Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Optum, part of UnitedHealth Group, delivers care aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. Optum Life Sciences is seeking an Associate Director, Strategic Planning & Operations to operationalize enterprise and business priorities through coordinated planning, operating rhythms, leadership reporting, governance, and execution visibility across strategic initiatives.
Responsibilities
- Support annual business planning, long-range planning, strategic priority setting, and related enterprise planning activities for Optum Life Sciences
- Establish, manage, and continuously improve operating rhythms, including monthly business reviews, annual business planning, forecasting reviews, executive reviews, and strategic planning cycles
- Translate enterprise and business priorities into actionable plans, milestones, owners, dependencies, risks, and success measures
- Collect, organize, validate, and synthesize business updates from cross-functional stakeholders for leadership review and decision-making
- Develop executive-ready presentations, strategy updates, initiative readouts, status reports, planning documents, and decision materials
- Track progress across strategic initiatives and identify risks, gaps, dependencies, trade-offs, and items requiring escalation
- Establish and maintain governance practices that improve accountability, transparency, decision quality, and execution discipline
- Coordinate across strategy, product, technology, data, commercial, finance, operations, and other Optum and UHG stakeholders
- Support KPI definition, MBO tracking, organizational performance reporting, and leadership visibility into strategic commitments and business outcomes
- Build and maintain practical planning tools, trackers, reporting views, and dashboards as needed to support operating decisions
- Identify opportunities to improve planning, reporting, documentation, governance, and cross-functional coordination processes
- Use enterprise-approved AI tools to streamline workflows, strengthen synthesis and reporting, improve work products, and support continuous improvement
- Apply AI responsibly in accordance with applicable data privacy, security, confidentiality, and approved-tool requirements
Skills
- 7+ years of experience in strategic planning, strategy execution, business operations, enterprise planning, program management, management consulting, healthcare, data, technology, or a related function
- Experience translating enterprise or business priorities into execution plans, governance processes, performance-management activities, or recurring operating rhythms
- Experience in life sciences, healthcare, healthcare technology, healthcare data, analytics, provider organizations, or closely related healthcare markets
- Experience supporting and managing planning and reporting cycles, including monthly business reviews (MBRs), annual business planning (ABP), strategic planning cycles, forecasting reviews, executive reviews, and organizational reporting processes
- Experience driving execution of complex, cross-functional initiatives with documented governance, milestones, risks, dependencies, and accountability
- Experience coordinating priorities and stakeholders across multiple business functions in a matrixed organization
- Experience developing leadership presentations, reporting packages, planning documents, business updates, or executive briefing materials
- Experience influencing stakeholders and driving follow-through without direct authority
- Experience creating, maintaining, and utilizing reporting dashboards using Power BI, Tableau, Domo, or comparable business intelligence platforms to support business planning, performance management, and executive reporting
- Experience supporting a CEO, business president, senior executive, or enterprise leadership team with planning and reporting needs
- Experience with KPI development, MBO tracking, initiative governance, portfolio reporting, or performance management
- Experience improving operating rhythms, governance processes, reporting practices, or cross-functional planning workflows
- Experience working in a large enterprise with multiple business units and senior stakeholders
- Experience using enterprise-approved AI tools to support planning, analysis, synthesis, reporting, documentation, or productivity
- Proven written and verbal communication skills demonstrated through executive materials, business reviews, planning updates, or cross-functional coordination
Benefits
- Comprehensive benefits package
- Incentive and recognition programs
- Equity stock purchase
- 401k contribution
- Remote work flexibility from anywhere within the U.S., subject to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy
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