Data Scientist

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 diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Careers with Optum offer flexible work arrangements and individuals who live and work in the Republic of Ireland will have the opportunity to split their monthly work hours between our Dublin office and telecommuting from a home-based office in a hybrid work model.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Solid focus on NLP, information retrieval, AI Architectures, and Document Analysis
• Optimize models for performance, scalability and efficiency
• Ability to take research whitepapers to production. Solid technical leadership to drive the Document Analysis team, which includes both data scientists and AI engineers
• Drives excellence and standardization across the data science team with a focus on skills development, training and career progression
• Provide strategic and technical direction aligned to analytic efforts around AI/ML
• Stay current on internal and external technological advances in AI and advanced analytics that can be applied to document processing
• Drive inclusion and diversity as part of enhancing continued development of a solid diverse team culture

You will 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 providing development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Data Science or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience
• Proven experience utilizing version control technologies such as Git, Docker, and cloud platforms including AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Demonstrated familiarity with REST APIs and microservices architectures
• Proven experience integrating AI and machine learning models into production environments
• Proven experience with text preprocessing, vector embeddings, vectorization techniques, and text analytics
• Demonstrated proficiency in Python, data science libraries, and rapid prototyping methodologies
• Proven ability to evaluate, optimize, and fine-tune natural language processing (NLP) models and optical character recognition (OCR) solutions
• Demonstrated solid problem-solving skills, algorithmic thinking, and the ability to approach complex technical challenges in a structured and analytical manner

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree, postgraduate qualification, or PhD in Data Science or a related discipline
• Proven experience working with document OCR technologies, AI-powered search solutions, context-layer architectures, or similar technologies
• Demonstrated familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and MLOps practices
• Proven experience applying software engineering principles and best practices

Please note you must currently be eligible to work and remain indefinitely without any restrictions in the country to which you are making an application. Proof will be required to support your application.

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.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: Optum is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age, race, and membership of the Traveller community, or any other characteristic protected by law. Optum is a drug-free workplace. © 2026 Optum Services (Ireland) Limited. All rights reserved.