Interested in this AI Product Manager role at Optum?
Apply Now →Skills & Technologies
About This Role
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.
The Senior Manager, Software Engineering/Technical Product Manager is the onshore technology leader responsible for the strategy, implementation, operations, and continuous evolution of enterprise contact center platforms supporting state and government healthcare programs.
This role serves as the primary technology partner for state clients and internal leadership, providing oversight across Contact Center Digital Development & Implementation (DDI), Maintenance & Operations (M&O), AI transformation initiatives, and solution consulting. The leader will manage cross-functional onshore and offshore teams, drive delivery excellence, support business development activities, and act as a trusted advisor to executive stakeholders.
Additionally, this role serves as the designated back-up to the Contact Center Technology Director, providing leadership continuity for client engagements, delivery governance, operational reviews, staffing decisions, escalation management, and strategic planning activities.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Contact Center Delivery Leadership + Lead end-to-end delivery of contact center implementations from solution design through go-live, stabilization, and transition to operations + Own technology delivery across voice, IVR, chat, email, SMS, workforce optimization, analytics, CRM integrations, and digital channels + Direct implementation teams across architecture, engineering, QA, release management, integration, and operations + Establish delivery governance, project controls, risk management, and executive reporting + Ensure successful execution of contact center modernization and cloud transformation initiatives + Drive accountability across vendors, system integrators, and internal technology teams
- Maintenance & Operations (M&O) Leadership + Provide executive oversight for day-to-day contact center operations and platform health + Lead operational reviews covering incident management, problem management, service requests, change controls, releases, and platform performance + Ensure adherence to contractual SLAs, KPIs, compliance requirements, and service commitments + Drive operational stability through automation, proactive monitoring, capacity planning, and continuous improvement programs + Lead major incident response and executive stakeholder communications + Partner with business and operational teams to optimize customer and agent experiences
- AI & Contact Center Transformation + Lead strategy and implementation of AI-enabled customer experience capabilities + Define AI roadmaps, business cases, ROI measures, and governance controls + Ensure responsible AI practices including security, privacy, compliance, and explainability
- Client Leadership & Executive Engagement + Serve as the primary onshore technology leader for state and client-facing engagements + Present solution strategies, roadmaps, implementation progress, and operational performance to executive stakeholders + Lead governance meetings, steering committees, architecture reviews, and operational reviews + Build trusted advisor relationships with client leadership teams + Provide executive-level communication regarding risks, dependencies, mitigation strategies, and program health
- Solutioning, RFP & Business Development Support + Serve as senior SME for contact center technology pursuits, RFPs, RFIs, and proposal responses + Define target architectures, staffing models, implementation approaches, and operating models + Develop effort estimates, assumptions, risks, and mitigation strategies + Support presentations, oral proposals, demonstrations, and client solution workshops + Collaborate with sales, consulting, product, security, and enterprise architecture teams to develop winning solutions
- Product & Platform Strategy + Own technology roadmap and future-state architecture for contact center platforms + Align platform investments with business objectives and client priorities + Evaluate emerging technologies and AI capabilities to improve service delivery and member experience + Define platform standards, governance processes, and modernization priorities
- People Leadership + Lead, mentor, and develop onshore and offshore technology teams + Drive workforce planning, staffing strategies, succession planning, and capability development + Establish engineering standards, quality practices, and delivery methodologies + Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, operational excellence, and collaboration + Coach managers, architects, and technical leads to advance into leadership roles
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:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field
- 12+ years of experience leading enterprise contact center technologies and customer experience platforms
- 7+ years of leadership experience managing technology delivery and operational teams
- Proven experience leading contact center implementations and operational support organizations
- Demonstrated experience implementing AI-driven contact center capabilities
- Experience leading onshore and offshore delivery organizations
- Proven solid executive communication, stakeholder management, and client-facing leadership skills
Preferred Qualifications:
- Agile, SAFe, PMP, ITIL, or related certifications
- Solid experience with NICE CXone, Salesforce, CRM integrations, IVR, omnichannel platforms, and cloud-based CCaaS technologies
- Experience with Kore.ai, Microsoft Copilot, Azure AI, OpenAI, or GenAI platforms
- Experience supporting Medicaid, healthcare, government, or public-sector programs
- Experience supporting FedRAMP, HIPAA, CMS, or state regulatory requirements
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 Required
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.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 6% (568 positions) offer remote work, while 9,010 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,878 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,413 roles, $264,500 median); Los Angeles (1,340 roles, $210,000 median).
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence
Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.