Nice To Haves
- Master’s or Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical field.
- Technical experience with Databricks, Azure AI, Azure Transcription Services, RLlib, PyTorch, OpenAI, or similar AI/ML platforms and frameworks.
- Experience developing with front-end frameworks, REST/WebSocket APIs, and secure cloud-native application patterns.
- Deep machine learning knowledge across NLP, speech, personalization, recommendation systems, computer vision, or anomaly detection.
- Experience in healthcare, including EHR integration and HIPAA-compliant AI application development.
- Adaptability, ownership, learning agility, and curiosity in solving ambiguous, high-impact technical problems.
Responsibilities
- Lead and mentor AI/ML engineers, set technical direction and engineering standards, and promote continuous learning.
- Design, build, and deploy responsible Voice AI capabilities, including speech handling, enhanced ASR, bilingual switching, slurred speech recognition, dynamic personality, and multimodal and multicloud interactions.
- Turn advances in real-time transcription and speech processing into scalable, reusable, production-ready enterprise capabilities.
- Partner with ECS Business on solution architecture, cost estimation, and roadmap alignment across modern and legacy technology stacks.
- Embed ethical AI and HIPAA-compliant security standards throughout the model development lifecycle.
- Implement dynamic interactive forms, adaptive updates, and conditional logic to improve patient-agent workflows.
- Define enterprise standards for evaluating and vetting external AI vendors.
- Use enterprise-approved AI tools to automate workflows, accelerate delivery, and drive continuous improvement.
Benefits
- Comprehensive benefits package, subject to eligibility requirements.
- Incentive and recognition programs.
- Equity stock purchase.
- 401(k) contribution.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
