Principal Architect - Remote

UnitedHealth Group•Plymouth, MN

32d•$134,600 - $230,800•Remote

About The Position

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. We are seeking a Principal AI Architect to lead the design and implementation of enterprise-scale AI and ML solutions. This is a senior leadership role responsible for setting the AI architecture vision, driving technical strategy, and ensuring alignment across engineering, product, and business stakeholders. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in AI/ML systems, cloud-native architectures, and the ability to translate complex business problems into scalable, production-grade solutions. Education can be Bachelor or Master in science or STEM disciplines. 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.

Requirements

8+ years of overall software/systems engineering experience, with 5+ years focused on AI/ML architecture
5+ years of experience owning and defining the AI/ML architecture roadmap, aligned to enterprise technology strategy and business objectives
5+ years of experience design end-to-end AI solutions spanning data pipelines, model training, inference infrastructure, and MLOps frameworks
5+ years of hands-on experience with MLOps: CI/CD for ML, model monitoring, drift detection, and model lifecycle management
Deep expertise in machine learning, deep learning, NLP, LLMs, and generative AI technologies
Proven solid proficiency in cloud platforms — AWS, Azure, or GCP — and cloud-native AI/ML services
Proficiency in Python and relevant ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, Hugging Face, LangChain)
Proven solid understanding of data architecture, data engineering, and real-time/batch processing pipelines

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated partnership with security, compliance, and infrastructure teams to ensure AI solutions meet regulatory and enterprise standards (HIPAA, SOC2, etc.)
Experience with RAG pipelines, agent frameworks, and vector databases at scale
Demonstrated familiarity with responsible AI principles: explainability, fairness, bias mitigation, and model governance
Experience representing AI architecture in executive briefings and cross-functional leadership forums
Experience as a technical mentor for AI/ML engineers, tech leads, and solution architects across the organization
Proven excellent communication skills — ability to influence and align both technical and non-technical audiences

Responsibilities

Define and own the AI/ML architecture roadmap, ensuring alignment with enterprise technology strategy and business objectives
Lead the design of end-to-end AI solutions including data pipelines, model training, inference infrastructure, and MLOps frameworks
Serve as a technical authority and mentor for AI/ML engineers, tech leads, and solution architects across the organization
Collaborate with product managers, data scientists, and engineering teams to translate business requirements into robust architectural designs
Evaluate and recommend AI/ML platforms, tools, and frameworks (e.g., LLMs, RAG pipelines, agent frameworks, vector databases)
Drive adoption of responsible AI principles including explainability, fairness, bias mitigation, and model governance
Partner with security, compliance, and infrastructure teams to ensure AI solutions meet regulatory and enterprise standards (HIPAA, SOC2, etc.)
Lead architecture reviews, proof-of-concepts, and technical spike initiatives
Represent the AI architecture function in cross-functional leadership discussions and executive briefings