Senior AI and ML Engineer

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 inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together. 

The Consumer Engineering (CE) team is responsible for building all consumer-facing experiences. We are expanding our capabilities to power the next generation of AI-driven consumer experiences that surprise and delight. We plan to achieve this by building innovative new platforms, frameworks, and solutions designed to make healthcare easy and personalized. As a Senior Software Engineer on this team, you will be a key technical contributor, designing and building the core AI/ML systems that drive these experiences.

Key Challenges:

Simplifying Healthcare Complexity: Apply your engineering skills and AI/ML techniques to build systems that navigate the intricate healthcare landscape, making it easier for millions of users to access care
Building Scalable AI Systems: Design, implement, and deploy robust, production-grade AI solutions capable of handling large volumes of data and user interactions within our consumer-facing applications
Driving Rapid Innovation: Implement and experiment with new AI advancements (like LLMs) to solve real-world healthcare problems effectively and ethically, contributing practical solutions
Cross-Functional Integration: Build and integrate AI capabilities seamlessly into broader consumer experiences, collaborating effectively with product, design, and fellow engineers

Primary Responsibilities:

Take ownership of designing, developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining machine learning models and AI-powered systems (including LLM-based applications) for consumer-facing platforms
Participate actively in the full AI lifecycle: contributing to brainstorming and conceptualization, rapid prototyping and experimentation, and writing high-quality, robust production code
Contribute significantly to the architecture, implementation, and management of cloud infrastructure for AI solutions, utilizing Infrastructure as Code principles for reliable deployments
Design and build reusable AI/ML platforms, components, and frameworks to accelerate innovation and improve engineering efficiency across the Consumer Engineering team
Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and knowledge sharing. Lead by example in technical best practices
Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and other engineers to understand requirements, refine technical approaches, and deliver scalable, impactful AI solutions
Stay current with the latest advancements in AI/ML and software engineering, evaluate new technologies, and propose innovative ways to tackle healthcare challenges
Troubleshoot complex technical issues, identify root causes, and implement effective solutions in both development and production environments
Contribute to a team culture focused on technical excellence, continuous learning, and curiosityComply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience 5+ years of professional software engineering experience with a significant focus on building and deploying production-grade AI/ML models and systems
LLM Experience: Hands-on experience building applications leveraging LLMs and deploying them into a production environment (considering aspects like performance, cost, reliability, monitoring)
Broad ML Domain Knowledge: Practical experience or solid knowledge in various machine learning domains such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computer Vision, Personalization & Recommendation systems, and/or Anomaly Detection
AI/ML Expertise: Deep understanding of core AI and machine learning concepts, models, and algorithms, demonstrated through practical application and system design. Ability to explain complex ideas clearly
Technical Breadth: Deep familiarity and hands-on experience with relevant technologies such as backend services (e.g., ), cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure), front-end frameworks (e.g., React Native helpful), CI/CD pipelines, REST/WebSocket API development, and database technologies
Solid Engineering Fundamentals: Proven ability in software design, data structures, algorithms, and writing clean, testable, and maintainable code
Adaptability & Learning Agility: Proven ability to quickly learn new technologies and methodologies, comfortable working on tasks requiring exploration and tackling ambiguity
Ownership & Drive: Proven to be self-driven, take immense pride in your technical contributions, proactively tackle problems, own features end-to-end, and find satisfaction in building impactful solutions
Inherent Curiosity: Proven solid desire to understand *how* and *why* things work, driving you to build better, more efficient systems

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience building large-scale, consumer-facing applications
Experience working within the healthcare industry or another regulated environment
Contributions to relevant open-source projects or building any demo-worthy side projects and SaaS products

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone–of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income–deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes - an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.

Optum is a drug-free workplace Optum Global Solutions (Philippines) Inc. All rights reserved.

---