Associate Director Operational Excellence

UnitedHealth Group

Associate Director Operational Excellence

Gurgaon, India

Date posted: 10/05/2026

Overtime status: Exempt

Travel: No

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.

We are looking for individuals who have experience in building AI strategy for organization and business units and can program manage large innovation forums for the enterprise. This will be a IC role where the individual will work across stakeholders and help design the AI strategy and also co-lead innovation forums from ideation to implementation of ideas across enterprise. This will be a high visibility role with accelerated learning.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Overall AI strategy development across buisness units, stakeholder management, CXO alignment, strategic thinking, program management of large innovation forums, hands on experience of deploying and conceptualising right metrics for AI scale
• Execution readiness for identified AI first initiatives
• Process improvement and reimagination of current processes with AI
• Collaboration across operations, transformation, data, AI and technology teams
• Comply with all applicable Company policies, procedures, and business directives, changes including those relating to work location, team assignments, work schedules, and flexible work arrangements

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in any discipline
• Project Management certification / Master's of Business Administration - top tier institute
• 10+ years of work experience
• Experience in projects involving emerging technologies (automation, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intellgience, etc)
• Experience in managing innovation forums
• Experience in a AI strategy build
• Extensive experience in working with stakeholders across leadership levelsng employment
• Extensive work experience in working in a collaborative environment
• Program management - Experience in managing transformation roadmaps - AI/ML/ Gen Ai program management experience / Exposure to deploying latest tech / automations to solve business problems
• Demonstrated experience in change management
• Proven excellent communication & presentation skills

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.

Benefits

• Our mission of helping people live healthier lives extends to our team members. Learn more about our range of benefits designed to help you live well.

• Life

• Resources and support to focus on what matters most to you, in every facet of your life.

• Emotional

• Education, tools and resources to help you reduce and manage stress, build resilience and more.

• Physical

• Health plans and other coverage to support wellness for you and your loved ones.

• Financial

• Benefits for today and to help you plan for the future, including your retirement.

• Learn more

• Since joining Optum, my professional growth has been significant. The dynamic environment has enhanced my problem-solving abilities, and the company’s commitment to innovation and continuous learning motivates me to stay. Optum provides continuous training, mentorship, and a clear path for advancement, all while supporting a healthy work-life balance.

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