Lead Platform Architect - AI Platform

Fortescue Metals Group; Perth; On-site; AUD 210,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

Fortescue seeks an experienced Lead Platform Architect to steer the design and evolution of its AI Platform within the Data and AI team. You will translate business needs into secure, scalable capabilities and drive platform roadmaps across engineering, product and operations.

You will mentor architects and engineers, define reusable services, and ensure governance, security and cost controls across generative AI solutions and enterprise integration.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
• Substantial experience in software engineering, solution architecture or platform architecture, including leading complex platforms from design through production.
• Demonstrated experience designing and delivering production AI solutions involving generative AI, large language models or intelligent agents.
• Proven ability to design reusable platform services and scalable solutions adopted across multiple teams.
• Practical experience with AWS or Azure, enterprise data integration, containers, infrastructure as code and automated delivery pipelines.
• Strong programming capability in Python, C# or comparable languages, including technical reviews and prototyping.
• Advanced knowledge of distributed systems, APIs, identity and access management, secure integration, resilience and scalability.
• Understanding of retrieval-augmented generation, agent orchestration, context management, MCP, AI evaluation and guardrails.
• Experience with observability, AI model evaluation, performance monitoring, capacity planning and cost optimisation.
• Strong stakeholder engagement, communication and technical mentoring; Snowflake/mining/OT experience advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture and design of the AI Platform, defining reusable services and integration patterns.
• Develop and maintain the platform technical roadmap, prioritising capability improvements and technical debt.
• Design secure, scalable solutions for generative AI, including retrieval, orchestration and enterprise integration.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership through architecture reviews, prototypes and guidance.
• Embed security, identity management, data protection, auditability and governance controls into designs.
• Establish operational readiness standards covering monitoring, performance, reliability and cost management.
• Support platform adoption through reference implementations and developer experience improvements.
• Collaborate with cloud, infrastructure, data, security and integration teams to manage dependencies.
• Maintain architecture documentation and governance compliance.
• Mentor architects and engineers to drive platform improvements.

Skills

Platform architecture leadership

Mentoring

Stakeholder engagement

Python programming

C# programming

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

AWS

Azure

Containers (Docker/Kubernetes)

IaC / CI/CD pipelines

Terraform

Job description

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Work Location: Perth Office - Fortescue's Perth office is located on the traditional lands of the Whadjuk people. Ad hoc site travel as required.

Roster: Monday to Friday

Summary:
We are seeking an experienced Lead Platform Architect to lead the design and technical evolution of Fortescue's AI Platform within our Data and AI team.

Manager Engineering, Operations and Platforms you will translate business requirements and enterprise architecture direction into secure, scalable and reusable AI platform capabilities. Working closely with engineering, product and operations teams, you will drive platform architecture, technical roadmaps and the adoption of innovative AI solutions across Fortescue.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture and design of the AI Platform, defining reusable services, integration patterns and technical solutions aligned with enterprise architecture standards.
• Develop and maintain the platform technical roadmap, prioritising capability improvements, business requirements and technical debt.
• Design secure, scalable solutions for generative AI, large language models and intelligent agents, including retrieval, orchestration and enterprise integration.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership through architecture reviews, prototypes, implementation guidance and resolution of complex technical challenges.
• Embed security, identity management, data protection, auditability and appropriate governance controls into platform designs.
• Establish operational readiness standards covering monitoring, evaluation, performance, reliability, recovery and cost management.
• Support platform adoption through reference implementations, technical guidance, onboarding and continuous improvement of the developer experience.
• Collaborate with cloud, infrastructure, data, security and integration teams to manage dependencies and deliver seamless platform changes.
• Maintain architecture documentation, technical decision records and compliance with enterprise governance and change management processes.
• Mentor architects and engineers, strengthen technical capability and drive platform improvements through measurable business outcomes.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant professional experience.
• Substantial experience in software engineering, solution architecture or platform architecture, including leading complex platforms from design through production.
• Demonstrated experience designing and delivering production AI solutions involving generative AI, large language models or intelligent agents.
• Proven ability to design reusable platform services, integration patterns and scalable solutions adopted across multiple teams.
• Practical experience with AWS or Azure, enterprise data integration, containers, infrastructure as code and automated delivery pipelines.
• Strong programming capability in Python, C# or comparable languages, including technical reviews, prototyping and engineering guidance.
• Advanced knowledge of distributed systems, APIs, identity and access management, secure integration, resilience and scalability.
• Practical understanding of retrieval-augmented generation, agent orchestration, context management, Model Context Protocol (MCP), AI evaluation and guardrails.
• Experience with observability, AI model and agent evaluation, performance monitoring, capacity planning and cost optimisation.
• Strong stakeholder engagement, communication and technical mentoring skills, with experience collaborating across engineering, product, operations and security teams. Snowflake, mining, resources or operational technology experience is advantageous.

About Us

Be part of something big. Fortescue is leading the world with our plan to decarbonise our iron ore operations, projects that harness renewable energy and the development of technology that will change our planet forever.

Our Commitment

Fortescue celebrates individual strengths and team members are encouraged to bring their whole selves to work. Our global workforce drives and promotes an inclusive culture, both within our organisation and throughout the communities we interact with. Diverse backgrounds include First Nations Peoples, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ community, gender, neurodiverse, cultural diversity, all age groups, and those with an intersectional or multiple diverse characteristics.We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.