Optum Tech (UnitedHealth Group) is seeking a Chief Data Scientist to establish and lead a new, strategic data science function. Your mission is to transform data, analytics, and AI into measurable enterprise value across the UnitedHealthcare insurance ecosystem, directly advancing core business objectives like care affordability, quality, member experience, and financial performance.
What You'll Do
- Collaborate with executive leaders across Financial, Actuarial, Healthcare Economics, Operations, and Experience teams to translate strategy into a prioritized data science roadmap.
- Identify and champion opportunities where AI and predictive analytics can improve care affordability, enhance population health, optimize medical cost insights, and streamline operations.
- Communicate analytical and predictive insights in clear, actionable terms to support strategic decisions and planning.
- Lead development of value frameworks that quantify outcomes such as medical cost savings, improved quality scores, risk accuracy, utilization management efficiencies, and financial forecasting.
- Ensure all predictive models and analytics directly improve key metrics and regulatory, legal, and compliance performance.
- Drive end-to-end AI/ML development across connected data domains of claims, member, provider, and networks.
- Enhance forecasting capabilities for early detection, medical cost trends, member behavior insights, and population stratification.
- Support Utilization and Care Management by influencing models to automate prior authorization, detect avoidable utilization, and target members for care coordination.
- Generate predictive insights to manage provider performance, leakage, cost variation, and contracting opportunities.
- Develop personalization models that improve member retention, adherence, and satisfaction.
- Advance anomaly detection and claims pattern analytics for payment integrity and fraud, waste, and abuse (FWA) prevention.
- Deliver high-quality, contemporary data science models that are explainable, compliant, and integrated into real-world workflows.
- Partner with Technology, Clinical Operations, Claims, Actuarial, and Product teams to deploy and scale AI solutions enterprise-wide.
- Embed data science resources within key business areas to maximize adoption and impact.
- Ensure seamless integration of models into products, workflows, and decision-support systems.
- Build and lead a high-performing data science team.
What We're Looking For
- Proven experience as a strategic leader establishing and scaling a data science capability within a large, complex organization.
- Deep expertise in applying predictive analytics and AI to solve business problems, ideally within healthcare, insurance, or a related regulated industry.
- Strong track record of collaborating with C-level and senior executives across finance, actuarial, operations, and clinical functions.
- Demonstrated ability to translate technical insights into clear, actionable business recommendations that drive measurable outcomes.
- Experience developing value frameworks and quantifying the impact of analytics initiatives on key financial and operational metrics.
- Expertise in the end-to-end development, deployment, and integration of explainable and compliant machine learning models into production systems.
- Significant experience building, mentoring, and leading high-performing data science teams.
Work Mode
This role follows a hybrid work model and is open to candidates based in Minnesota (MN) or the Washington, D.C. (DC) area.
At UnitedHealthcare, we’re simplifying the health care experience, creating healthier communities and removing barriers to quality care. The work you do here impacts the lives of millions of people for the better. Come build the health care system of tomorrow, making it more responsive, affordable and optimized.
UnitedHealth Group is an equal opportunity employer.
