Senior Director, Epidemiology (Remote)

About the role

Optum Life Sciences, part of UnitedHealth Group, is seeking a Senior Director, Epidemiology to lead its Epidemiology function and advance scientific excellence, real-world evidence generation and client impact across pharmaceutical, biotechnology, government and healthcare sectors. The role leads an organization of about 6-8 direct reports and 75-80 employees, balancing external client engagement with internal team leadership, study oversight and quality review. The position is remote from anywhere in the U.S., with a minimum of four days in the office for hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area.

Key responsibilities

• Lead epidemiology, pharmacoepidemiology, real-world evidence, safety, post-authorization, post-market and non-interventional research, ensuring scientific rigor and quality
• Serve as a senior scientific advisor to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, government and healthcare clients, shaping evidence-generation strategies and supporting proposals and business growth
• Lead and develop epidemiologists, scientific leaders and people managers, coach managers and build succession readiness
• Set quality standards, review processes and escalation pathways, and manage staffing, performance and capability needs
• Champion responsible use of enterprise-approved AI, analytics and automation, with validation, transparency, privacy and governance

Required profile

• Master's degree or higher in Epidemiology, Public Health, Biostatistics, Medicine, Health Services Research or a related scientific discipline
• 10+ years of professional epidemiology experience
• Experience leading managers and multi-level organizations and developing future leaders
• Experience as a scientific advisor or client-facing scientific leader in pharma, biotech, government, healthcare or life sciences
• Experience overseeing complex epidemiology or evidence-generation studies and working with claims, EHR, registry or other real-world healthcare data