Sr. Program Manager - Delivery Lead - Remote

Requisition number: 2391896

Job category: OptumInsight Consulting

Optum Insight is improving the flow of health data and information to create a more connected system. We remove friction and drive alignment between care providers and payers, and ultimately consumers. Our deep expertise in the industry and innovative technology empower us to help organizations reduce costs while improving risk management, quality and revenue growth. Ready to help us deliver results that improve lives? Join us in making healthcare work better for everyone through people-led, responsible AI while Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

The Sr. Program Manager - Delivery Lead embeds with business and product teams to understand desired outcomes, shapes and builds working solutions with engineering partners, and carries them through to deployment. The role owns delivery commitments and customer outcomes, and works within enterprise architecture guardrails, security requirements, and regulatory expectations.

You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of four days per week.

Primary Responsibilities:

Program Delivery

• Lead end-to-end delivery of complex, cross-functional technology programs from initiation through implementation and operational transition. This includes mobilization, delivery-model definition, team formation, governance, and operating cadence

• Translate strategic objectives and business needs into integrated program plans covering scope, milestones, dependencies, resources, financials, risks, and measurable outcomes. Partner with product and business leaders to define requirements, acceptance criteria, and implementation readiness, with clear accountability

• Coordinate and drive execution across business, product, architecture, engineering, data, quality assurance, security, operations, vendors, and other dependent teams. Oversee backlog, release, testing, implementation, and operational-readiness activities, and apply Agile, SAFe, waterfall, or hybrid practices as required

• Identify, manage, and communicate program risks, issues, assumptions, and cross-team dependencies. Remove barriers that could affect scope, schedule, quality, cost, or business outcomes, and escalate material concerns with recommended actions

• Monitor program financials, resource demand, forecasts, and vendor commitments, and address variances early. Ensure artifacts, decisions, deliverables, and controls meet organizational, contractual, regulatory, security, and compliance expectations

• Ability to manage competing priorities and maintain delivery momentum in a complex, fast-paced environment

Forward-Deployed Solution Delivery

• Embed with business and product teams to observe current workflows, data, systems, and pain points firsthand, and convert real operating problems into clear, testable solution definitions

• Partner with architects to shape solution approaches and options, state trade-offs clearly, and keep designs aligned with enterprise standards, patterns, and guardrails

• Build or direct working prototypes and early releases using real data and real integrations (for example APIs, data pipelines, automation, or AI-enabled workflows), demonstrating working behavior in short, frequent loops. Work hands-on with engineers to resolve integration, data, access, and environment issues, and own the path from prototype to a safe, supportable production release

• Define explicit decision points between automation and people, ensuring that people remain responsible for decisions with material risk and that outputs show their sources, confidence limits, and a path to correction

• Define ownership early between the delivery team and the customer or operating team, and leave the receiving team able to operate and evolve the solution through documented decisions, runbooks, and knowledge transfer.

• Capture reusable learning, patterns, and product feedback from each engagement and share it with product, engineering, and architecture teams

Executive and Team Engagement

• Provide clear, concise program status reporting to senior leaders and stakeholders, covering progress, decisions, risks, financial impacts, and required actions. Facilitate governance, planning, decision-making, and executive-level program reviews. Represent the program with customers and senior stakeholders, demonstrating ownership for delivery commitments and overall business outcomes

• Manage stakeholder expectations and build alignment across teams with differing priorities, objectives, and operating models. Provide leadership, coaching, and work direction to project managers, scrum masters, analysts, engineers, consultants, and cross-functional team members

• Promote effective use of data, metrics, automation, and AI-enabled tools to improve program visibility, decision-making, and delivery effectiveness. Support continuous improvement by identifying recurring delivery challenges and implementing scalable processes, standards, and tools

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 technology program management, project management, delivery leadership, product delivery, solution delivery, or a related function

• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multi-workstream technology programs involving cross-functional business and technology teams

• Experience managing programs through the full delivery lifecycle, including planning, requirements, design, development, testing, implementation, and transition to operations

• Hands-on technical credibility, demonstrated by experience building, configuring, integrating, or directly guiding the build of production solutions (for example APIs, data pipelines, automation, or AI-enabled workflows)

• Experience working directly inside customer or business environments to discover problems, prototype solutions, and drive them to working use

• Experience managing program scope, schedules, dependencies, risks, issues, resources, and financials

• Demonstrated ability to establish delivery governance and communicate effectively with senior leaders, customers, and technical stakeholders

• Experience working in Agile, SAFe, waterfall, or hybrid delivery models

• Demonstrated ability to translate complex information into clear executive-level updates to both technical and non-technical audiences

• Demonstrated ability to influence outcomes and drive accountability in a matrixed organization without relying on direct reporting authority

• Demonstrated ability to frame solution options and trade-offs using analytical, problem-solving, negotiation, and decision-making skills

• Proficiency with commonly used program and delivery-management tools

• Demonstrated ability to identify automation opportunities and leverage AI to improve productivity and quality

• Able and willing to travel appropriately 25% of the time as business needs dictate

Preferred Qualifications:

• PMP, PgMP, Certified ScrumMaster, SAFe, product-management, cloud or technical, or comparable professional certification

• 10+ years of progressive technology delivery or program-management experience

• Experience leading enterprise-scale transformation, modernization, cloud, data, AI, platform, or application-development programs

• Experience within healthcare, health insurance, pharmacy-benefit management, financial services, or another highly regulated industry

• Demonstrated understanding of healthcare technology platforms, enterprise integrations, data environments, and software-development practices

• Working knowledge of cloud platforms, data engineering, application architecture, APIs, security, CI/CD, observability, and production-readiness practices

• Experience delivering AI-enabled solutions, including retrieval, extraction, classification, generation, or agentic workflows, with human oversight and responsible-AI controls

• Experience applying AI-enabled tools to planning, analysis, documentation, reporting, risk management, or delivery execution

• Experience working with enterprise architects and solution architects to align embedded delivery work with reference architectures and technology standards

• Experience leading distributed teams composed of employees, consultants, contractors, and strategic vendors

• Experience with financial forecasting, resource planning, statements of work, vendor management, and delivery-performance metrics

• Experience with product management practices, including roadmap development, backlog management, prioritization, feature definition, and acceptance criteria

• Experience supporting organizational change, business readiness, stakeholder communications, and adoption activities

• Consulting, client-facing, or advisory services experience

• Proven ability to mentor delivery professionals and strengthen program-management and solution-delivery practices across multiple teams

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

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.

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 help make the health system work better for everyone. Together, we are shaping the future of healthcare by harnessing technology and innovation to make care simpler to navigate, more affordable and more connected for the people we serve. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels welcomed, valued, heard and respected, empowering people to bring their authentic selves to work and strengthening our collective impact through diverse talents, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.

UnitedHealth Group and its affiliated brands are 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 and its affiliated brands are a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.