Senior Data Scientist

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.

At Optum AI, we leverage data and resources to make a significant impact on the healthcare system. Our solutions have the potential to improve healthcare for everyone. We work on cutting-edge projects involving ML, NLP, and LLM techniques, continuously developing and improving generative AI methods for structured and unstructured healthcare data. Our team collaborates with world-class experts and top universities to develop innovative AI/ML solutions, often leading to patents and published papers.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement AI and machine learning strategies for several healthcare domains
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify and prioritize AI and machine learning initiatives
• Develop and run pipelines for data ingress and model output egress
• Develop and run scripts for ML model inference
• Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines for MLOps and DevOps functions
• Identify technical problems and develop software updates and fixes
• Develop scripts or tools to automate repetitive tasks
• Automate the provisioning and configuration of infrastructure resources
• Provide guidance on the best use of specific tools or technologies to achieve desired results
• Create documentation for infrastructure design and deployment procedures
• Utilize AI/ML frameworks and tools such as MLFlow, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras, Scikit-learn, etc.
• Lead and manage AI/ML teams and projects from ideation to delivery and evaluation
• Apply expertise in various AI/ML techniques, including deep learning, NLP, computer vision, recommender systems, reinforcement learning, and large language models

• Communicate complex AI/ML concepts and results to technical and non-technical audiences effectively

   

• Comply 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 regard 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 or higher in computer science engineering with a focus on language processing
• 8+ years of experience in Software Engineering, Data Science, or Analytics with 4+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering or related fields
• Experience in developing solutions in the NLP space and relevant projects
• Hands on Experience in AI and drive the development of innovative AI and machine learning solutions
• Experience with cloud platforms and services, such as AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.
• Experience with DevOps and CI/CD tools and practices, such as Git, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, etc.
• Experience with Azure development environments
• Experience with using and deploying LLMs
• Knowledge of NLP literature, thrust areas, conference venues, and code repositories
• Familiarity with both open-source and OpenAI LLMs and RAG architecture
• Familiarity with UI tools like Streamlit, Flask, FAST APIs, Rest APIs, Docker containers
• Understanding of common NLP tasks such as text classification, entity recognition, entity extraction, and question answering
• Proficiency in multiple machine learning and AI techniques such as supervised, unsupervised, reinforcement learning, deep learning, and NLP
• Proficient in Python and one of PySpark. Familiarity with python tools for data processing
• Proficiency in libraries such as Hugging Face and OpenAI API
• Proficiency in Python, R, or other programming languages for data analysis and AI/ML development
• Proven ability to develop and deploy data pipelines, machine learning models, or applications on cloud platforms (Azure, Databricks, AzureML)
• Proven excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to disaggregate issues, identify root causes, and recommend solutions
• Proven hands-on skills with repository management and GPU use, and the ability to rapidly set up NLP pipelines for testing new ideas

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.