Principal Data Scientist - Optum - Remote

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.

The Principal Data Scientist with Cozeva Operations team is accountable for the design, development and evaluation of predictive models and advanced algorithms that lead to optimal value extraction in order to analyze, review, forecast and present information for operational improvement and Optum-wide Stars improvement planning. This position will work with vast amounts of data from multiple sources to provide predictive and prescriptive analytics to the enterprise that support business strategy to drive Cozeva adoption and improve STARs rating.

This person will be a highly motivated and independent self-starter who enjoys diving deeply into understanding data to find answers. They will support short and long term operational/strategic business activities by applying knowledge of statistics, machine learning, programming, data modeling, simulation, and advanced mathematics to recognize patterns, identify opportunities, pose business questions, and make valuable discoveries leading to initiative prototype development to improve the customer experience.

The Principal Data Scientist will partner with analysts that collect, consolidate, and analyze data that is defined and owned by various department subject-matter-experts (SMEs), payers, and/or stakeholders. This individual will collaborate with our Care Delivery Organizations (CDOs) to provide them with actionable analytics data and point-of-care visibility to Stars opportunities. This role will manage projects of high complexity.

You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Identifies and integrates new datasets from various sources to be leveraged throughout the organization to meet business needs, as well as provides continuous management and maintenance of the data
• Collaborate with various stakeholders to understand quality business needs and provide data driven insight for process improvements to drive data completeness, accuracy and timeliness in Cozeva
• Predicts emerging customer needs by discovering trends and anomalies in the data and identifying root causes and drivers for improving the overall and delegated member experience, member retention, member performance and STARs
• Designs data modeling processes, creates algorithms and predictive models to extract data for business needs, and helps analyze data and shares insights across the organization
• Develops the strategy for and leads various multi-data source projects that include analyzing, reviewing, forecasting and, trending Stars related and other member feedback data for key business decision leaders across Optum Care Delivery Organizations
• Translates highly complex concepts in ways that can be understood by a variety of audiences. (e.g., Tell a Story with the Data for business leadership and non-analytics audiences)
• Executes team and department projects from a data perspective, including sourcing and cleaning data
• Develops pioneering approaches to capturing and reporting data trending
• Partners with quality strategy leads, Quality team partners, and CDOs to develop innovative analytics solutions. Includes partnering with other data analytics leads to implement standard and innovative ways to report Stars measure performance by CDO including verbatims and sentiment analysis
• Leads large, complex analysis projects to achieve key business objectives including member survey analytics across multiple data sets and surveys
• Produces innovative solutions driven by exploratory data analysis from unstructured, diverse datasets that leads to the development and implementation of a framework for Quality data analytics & QA process of Cozeva Inbound and outbound data from Quality Business Perspective
• Serves as Stars data subject matter expert in cross-functional programs and efforts
• Understands the complexity within functions, relationships, and contractual obligations with the ability to balance competing priorities
• Performs all other related duties as assigned

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:

• 8+ years of experience in data analytics management
• 8+ years of experience in a deadline driven environment
• 8+ years of experience influencing and collaborating with others
• Demonstrated hands-on experience with large datasets
• Experience providing direction for and building predictive models to prioritize opportunities
• Experience managing and integrating data connections between multiple data sources
• Solid knowledge of extracting and developing key consumer insights within a population
• Demonstrated proficiency in database and data analysis tools like SQL, Tableau, PowerBI, SAS, and Alteryx
• Intermediate level Excel skills - pivot tables, formulas including VLOOKUP, spreadsheet creation and updating. Intermediate level Word and PowerPoint skills - Project scope documents, project presentations, etc. Basic level SharePoint and MS Teams skills - posting documents, updating shared documents, etc.
• Proven ability to quickly aggregate and analyze information and draw statistically valid conclusions
• Proven ability to query databases and perform statistical analysis, solid understanding of statistics and statistical theory
• Demonstrable track record of solid analytical, problem solving and decision-making skills
• Proven ability to thrive in an environment that is tasked with providing data-driven decision support and business intelligence that is timely, accurate and actionable
• Proven highly motivated with ability to work in a fast paced, changing environment
• Proven solid communication skills (written and verbal); ability to present communication plans to customers
• Proven excellent written and oral skills

Preferred Qualification:

• Health plan, healthcare or clinic operations experience

Physical & Mental Requirements:

• Ability to lift up to 10 pounds
• Ability to push or pull heavy objects using up to 25 pounds of force
• Ability to sit for extended periods of time
• Ability to stand for extended periods of time
• Ability to use fine motor skills to operate office equipment and/or machinery
• Ability to receive and comprehend instructions verbally and/or in writing
• Ability to use logical reasoning for simple and complex problem solving

*All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy

The salary range for this role is $106,800 to $194,200 annually based on full-time employment. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. UnitedHealth Group complies with all minimum wage laws as applicable. In addition to your salary, UnitedHealth Group offers 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 UnitedHealth Group, you'll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives.

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.

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.