Data Scientist

Requisition Number: 2362996
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, build, and maintain production-grade AI services and APIs (REST/JSON) to support machine learning and Generative AI use cases
• Develop scalable backend systems using frameworks such as FastAPI, Flask, or equivalent
• Implement robust request/response validation, API versioning strategies, and backward compatibility support
• Engineer high-performance systems with focus on latency, throughput, and reliability (timeouts, retries, connection pooling, rate limiting)
• Build caching and optimization layers (Redis, in-memory caching, batching, concurrency controls) to improve system efficiency
• Design and implement streaming responses for AI workloads (SSE/WebSockets), including partial responses and cancellation handling
• Implement observability best practices including structured logging, metrics, tracing, and performance monitoring
• Enable LLM/GenAI observability such as prompt tracing, cost monitoring, run comparisons, and feedback loops
• Partner with data science, product, and platform teams to deploy AI/ML solutions into scalable production environments
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions) and support environment promotion workflows
• Ensure adherence to security and compliance best practices (authN/authZ, secrets handling, encryption, audit logging)
• Contribute to and uphold strong engineering standards including code reviews, testing, and release processes
• Work with a moderate level of autonomy to solve complex engineering problems and improve system design
• 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 Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent experience
• 4+ years of experience building production-grade backend systems or API-driven applications
• Experience building and maintaining RESTful APIs, including schema validation and versioning
• Solid understanding of distributed systems fundamentals, including concurrency, fault tolerance, and performance optimization
• Experience implementing reliability patterns such as retries, timeouts, and rate limiting
• Experience working with caching layers (e.g., Redis, in-memory caching)
• Experience with observability tools (logging, metrics, tracing) and production monitoring practices
• Experience working with CI/CD pipelines and modern development workflows
• Solid proficiency in Python and experience with backend frameworks (FastAPI, Flask, or equivalent)
• Basic understanding of security patterns including OAuth2/JWT, secrets management, and secure API design
• Proven solid problem-solving skills with ability to break down complex engineering challenges
• Proven ability to collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including data science and product
• Proven comfortable working in a team environment with ownership of deliverables across the lifecycle

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
• Experience working with Generative AI systems, LLM APIs, or RAG-based architectures
• Experience implementing streaming APIs (SSE/WebSockets) for real-time applications
• Experience with OpenTelemetry, Langfuse (or equivalent), or advanced observability platforms
• Experience deploying applications in cloud environments (Azure, AWS, or GCP)
• Experience designing scalable microservices architectures
• Experience working in healthcare or regulated environments
• Understanding of cost optimization strategies for AI/LLM-based systems
• Familiarity with LangChain, LangGraph, or similar agentic frameworks
• Familiarity with Agile product development and sprint-based delivery

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.
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