Associate AI/ML Engineer

Our Company 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, and data they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits, and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together. Position Summary As an Associate AI/ML Engineer, you will join an innovative engineering team dedicated to building the next generation of conversational AI, generative AI, and machine learning products and services for healthcare. In this role, you will help design, develop, and deploy scalable AI/ML solutions, conversational agents, and cloud-native workflows that solve complex healthcare challenges. Working with cutting-edge agentic frameworks, generative AI architectures, and cloud services, you will help deliver high-impact, scalable, and secure AI capabilities across the organization. You’ll enjoy the flexibility to telecommute* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and deploy machine learning and generative AI solutions - including conversational agents, natural language processing (NLP/NLU) services, and agentic workflows - to solve complex healthcare challenges
• Develop, evaluate, and optimize conversational voice and chat bots using platforms such as AWS Bedrock, Bedrock AgentCore, AWS Lex, or related agentic frameworks
• Implement and integrate cloud-native AI infrastructure, utilizing AWS services such as Lambda, DynamoDB, S3, API Gateway, IAM, and CloudWatch
• Apply enterprise-approved AI tools, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) patterns, vector databases, and model quantization/optimization techniques to deliver scalable, performant applications
• Incorporate Responsible AI practices, guardrails, security controls, and prompt engineering techniques to ensure model accuracy, data privacy, and safe operational deployment
• Collaborate with cross-functional technical teams across the full development lifecycle, including data preparation, model implementation, deployment, monitoring, and documentation
• Design, develop, and deploy AI-powered solutions to address complex business challenges with emphasis on responsible use of AI

You’ll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear directions on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• 2+ years of experience in software development, machine learning or AI/ML engineering
• 2+ years of full-stack engineering experience with strong backend and frontend development expertise
• 2+ years of expertise in building AI/ML solutions leveraging LLMs, Generative AI and models
• 2+ years of hands-on experience with building, deploying, and maintaining cloud applications. (Eg, AWS, GCP, Azure)
• 2+ years of experience applying NLP (transformers, GPT) or LLMs (RAG, vector databases, embeddings) in a production setting with large-scale datasets
• Experience developing conversational AI solutions (chatbots or voice bots) using deterministic platforms (e.g., AWS Lex) or generative AI services (e.g., Amazon Bedrock, Bedrock AgentCore, or similar agent orchestration frameworks) through professional, personal, academic, or internship projects.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical discipline.
• AWS Certifications (e.g., AWS Certified AI Practitioner, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, or AWS Certified AI Engineer).
• Hands-on experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), LangChain, and Vector Databases.
• Familiarity with AI developer productivity tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, ChatGPT, Claude) or agent evaluation frameworks and conversational analytics.
• Understanding of multi-agent architectures, cloud-native agent deployment, and model quantization/optimization.

*All Telecommuters will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy.

Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, we offer benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with us, you’ll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives. The salary for this role will range from $77,000 to $137,600 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Application Deadline: This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

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.

UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer under applicable law and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.

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