Lead Data Scientist

Requisition Number: 2338991
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.
Primary Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and deploy ML/AI models for healthcare applications
• Analyze complex healthcare data to deliver actionable insights
• Collaborate with clinicians, researchers, and IT teams to translate business needs into technical solutions
• Optimize existing models for performance and scalability
• Integrate generative AI and LLMs for tasks like medical text generation and synthetic data creation
• Communicate findings through reports and visualizations
• 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 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 CS, Data Science, Statistics, or related field; Master's/PhD preferred
• 7+ years in data science/ML/AI, ideally in healthcare
• Experience in healthcare AI domains: NLP, computer vision, predictive modeling
• Knowledge of generative AI nd LLMs (GPT, BERT, Llama)
• Familiarity with big data tools, SQL/NoSQL databases
• Understanding of healthcare standards (HL7, FHIR) and cloud platforms (AWS/ Azure/ GCP)
• Expertise in ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn)
• Proficiency in Python, R, Java, or Scala
• Proven solid statistical analysis and data visualization skills
• Proven excellent problem-solving and communication skills
• Proven track record of delivering AI/ML projects
• Model Development: Proven ability to design, develop, and deploy ML models and AI systems for healthcare challenges
• Data Analysis: Proven ability to interpret complex healthcare datasets to generate actionable insights
• Collaboration: Proven ability to work with clinicians, researchers, and IT teams to translate business needs into technical solutions
• Algorithm Design: Proven ability to implement advanced algorithms for predictive analytics, patient risk stratification, and medical image analysis
• Generative AI & LLMs: Proven ability to develop and integrate generative AI models and large language models for tasks like medical text generation and synthetic data creation
• Optimization: Proven ability to enhance existing ML models for scalability and performance
• Mentorship: Proven ability to guide junior data scientists and engineers
• Compliance: Proven ability to ensure data integrity and adhere to healthcare regulations (e.g., HIPAA)
• Communication: Proven ability to present findings through reports, presentations, and visualizations

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with cloud platforms, big data tools, and modern ML frameworks
• Solid background in AI/ML technologies, statistical modeling, and healthcare data
• Proven ability to stay updated with emerging AI trends and integrate them into projects

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.