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Optum Tech is a global leader in health care innovation. Our teams develop cutting-edge solutions that help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. From advanced data analytics and AI to cybersecurity, we use innovative approaches to solve some of health care's most complex challenges. Your contributions here have the potential to change lives. Ready to build the next breakthrough? Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.
Position Summary
This role is seeking a strategic, AI-savvy technology leader to advance practical artificial intelligence, automation, and enterprise technology capabilities across the Indiana Health Plan. As an individual contributor and member of the local leadership team, this person will partner across health plan, state, regulatory, business, shared services, and IT teams to identify high-value opportunities and deliver solutions that improve operational performance, compliance readiness, member and provider experience, and workforce productivity.
The solidest candidate will bring AI and digital transformation capability, a solid strategic mindset, and meaningful Medicaid and Medicare knowledge. This role requires curiosity, executive communication, relationship-building, and the ability to move from idea to execution in a complex matrixed environment while responsibly championing innovation that creates measurable business value for Community & State and the Indiana health plan market.
Ideal Candidate Profile
- AI and digital transformation capability: Ability to identify and advance practical AI-enabled solutions that solve business problems and create measurable value
- Strategic technology leadership: Ability to shape roadmaps, influence senior stakeholders, and connect market needs to enterprise capabilities
- Medicaid and Medicare knowledge: Understanding of managed care operations, regulatory expectations, and health plan performance drivers
If you are located in Indiana, you will have the flexibility to work remotely* as you take on some tough challenges.
Primary Responsibilities:
- AI, Innovation, and Digital Transformation + Identify and advance practical AI, automation, analytics, and digital enablement opportunities that improve efficiency, compliance readiness, member and provider experience, and workforce productivity + Partner with health plan and business leaders to prioritize high-value use cases and translate them into actionable roadmaps, solution concepts, or delivery plans + Champion responsible AI adoption through appropriate use cases, stakeholder alignment, training and enablement support, data protection, compliance awareness, change readiness, and measurable outcomes + Connect enterprise technology capabilities and innovation efforts to local Medicaid and Medicare market needs, ensuring solutions are practical, scalable, and aligned to strategic priorities
- Strategic Technology Leadership + Serve as a strategic technology partner to Indiana Health Plan leadership, Community & State leaders, shared services, and IT delivery partners + Translate business, regulatory, operational, and state partner needs into clear technology direction, priorities, and recommended courses of action + Influence technology decisions with enterprise partners, health plan leaders, and state and federal regulators to advance scalable solutions, remove barriers, and deliver measurable value for stakeholders + Provide thought leadership on emerging technology trends and their applicability to Medicaid and Medicare operations, regulatory execution, growth, and health plan performance
- Market CIO Leadership and Accountability + Serve as the primary technology voice for the Indiana Health Plan, coordinating priorities, risks, dependencies, decisions, and escalations across local leadership and enterprise technology partners + Provide concise, executive-ready updates on technology priorities, risks, decisions, and progress to ensure leadership visibility and alignment + Help shape and prioritize health plan technology demand, ensuring requests are clearly defined, routed through appropriate intake channels, and aligned to enterprise priorities and market objectives + Maintain an ownership mindset for follow-through by tracking commitments, clarifying owners, and ensuring open items move toward resolution
- Relationship Building and Stakeholder Partnership + Build trusted relationships with state and federal partners, health plan leaders, IT teams, shared services, vendors, and business stakeholders + Represent UnitedHealthcare in state and federal regulatory meetings with a balanced understanding of business priorities, technology capabilities, and compliance obligations + Communicate complex technology topics in clear, practical, executive-ready language for technical and non-technical audiences + Foster collaboration so technology solutions are understood, supported, and effectively adopted
- Regulatory, Growth, and Health Plan Effectiveness + Provide subject matter expertise on health plan capabilities such as claims, member, clinical, provider, X12 transactions, eligibility, reporting, quality, and compliance processes + Support regulatory and growth initiatives by translating requirements into technology needs and practical implementation approaches + Influence state requirements, timelines, and solution design through recommendations, clarifying questions, and constructive feedback + Collaborate with other managed care organizations, where appropriate, to support common processes, realistic timelines, and effective state deliverables
- Performance, Compliance, and Operational Excellence + Ensure IT applications, operations, data exchanges, and technology platforms support health plan needs and state contractual requirements + Support compliance with required data exchanges, including 834, 837, 820, provider files, and other state-required transactions + Partner with leaders to assess funding, timing, resources, risks, dependencies, and operational impacts, while advocating for technology investments and enablements that align with enterprise priorities, responsible use of capital improvement funding, and measurable stakeholder value + Review and challenge estimates, plans, and delivery approaches to help drive efficient, scalable, and sustainable solutions
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:
- Undergraduate degree or 5+ years of professional IT experience
- 7+ years of experience delivering technology-enabled business improvements that enhance operational performance, efficiency, compliance readiness, or stakeholder experience
- 5+ years of experience influencing senior stakeholders and leading through a large, matrixed enterprise environment
- 5+ years of professional IT, technology leadership, digital transformation, product, or equivalent related experience
- 3+ years of experience developing technology strategies, roadmaps, business cases, solution recommendations, or implementation plans
- 3+ years of Medicaid, Medicare, managed care, health plan, or healthcare operations experience
- 2+ years of experience designing, deploying, or scaling AI-powered solutions, intelligent workflows, analytics products, or productivity tools
- 2+ years of experience with responsible AI considerations, including privacy, security, compliance, governance, change management, and adoption readiness
- Driver's License and access to reliable transportation
Preferred Qualifications:
- Advanced degree in computer science, data science, engineering, healthcare administration, business administration, or a related field
- 3+ years of experience applying AI or automation to Medicaid, Medicare, managed care, regulatory, clinical, claims, provider, member, or quality processes
- Demonstrated experience turning ambiguous business problems into clear use cases, roadmaps, or product strategies
- Experience supporting RFPs, growth initiatives, regulatory implementations, audit readiness, state deliverables, or state partner technology commitments
- Solid understanding of Medicaid and/or Medicare operations, state and federal regulatory requirements, managed care models, and health plan performance drivers
- Proven solid communication, problem-solving, relationship-building, and executive presence skills
- 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 - $193,200 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.
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.
UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer under applicable law and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.
UnitedHealth Group is a drug - free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.
Salary Context
This $112K-$193K range is in the lower quartile for AI Product Manager roles in our dataset (median: $193K across 99 roles with salary data).
View full AI Product Manager salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI Product Managers define what AI features get built and why. They translate business problems into ML-solvable tasks, work with engineering to scope model requirements, and own the metrics that determine if an AI feature is working. The role requires a rare combination of technical fluency and product instinct.
Unlike traditional product management, AI PM work involves managing uncertainty at a fundamental level. Your model might work 90% of the time. What happens the other 10%? What's the user experience when the AI is wrong? How do you measure 'good enough' for a probabilistic system? These questions don't have easy answers, and the AI PM is the person responsible for finding them.
Across the 9,653 AI roles we're tracking, AI Product Manager positions make up 4% of the market. At Optum, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
AI Product Manager roles are growing as companies realize that shipping AI features requires different product thinking than traditional software. The best candidates combine product management experience with enough technical depth to have productive conversations with ML engineers about model capabilities and limitations.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: reviewing model evaluation results with the ML team, defining success metrics for a new AI feature, conducting user research on how customers respond to AI-generated outputs, writing product requirements that include accuracy thresholds and fallback behaviors, and presenting the AI roadmap to leadership. You're the translator between technical capability and business value.
AI Product Manager roles are growing as companies realize that shipping AI features requires different product thinking than traditional software. The best candidates combine product management experience with enough technical depth to have productive conversations with ML engineers about model capabilities and limitations.
Skills in Demand for This Role
Technical fluency with ML concepts is essential, though you won't be writing models. Expect to understand training data, evaluation metrics, model limitations, and responsible AI practices. SQL and basic Python are increasingly expected. Experience with A/B testing, data analysis, and product analytics is baseline. Understanding LLM capabilities and limitations is now a core requirement.
The differentiator is AI-specific product thinking: knowing when to use ML vs. heuristics, understanding the cost of training data collection, designing graceful degradation for model failures, and building products that improve with usage data. Experience with AI safety, bias mitigation, and responsible AI deployment is increasingly important.
Strong postings describe specific AI products the PM will own, mention the ML team structure, and talk about measurement methodology. Look for companies that have already shipped AI features. Roles at companies that are 'exploring AI' often mean you'll spend a year defining the strategy before any building happens.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI Product Manager roles pay a median of $220,200 based on 862 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $228,700. This role's midpoint ($152K) sits 31% below the category median. Disclosed range: $112K to $193K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,400. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,230. The 90th percentile reaches $319,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($253,100) and Research Engineer ($252,000). By seniority level: Entry: $110,408; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $228,700; Director: $272,275; VP: $235,000.
Optum AI Hiring
Optum has 32 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, AI Product Manager, Data Engineer. Positions span Schaumburg, IL, US, San Francisco, CA, US, Charleston, WV, US. Compensation range: $74K - $302K.
Remote Work Context
Remote AI roles pay a median of $185,906 across 2,124 positions. About 6% of all AI roles offer remote work.
Career Path
Common paths into AI Product Manager roles include Product Manager, Data Analyst, Technical Program Manager.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Director of AI Product, VP Product, Head of AI.
The most effective path is PM experience plus self-directed AI education. Take Andrew Ng's courses, build a small ML project, and learn enough Python to read model evaluation code. The goal isn't to become an ML engineer. It's to have credibility in technical conversations and to understand what's possible, what's hard, and what's a bad idea.
What to Expect in Interviews
AI interviews typically combine coding challenges (Python-focused), system design questions tailored to the role, and discussions about your experience with relevant tools and frameworks. Strong candidates demonstrate both technical depth and the ability to make pragmatic engineering tradeoffs. Prepare portfolio projects that demonstrate end-to-end capability rather than isolated skills.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings describe specific AI products the PM will own, mention the ML team structure, and talk about measurement methodology. Look for companies that have already shipped AI features. Roles at companies that are 'exploring AI' often mean you'll spend a year defining the strategy before any building happens.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 9,653 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 193 entry-level, 4,500 mid-level, 3,455 senior, and 1,505 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (568 positions). The remaining 9,010 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,400. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,230. The 90th percentile reaches $319,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($253,100 median, 57 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 419 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($251,622 median, 51 roles).
AI Product Manager roles are growing as companies realize that shipping AI features requires different product thinking than traditional software. The best candidates combine product management experience with enough technical depth to have productive conversations with ML engineers about model capabilities and limitations.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 9,653 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (7,301), Data Scientist (441), AI Software Engineer (438). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (193) are outnumbered by mid-level (4,500) and senior (3,455) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 1,505 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (568 positions), with 9,010 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $213,400. Top-quartile roles start at $264,230, and the 90th percentile reaches $319,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $253,100 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $141,440. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,605 postings), Aws (916 postings), Azure (724 postings), Rag (634 postings), Gcp (522 postings), Pytorch (495 postings), Kubernetes (384 postings), Claude (383 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
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