VP AI ML Engineering, Medicare & Retirement

UnitedHealth Group•Minnetonka, MN

9d•$200,400 - $343,500•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. The Vice President of AI/ML Engineering for Medicare & Retirement (M&R) is responsible for driving AI-first engineering transformation across the portfolio, enabling scalable, production-grade AI capabilities that power growth, cost optimization, and operational efficiency for Medicare Advantage and Dual Eligible Special Needs Plan (DSNP) businesses. This leader translates complex healthcare business challenges—such as benefit design, clinical operations, member engagement, and sales optimization—into deployable AI solutions, platforms, and products. The role will lead enterprise AI/ML engineering at scale, embedding AI across plan design, digital experiences, and operational workflows. The impact of this role is direct and measurable: driving revenue growth and retention, increasing market responsiveness, strengthening resiliency and compliance, and reducing cost to serve through AI first modernization, platform reuse, and operational excellence—while modeling UnitedHealth Group values of Integrity, Quality, Inclusion, Compassion, Relationships, Innovation, and Performance.

Requirements

15+ years of software engineering experience, with 5+ years in senior engineering leadership roles
Proven track record modernizing large scale legacy platforms and establishing AI enabled, cloud native architectures
Employ AI and/or ML that may include natural language processing (NLP), natural language understanding (NLU), semantic understanding, intent classification, computer vision, deep learning, and automatic speech recognition (ASR)
Work with large scale computing frameworks and data analysis systems. Employees in this role are expected to apply knowledge of experimental methodologies, statistics, optimization, probability theory and machine learning using code for tool building, statistical analysis, using both general purpose software and statistical languages
Demonstrated success leading matrixed, globally distributed engineering teams
Deep expertise in cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), microservices, APIs, DevOps, application security, and modern SDLC and AI-SDLC practices
Hands on leadership integrating AI/ML and GenAI capabilities into production platforms and developer workflows
Exceptional communication, influencing, and executive stakeholder management skills
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field

Nice To Haves

Product oriented engineering leader with strong focus on platform reuse, developer experience, and AI enabled productivity
Experience leading AI first transformation initiatives, including cloud migration, platform consolidation, and intelligent automation
Proven experience deploying AI/ML Models at scale across Payers / Providers / Healthcare ecosystem OR similarly regulated industries
Knowledge of Quantum computing

Responsibilities

Define and execute an enterprise AI/ML strategy aligned to M&R business priorities and growth objectives
Embed AI across core value streams: benefit design, member lifecycle, and clinical operations
Drive transition from experimentation to scaled, production-grade AI across the portfolio
Build and scale enterprise AI/ML platforms supporting model development, deployment, and monitoring
Enable real-time decisioning and batch analytics at scale
Standardize MLOps, AI pipelines, and engineering delivery practices
Drive reusable AI services and shared capabilities across the enterprise
Accelerate adoption of GenAI, LLMs, and agent-based systems where appropriate
Partner with Product, Business (M&R leadership), and Finance to prioritize high-value AI use cases
Align AI investments to measurable ROI outcomes across growth, clinical, and operational domains
Translate business problems (pricing, engagement, operations) into deployable AI solutions
Scale pilots into enterprise-grade platforms
Lead delivery of production-grade AI systems with high reliability, scalability, and compliance
Establish best practices for model validation, testing, and monitoring
Optimize performance and cost efficiency across AI workloads and infrastructure
Embed AI into SDLC and operational workflows as a standard engineering capability
Lead AI/ML engineering across the M&R portfolio, enabling: Benefit design optimization, Ancillary benefit optimization and validation, DSNP and food benefit innovation, Clinical and Medicare STARS automation
Deliver measurable outcomes including: Revenue growth and marketing effectiveness, Medical cost optimization and risk adjustment, Cost-to-serve reduction through automation, Improved Medicare STARS quality performance
Ensure AI solutions comply with healthcare regulations and data privacy standards
Establish responsible AI practices including fairness, explainability, and auditability
Partner with security and risk teams to govern models and manage lifecycle risk
Lead the AI Blueprint transformation for M&R Technology, converting enterprise AI priorities into a clear roadmap, governance model, and execution plan
Align AI priorities and investments to measurable business value
Drive scaled adoption of AI-first engineering practices, including AIDLC, reusable AI capabilities, responsible AI controls, and enterprise tooling
Advance the M&R AI talent and workforce strategy through role-based enablement, adoption metrics, and operating model changes that build sustained AI capability
Monitor transformation progress, risks, dependencies, and outcomes through executive reporting tied to value, adoption, delivery, and responsible AI performance