Senior 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.

The Payment Integrity Data Science team within Optum Insight (OI) is expanding.  We are looking for experienced Data Scientists to join our team.  This individual will be responsible on the development and delivery of large and complex predictive modeling projects for healthcare Payment Integrity processes. ASenior Data Scientist develops innovative and effective approaches to solve client's analytics problems and communicates results and methodologies. The Senior Data Scientist also provides directions and guidelines to Data Scientists to discover business insights, identifies opportunities, and provides solutions and recommendations to solve business problems through the use of statistical, algorithmic, data mining, and visualization techniques. In addition to advanced analytic skills, a Senior Data Scientist is also proficient at integrating and preparing large, varied datasets, and communicating results.

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 or Letterkenny office and telecommuting from a home-based office in a hybrid work model.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Apply advanced statistical and predictive modeling techniques to build, maintain, and improve on multiple predictive detection engines in Optum Insight analytics
• Lead discovery processes with Data Scientists and partner with Payment Integrity Operation management to identify the business requirements and the expected outcome 
• Create and provide sound statistical analyses and frame business scenarios that are meaningful and which impact on critical business processes and/or decisions 
• Contribute to the development of Agentic AI architectures to solve business challenges using new technologies
• Design sampling methodology, prepare data, including data cleaning, univariate analysis, missing value imputation, etc., identify appropriate analytic and statistical methodology, develop predictive models and document process and results 
• Communicate analytics results and predictive models to business partners and clients 
• Provide on-going tracking and monitoring of model performance and recommend ongoing improvements to methods and algorithms that lead to findings, including new information

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:

• Proven experience in data science and building predictive models
• Proven experience in manipulating large datasets  
• Proven experience in delivering production-grade AI/ML pipelines 
• Demonstrated solid expertise in programming in Python and SQL 
• Proven experience with distributed computing technologies such as PySpark
• Proven experience with Git / GitHub for version control

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proven experience with healthcare claims data 
• Proven experience with Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, LLMs and/or similar tools  
• Demonstrated problem-solving, and analytical thinking skills
• Demonstrated organizational skills with the ability to be flexible and work with ambiguity

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.

#BBMEMEA