As a Principal Data Scientist, you will serve as a senior individual contributor responsible for designing and delivering advanced AI/ML and Generative AI systems that address complex healthcare and operational challenges. You will lead the development of large-scale machine learning solutions, architect GenAI and agent-based systems, and drive technical innovation across high-impact AI initiatives. This role requires deep hands-on expertise in machine learning, LLM systems, distributed AI architectures, and production-grade ML platforms.
You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely* from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of four days per week.
Primary Responsibilities: - Lead development of advanced AI/ML systems using techniques such as deep learning, representation learning, time-series modeling, survival analysis, and probabilistic modeling to solve complex healthcare problems
- Develop Generative AI and LLM-powered solutions including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, domain-adapted LLMs, and AI copilots for enterprise workflows
- Architect scalable AI and ML systems including feature engineering pipelines, feature stores, model training workflows, model serving infrastructure, monitoring systems, and automated retraining pipelines
- Build agentic AI and autonomous workflows using agent frameworks, agentic skills, MCP integrations, and agent-to-agent (A2A) communication patterns
- Advance model evaluation, reliability, and monitoring strategies including offline metrics, LLM benchmarking, safety testing, hallucination mitigation, and drift detection
- Drive responsible AI practices including explainability, interpretability, bias detection, fairness evaluation, and governance aligned with enterprise and regulatory standards
- Serve as a senior technical authority in AI/ML by mentoring data scientists and reviewing complex modeling approaches and architectures
- Collaborate with engineering, platform, and product teams to operationalize scalable AI/ML and GenAI systems within enterprise platforms
You'll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.
Required Qualifications: - 10+ years of experience in machine learning, artificial intelligence, or applied data science with 7+ years of designing and deploying production machine learning systems
- 8+ years of experience in Python-based machine learning development using frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or equivalent along with solid SQL skills
- 5+ years of experience deploying production ML systems including model serving, monitoring, ML lifecycle management, and collaboration with engineering teams
- 3+ years of experience developing Generative AI or LLM-based applications including prompt engineering, RAG pipelines, LLM evaluation, and safety guardrails
- 1+ years of experience building or evaluating agentic AI systems including AI agents, agentic skills, Model Context Protocol (MCP), agent-to-agent (A2A) interaction patterns, or autonomous workflows
Preferred Qualifications: - Experience working with distributed ML systems and large-scale data platforms such as Spark, Databricks, Ray, or Kubernetes-based ML systems
- Experience deploying AI solutions on cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
- Experience working with healthcare datasets and standards such as claims, EHR, ICD, CPT, SNOMED, FHIR, or HL7
- External contributions such as publications, patents, or open-source projects in machine learning or generative AI
*All employees working remotely 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 $112,700 to $193,200 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.
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.
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