AI/ML Platform Engineering Architect

AI/ML Technical Lead / AI Platform Architect

Duration: 12+ Months Contract-to-Hire
Location: Remote (Initial Contract Period) | Hybrid Onsite Upon Conversion
Preferred Locations: Multiple U.S. Metro Areas

About the Opportunity

A leading enterprise organization is seeking a senior AI/ML Technical Lead / AI Platform Architect to drive the design, engineering, and evolution of a next-generation enterprise AI platform. This role is ideal for a technology leader who started as a hands-on software engineer and has progressed into AI/ML architecture and platform leadership.

The ideal candidate combines deep software engineering expertise with modern AI/GenAI platform experience and has successfully built scalable solutions from the ground up. This individual will serve as a player-coach, remaining technically engaged while leading engineering initiatives and mentoring a growing team.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and evolve enterprise AI platform architecture, developer frameworks, SDKs, reusable services, and best practices.
• Design and implement scalable AI platform capabilities supporting model access, orchestration, governance, security, and operational excellence.
• Lead development of AI/GenAI services including model serving, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agent architectures, vector search, context management, and tool integration.
• Establish standards for AI model lifecycle management, versioning, promotion workflows, governance, and auditability.
• Build observability, monitoring, evaluation, and traceability frameworks for AI applications and agentic workflows.
• Implement responsible AI, security, data privacy, identity management, and policy enforcement controls.
• Drive cloud-native platform engineering practices, including Kubernetes, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, automation, reliability engineering, and operational readiness.
• Conduct architecture reviews, write and review production-grade code, and guide critical technical decisions.
• Evaluate technology solutions and make strategic build-versus-buy recommendations.
• Partner with product, security, engineering, and data science teams to accelerate AI adoption across the organization.
• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing AI platform engineering team while remaining hands-on technically.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering, platform engineering, distributed systems, or infrastructure experience with increasing technical leadership responsibilities.
• Proven experience designing and delivering enterprise AI, GenAI, MLOps, Data Platforms, Developer Platforms, or AI Engineering Platforms in production environments.
• Strong hands-on development experience with Python and at least one of:
  • Java
  • Go
  • TypeScript
• Strong foundation in:
  • Microservices
  • APIs
  • Distributed Systems
  • Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
  • Code Reviews and Testing Methodologies
• Experience with:
  • Generative AI Platforms
  • Large Language Models (LLMs)
  • RAG Architectures
  • AI Agents & Agent Frameworks
  • Model Governance & Lifecycle Management
  • AI Observability & Evaluation
  • Prompt Management & Guardrails
• Deep experience with:
  • Kubernetes
  • Docker/Containers
  • Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, etc.)
  • CI/CD Pipelines
  • Cloud Platforms (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform)
  • Secrets Management
  • Reliability Engineering & SRE Practices
• Ability to communicate effectively with executive leadership and technical stakeholders.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline (or equivalent experience).

Preferred Background

• Experience supporting large-scale enterprise digital transformation initiatives.
• Combination of enterprise and high-growth/startup experience highly preferred.
• Demonstrated success building new products, platforms, or engineering capabilities from the ground up.
• Experience within highly regulated industries is a plus.
• Prior leadership experience managing and mentoring engineering teams.

Ideal Candidate Profile

We are seeking a builder and innovator who can bridge software engineering, cloud architecture, and AI/ML technologies. The ideal candidate has a strong software development background, understands how to scale modern platforms, and can translate complex business challenges into secure, reliable, and enterprise-ready AI solutions.