Job Description

For those who want to invent the future of health care, here's your opportunity. We're going beyond basic care to health programs integrated across the entire continuum of care. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

The Associate Director, Growth Strategy, Market Intelligence & Enterprise Partnerships, serves as a critical strategic leadership role supporting the Mid-America strategic agenda. This position functions as both a strategic intelligence engine and operational integrator for the growth organization, ensuring alignment across business partners and leadership supporting critical growth-related initiatives.

This leader is responsible for transforming complex market, provider, payer, membership, competitive, and financial data into actionable growth strategies while driving execution across a matrixed organization. The role combines strategic analysis, growth planning, enterprise partnership development, executive decision support, and growth governance to accelerate profitable expansion and investment decisions throughout the Mid-America market and broader East Region.

The position serves as a trusted advisor to the Market & Regional Leadership Team (RLT) members and enterprise leaders, supporting decision-making related to new market entry, care delivery organization expansion, network optimization, payer strategy, value-based care participation, business development opportunities, strategic partnerships, and capital deployment.

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:

• Growth Strategy & Market Intelligence
• Lead comprehensive market assessments for existing and prospective markets
• Develop market entry, expansion, and investment analyses that support market and regional growth objectives
• Evaluate provider, payer, demographic, competitive, and regulatory dynamics across target markets
• Identify emerging trends, market disruptions, and strategic opportunities impacting Optum Health growth priorities
• Develop market attractiveness assessments, prioritization frameworks, market tiering analyses, and strategic growth recommendations
• Produce executive-level competitive intelligence and market intelligence reviews
• Identify and assess best practices within the care delivery ecosystem and support business case and deployment of specific initiatives
• Analytics, Reporting & Business Intelligence
• Serve as the conduit to the analytics teams to develop growth reporting, analytics infrastructure, and executive performance measurement
• Coordinate data resources and partnerships across Healthcare Economics, Optum Health Analytics, Finance, Actuarial, Network, Market Teams, Contracting, and Business Development functions
• Develop forecasting models, scenario analyses, market opportunity assessments, and growth performance evaluations
• Support creation of executive dashboards, KPI reporting, and strategic scorecards
• Enterprise Partnerships & Business Development
• Identify, evaluate, and support development of strategic partnerships that accelerate growth and market expansion
• Assess inter- and intra-segment partnership opportunities across Optum and UnitedHealth Group entities to deploy in-market
• Partner with enterprise stakeholders to evaluate innovative growth opportunities and adjacent healthcare services
• Support development and coordination of preferred provider networks and strategic market affiliations
• Support business cases and strategic recommendations for partnerships, affiliations, joint ventures, acquisitions, and growth investments
• Collaborate with M&A and Business Development teams in prioritization of acquisition, affiliation, and partnership targets that support regional growth goals
• Growth Governance & Operational Leadership
• Manage and support the growth & strategy operating cadence for the market, including executive reviews, growth councils, steering committees, and strategic planning sessions
• Maintain oversight of the market growth portfolio, ensuring accountability, milestone achievement, and execution against strategic priorities
• Track growth initiatives, partnership development efforts, expansion projects, and investment outcomes
• Coordinate issue resolution, risk management, decision tracking, and executive follow-up activities
• Establish governance processes that improve transparency, execution discipline, and organizational alignment
• Executive Decision Support
• Translate complex analyses into concise executive recommendations and strategic insights
• Develop presentations, executive materials, business cases, strategic briefings, and growth updates for senior leadership
• Support monthly, quarterly and annual strategic planning, long-range growth planning, and market prioritization decisions
• Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on high-priority growth and market development initiatives
• Lead ad hoc growth and strategy initiatives identified by Regional Executive Leadership as identified

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:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Healthcare Administration, Finance, Economics, Analytics, Public Health, or related field
• 7+ years of experience in healthcare strategy, market intelligence, business development, consulting, growth analytics, healthcare operations, enterprise partnerships, or related disciplines
• Experience developing executive-level presentations, business cases, and strategic recommendations
• Advanced Excel skills, including financial modeling, scenario analysis, forecasting, and data synthesis
• Solid executive communication skills with the ability to translate complex analyses into actionable business recommendations
• Demonstrated success leading complex strategic initiatives across highly matrixed organizations
• Solid understanding of healthcare provider, payer, Medicare Advantage, value-based care, and population health
• Exceptional analytical, communication, project leadership, and stakeholder management skills
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders without direct authority

Preferred Qualifications:

• MBA, MHA, MPH, Finance, Economics, or related advanced degree
• Experience supporting healthcare market expansion, acquisitions, partnerships, provider network development, or payer strategy
• Experience in healthcare consulting, provider organizations, managed care, integrated delivery systems, or healthcare analytics
• Advanced proficiency in financial modeling, market intelligence, healthcare claims analytics, Power BI, Tableau, Salesforce reporting, and executive storytelling

*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 $xx,xxx to $xx,xxx 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 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.

OptumCare is 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.

OptumCare is a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.