Senior AI/ML Applied Scientist
About The Position
Optum AI is UnitedHealth Group’s enterprise AI team, developing AI/ML solutions for high-impact opportunities across UnitedHealthcare, Optum Financial, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. The team also develops and supports an enterprise AI/ML development platform. This role applies advanced statistical and predictive modeling methods and Agentic AI to improve healthcare and digital experiences. The position is remote from anywhere within the U.S. The scientist researches, develops, and evaluates Agentic AI solutions, collaborates with the Responsible Use of AI team to ensure compliance with company policies and standards, and works with engineering teams on robust data pipelines and MLOps procedures. The role also includes producing code and model documentation, and may involve patents and scientific publications. The team works with cutting-edge ML, NLP, and LLM techniques and collaborates with external AI/ML researchers.
Requirements
- PhD in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related field.
- 3+ years of AI/ML experience in LLM and NLP.
- Proficiency in AI/ML engineering development with Python.
- Expertise in Large Language Modeling and Transformer Architectures, including experience with prompt engineering, evaluation, and LLM optimization.
- Experience with LLM frameworks and/or NLP approaches such as text embedding and text classification.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with AI cloud services such as Azure ML, Databricks, Azure OpenAI, or similar services in GCP or AWS.
- Experience with Snowflake and other relational databases.
- A strong publication record in top-tier AI/ML/NLP venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, or CHIL.
- Strong technical communication skills.
Responsibilities
- Apply advanced statistical and predictive modeling methods and Agentic AI to optimize healthcare and digital experiences.
- Collaborate with the Responsible Use of AI team to ensure delivered solutions comply with company policies and standards.
- Research innovative approaches for developing and evaluating Agentic AI solutions, and apply findings to solutions under development.
- Develop code and model documentation, and contribute to patents and publications in scientific conferences and journals.
- Collaborate with engineering teams to develop robust data pipelines and MLOps procedures for new solutions.
- Stay current with the latest technologies and literature.
Benefits
- Comprehensive benefits package, subject to eligibility requirements.
- Incentive and recognition programs, subject to eligibility requirements.
- Equity stock purchase, subject to eligibility requirements.
- 401(k) contribution, subject to eligibility requirements.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
Ph.D. or professional degree
