Senior Director Operations

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.

Role Summary

The Senior Director, Operations – Payment Integrity is a senior leadership role accountable for setting strategic direction, driving operational excellence, and delivering superior business outcomes across multisite, large‑scale Payment Integrity. This role provides leadership through multiple layers of senior managers and directors, ensuring performance, compliance, service quality, and financial objectives are consistently met or exceeded.

The Senior Director partners closely with business stakeholders, leadership across product, automation, analytics and technology teams, and clients to strengthen Optum’s operational capabilities, scale best‑in‑class processes, and deliver measurable value to health plan partners.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership and Business Ownership
  • Define operational strategy for Payment Integrity Operations aligned with enterprise goals
  • Lead multisite operations (1000+ FTEs) through multiple directors, senior managers, and professional staff
  • Drive transformation initiatives that deliver sustainable productivity, quality improvement, and cost efficiency
  • Drive financial discipline via accurate budgeting, validation of actuals, and work force management forecast discipline
  • Own end-to-end delivery of contractual SLAs, KPIs, compliance, and client commitments across programs
• Ideation and Growth
  • Accountable for Global team developing and driving the Exploratory and Competitive Intelligence strategy, serving as a thought leader and progressing incremental growth opportunities for Payment Integrity suite of products
  • Partner with Business stakeholders to Integrate enterprise level AI, data science capabilities to design scalable, repeatable insight / lead generation which identify and solution high value ideation opportunities, quantify incremental savings, and accelerate validation cycles
• Operational Excellence and Performance Management
  • Design, implement, and continuously optimize operational frameworks, metrics, and governance models
  • Evaluate and interpret business performance reports; identify drivers of underperformance and institute corrective actions
  • Oversee workforce planning, staffing ratios, labor cost management, and operational budget controls
• Client and Stakeholder Engagement
  • Serve as a senior point of escalation for onshore leaders and client executives
  • Partner with Strategic business stakeholders to align operational strategy with plan performance goals
  • Provide insights, recommendations, and consultative support to drive customer value and long-term partnerships
• Transformation, Innovation and Automation
  • Champion adoption of advanced analytics, GenAI solutions, and automation to improve outcomes
  • Lead continuous improvement programs, standardization efforts, and capability building initiatives across locations
  • Benchmark industry practices and bring innovative operating models into the Risk and Quality Operations space
• People Leadership
  • Develop the next layer of senior leadership - workforce of the future
  • Foster a culture of accountability, inclusion, high performance, and ethical conduct
  • Drive leadership development, talent mobility, succession planning, and organizational capability
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications:

• Graduate/Postgraduate from a recognized university
• 15+ years of leadership experience, with at least 8–10 years leading large-scale healthcare operations (Payment Integrity, Claims, Quality, Clinical Ops, or related domains)
• Demonstrated experience managing multisite operations and cost management
• Demonstrated proficiency at a senior management level, working with cross functional leaders/teams, with a proven track record of leading and managing teams through business solution change cycles
• Proven track record in ideating, business process management and deploying large-scale transformations, automation adoption, and performance turnaround
• Proven solid people leader with an ability to drive engagement
• Willingness to travel as required
• Flexibility to support U.S. and India hours

Preferred Qualifications:

• Lean Six Sigma or similar certification
• Exposure to AI/automation led transformation

Value Thesis (What We Expect):

• Clarity & Alignment: Reduce ambiguity by establishing clear decision rights, scopes, cadences, and communication patterns
• Delivery Discipline: Enable predictable, cross-functional execution against operating plans, OKRs, and financial targets
• Governance Maturity: Implement scalable, lightweight governance models that evolve with the Newco's maturity
• Risk Mitigation: Proactively identify and address operational, talent, or dependency risks before they disrupt execution

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.