Senior Principal AI/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.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead innovation in deep learning, foundation models, reinforcement learning, or multimodal AI
• 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

• Education & Experience
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Healthcare Informatics, or a related field; Master's or MBA preferred
  • 18+ years of progressive leadership experience in enterprise technology, analytics, or automation, with at least 5 years in the healthcare industry
  • Proven experience managing large-scale AI/ML product life cycle, leading MLOps, RPA Ops, and Cloud Migration
  • Experience in digital transformation initiatives in payer, provider, or healthcare services organizations
• Healthcare Domain Expertise
  • Experience working with population health, care management, revenue cycle, or value-based care analytics
  • Deep understanding of healthcare data ecosystems, including EHRs, claims, clinical data, and interoperability standards (e.g., HL7, FHIR)
  • Familiarity with healthcare regulations and compliance frameworks (e.g., HIPAA, HITECH)
• Technical & Strategic Expertise
  • Solid grasp of AI/ML technologies, intelligent automation (RPA, IPA), and cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP)
  • Demonstrated ability to translate healthcare business needs into scalable, high-impact technology solutions
• Leadership & Influence
  • Exceptional executive presence with the ability to influence and communicate effectively with C-level stakeholders
  • Experience in building and leading high-performing, diverse teams across geographies
  • Solid change management skills with a track record of driving cultural and operational transformation
• Financial & Operational Acumen
  • Experience managing a P&L and delivering against financial objectives, including revenue growth and investment optimization
  • Skilled in portfolio management, performance tracking, and ROI analysis using data-driven decision-making
• Innovation & Industry Awareness
  • Experience in fostering a culture of continuous improvement, experimentation, and agile delivery
    
    Passion for innovation with a solid pulse on emerging healthcare technologies and industry trends
• Key Skills:
  • Research-level knowledge of LLMs, vision transformers (ViTs), diffusion models, RL, or multi-agent systems
  • RAG & Vector Databases: Expertise in building and querying knowledge bases using Retrieval-Augmented Generation with Azure AI Search or similar technologies
  • LM Fine-Tuning: Hands-on experience with efficient finetuning techniques (LoRA/QLoRA) for specializing models on custom datasets
  • Proficiency with libraries for data transformation and comparison, such as JSON Patch and DeepDiff
  • Quantum Computing: Understanding of quantum algorithms and tools like IBM's Qiskit and Google's Cirq
  • Familiarity with Multimodal transformers - integrating text, image, and audio data to create models
  • Experience on graph-based RAGs for contextual reasoning and incorporating knowledge connections from graph neural networks. Real time RAG systems to handle dynamic and up-to-date information
  • Track record of research (papers, patents, open source)
• Solid builder, AI/ML Research Scientist/Experts
• Other Key Competencies
  • Solid problem-solving, critical thinking, and strategic planning capabilities
  • Proven excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder engagement skills
  • Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment with competing priorities