Senior 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 Responsibility:

• 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:

• Core Database & Data Architecture (Primary Role)
  • 8+ years of experience as a Database Specialist / Database Engineer / Data Architect
  • Solid hands-on experience with SQL query tuning and performance optimization
  • Experience with database indexing strategies, partitioning, and schema optimization
  • Solid understanding of transaction management, locking, concurrency, and isolation levels
  • Proven expertise in PL/SQL development, including complex stored procedures, packages, functions, and triggers
  • Proven ability to design logical and physical data models for large-scale enterprise systems
  • Proven expertise in relational database platforms such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, or similar
  • Proven ability to analyze and resolve database performance bottlenecks and production issues
• NoSQL & Modern Data Platforms
  • Solid experience with NoSQL databases such as MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB, or Couchbase
  • Experience with hybrid architectures combining relational and NoSQL databases
  • Experience handling high-volume, high-velocity datasets
  • Knowledge of data consistency models (strong, eventual consistency) and trade-offs
  • Proven ability to design NoSQL data models based on access patterns and scalability needs
  • Proven expertise in NoSQL performance tuning, sharding, replication, and high availability
• Solution Guidance & System Design
  • Experience collaborating with application, AI/ML, and platform teams on end-to-end solution design
  • Solid understanding of enterprise application architecture and database integration patterns
  • Proven ability to provide solution guidance on data storage, retrieval, and optimization strategies
  • Proven ability to define database standards, best practices, and governance models
• AI / ML Enablement (Supporting Skillset)
  • Experience designing data models optimized for AI/ML training and inference workloads
  • Experience optimizing databases for large-scale analytics and AI-driven queries
  • Working knowledge of AI/ML concepts and how data quality impacts model performance
  • Understanding of data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and data preparation for ML
  • Proven ability to support feature stores, analytical datasets, and model-driven applications
• Performance, Scalability & Reliability
  • Experience implementing caching, archiving, and data lifecycle management strategies
  • Solid understanding of backup, recovery, disaster recovery, and high-availability architectures
  • Proven expertise in database performance benchmarking, monitoring, and capacity planning
• Leadership & Collaboration
  • Proven ability to mentor teams on database design, PL/SQL best practices, and performance tuning
  • Proven solid communication skills to explain complex database and data architecture decisions to technical and business stakeholders

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.