Lead AI/ML Engineer - Minnetonka, MN

UnitedHealth Group•Minnetonka, MN

13d

About The Position

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. This role is a senior, handson AI/ML engineering position focused on building, enhancing, and integrating Machine Learning and Generative AI solutions within Databricks. Responsibilities include: Designing and implementing ML models Creating custom embeddings Building RAG pipelines Implementing vector databases Developing agentic workflows with LangChain Integrating AI into enterprise applications for Claims Payment Integrity (PI) The role partners closely with Data Scientists, Product Teams, and Platform Teams to deploy AI-driven intelligence across PI use cases. You’ll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Requirements

Bachelor’s/Master’s in CS, Engineering, Mathematics/Statistics, or related
12+ years of relevant experience, including strong ML model development
10+ years of experience with CI/CD familiarity using Git, GitHub Actions/Jenkins, Terraform
8+ years of experience with Azure cloud for compute, security, and resource management
7+ years of experience in Databricks, Spark, Python, Scala, SQL
Built 5+ enterprise ML models end-to-end (data prep → feature creation → training → evaluation)
LLM & GenAI Skills:
2+ years of experience creating custom embedding models
2+ years of experience building RAG pipelines
2+ years of experience with Vector DBs & semantic search
2+ years of experience using LangChain for agentic workflows (tools, agents, memory)
2+ years of experience with OpenAI/Azure OpenAI APIs

Nice To Haves

NLP or enterprise search experience
Experience with multimodal or transformer-based models
Agile/Scrum experience
Proven healthcare or PI/FWA analytics exposure
Proven excellent communication and partnership skills
Domain Knowledge
Call Center (Member & Provider)
ProviderRCM
EHR/clinical datasets

Responsibilities

Contribute to experimentation with novel ML and Generative AI architectures
Create and maintain embedding models (domain-specific embeddings, document/text embeddings)
Support RetrievalAugmented Generation (RAG) solutions, including semantic search, vector databases, and LLM integration
Help design and implement AIpowered enterprise applications
Analyze large datasets to identify trends, patterns, and actionable insights
Partner with AI/ML Engineers and Leads to enhance existing models and improve model accuracy and performance
Optimize AI pipelines for scalability, performance, reliability, and cost efficiency
Integrate AI/ML solutions into enterprise systems by partnering closely with data engineering, product, and platform teams
Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders, communicating complex technical concepts clearly
Contribute to skill development for engineers and interns in AI/LLM techniques
Comply with company policies, procedures, and directives
Collaborate with research, engineering, and product teams to translate cutting-edge AI advancements into production-ready capabilities.
Uphold ethical AI principles by embedding fairness, transparency, and accountability throughout the model development lifecycle.