Associate Manager Data Analyst

Requisition Number: 2352673
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.
The Associate Manager Data Analyst is responsible for driving analytical excellence across business domains by leading data strategy, advanced analytics, data quality management, and cross functional stakeholder engagement. This role requires strong analytical leadership, technical depth, business acumen, and hands on experience working with modern cloud data ecosystems - especially Microsoft Azure.
Primary Responsibilities:

• Data Strategy & Leadership
  • Define and execute the analytical strategy for business units and data domains
  • Translate business objectives into analytical requirements and data initiatives
  • Establish best practices, standards, and governance frameworks for analytics
  • Mentor and guide analysts, providing technical, functional, and strategic leadership
• Advanced Data Analysis & Modeling
  • Lead complex analyses using statistical, predictive, diagnostic, and exploratory methods
  • Build, validate, and interpret advanced analytical and ML models
  • Conduct deep dive investigations to uncover trends, patterns, and root causes
• Data Management & Quality Assurance
  • Oversee data extraction, wrangling, cleansing, and validation workflows
  • Ensure accuracy, completeness, consistency, and reliability of core datasets
  • Work closely with data engineering teams on pipelines, data architecture, and automation
• Business Partnership & Stakeholder Engagement
  • Serve as the primary liaison between analytics and business stakeholders
  • Translate business questions into data driven problem statements and analytical tasks
  • Present analytical insights in a clear, actionable manner to leadership and partners
• Visualization, Storytelling & Reporting
  • Develop and enhance dashboards using tools like Power BI, Tableau, or Looker
  • Build compelling data stories that drive decision making and strategic insights
  • Ensure timely delivery of ad hoc and recurring reporting solutions
• Project & Delivery Management
  • Lead end to end execution of analytics projects from scoping to delivery
  • Prioritize workloads, manage timelines, and ensure quality of deliverables
  • Define success metrics and track project outcomes
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
  • Explore new tools, techniques, and methodologies to enhance analytics capability
  • Implement automation to reduce manual effort and scaling efficiencies
  • Champion a data driven culture across the organization
• Compliance, Security & Ethical Data Use
  • Ensure analytics processes adhere to governance, privacy, and security policies
  • Promote ethical use of data and responsible model development
• 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:

• Graduation is a must
• Core Technical Skills
  • Solid SQL expertise for querying large datasets in cloud environments
  • Proficiency with Python for statistical analysis and model development
  • Expertise in data modeling, feature engineering, and analytical model validation
• Azure Cloud Skills
  • Azure Data Factory (ADF): Building, orchestrating, and troubleshooting ETL/ELT pipelines
  • Azure Databricks: Working with notebooks, Spark workloads, PySpark, and ML pipelines
  • Azure Synapse Analytics: Data warehousing, serverless queries, pipeline integration
  • Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS Gen2): Understanding zones (raw/curated), file formats (Parquet, Delta), and permission models
  • Azure SQL / Azure SQL Managed Instance: Data storage, transformations, and performance tuning
  • Power BI (with Azure Integration):
  • DirectQuery and Composite models
  • Row level security
  • Dataflows and integration with ADLS
  • Data Governance & Security (Azure specific)
  • Knowledge of Azure Purview / Microsoft Purview for data cataloging and lineage
  • Understanding of RBAC, managed identities, and access controls in Azure
  • Familiarity with security best practices (VNETs, private endpoints, encryption)
• Soft Skills
  • Solid stakeholder communication and storytelling capabilities
  • Ability to lead cross functional discussions and drive consensus
  • Strategic thinking combined with hands on analytical execution
  • Excellent problem solving and critical thinking abilities

Preferred Qualification:

• Azure Cloud Skills
  • Azure Machine Learning (AML): Model training, experiment tracking, and deployment

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.