Chief Artificial Intelligence Architect

Banque Nationale du Canada; Montreal (administrative region); On-site; CAD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and wellness program

Employee Share Ownership Plan

Employee and family assistance program

Preferential banking services

Involvement in community initiatives

Virtual sleep clinic

Job summary

National Bank of Canada is seeking a Senior Chief AI Architect to shape the enterprise AI architecture strategy and reference architectures across the bank. You will drive governance, security-by-design, and scalable patterns to enable AI adoption at scale.

You will influence executives, lead multidisciplinary teams, and balance delivery speed with risk in a fast-moving, regulated environment. Montreal-based role with close collaboration across technology and business functions.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 15 years of experience in enterprise or solution architecture with hands-on AI.
• Deep expertise in AI technologies, including ML, generative AI, agent-based systems.
• Strong understanding of AI governance, regulatory constraints, and risk management.
• Experience designing AI reference architectures and scalable architectural patterns.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the Bank’s enterprise AI architecture strategy, roadmap, and reference architectures.
• Establish pragmatic AI principles, guardrails, and reusable patterns across the organization.
• Lead the architectural vision for generative and agentic AI at enterprise scale.
• Advise executives on AI-related investments, platform choices, adoption sequencing, and trade-offs.
• Oversee AI risk management and architectural escalation for high-risk initiatives.

Skills

Enterprise AI

AI governance

Strategic architecture

Leadership

Generative AI

LLMOps

Cloud platforms

Risk management

Executive influence

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

LLMOps tooling

Security by design

Job description

Area(s) of interest: Information technology

Location(s): Montreal

The Bank is accelerating its transformation by placing artificial intelligence at the core of its business and technology strategies. AI is a key enabler for innovation, operational efficiency, and hyper-personalized customer experiences. To support this ambition, we are creating a strategic role dedicated to shaping the Bank’s AI architecture vision.

The rapid evolution of generative and agent‑based AI introduces new architectural, operational, and risk challenges that cannot be addressed through traditional solution or data architecture practices alone. This role exists to ensure the Bank can leverage AI at scale, at speed, and within its risk appetite, while preserving security, regulatory compliance, ethical standards, and enterprise coherence .

You are a senior architect recognized not only for your ability to combine strategic vision with deep technical expertise in AI, but also for your strong leadership presence and your ability to influence peers, executives, and multidisciplinary teams. You thrive in uncertainty and fast‑moving environments, consistently demonstrating initiative, sound judgment, and accountability. You are comfortable taking decisions, assuming responsibility for them, and constructively challenging internal stakeholders as well as vendors, partners, and suppliers to protect the Bank’s interests and raise the quality of outcomes. You balance time‑to‑value with risk management, challenge the status quo when needed, and foster collaboration across disciplines. You operate naturally at the executive level, leveraging your credibility, clarity, and structured approach to create real impact through your leadership and vision.

Your role:

• Define and evolve the Bank’s enterprise AI architecture strategy, roadmap, and reference architectures in alignment with business priorities, enterprise architecture, and risk appetite.
• Establish pragmatic AI principles, guardrails, and reusable patterns that accelerate delivery while ensuring consistency, reuse, and control across the organization
• Lead the architectural vision for generative and agentic AI, ensuring solutions are secure‑by‑design, auditable, and operable at enterprise scale.
• Define enterprise patterns for agentic systems, including autonomy boundaries, human‑in‑the‑loop controls, lifecycle management, and safe‑stop mechanisms.
• Partner with AI delivery, governance, business, data, and technology stakeholders to drive a coherent enterprise AI approach, clarify decision rights, and translate opportunities into scalable golden paths.
• Advise executives on AI‑related investments, platform and vendor choices, adoption sequencing, and trade‑offs between speed, control, and risk.
• Oversee AI risk management, emerging technology assessment, and architectural escalation for complex or high‑risk AI initiatives.

Your team:

As Chief AI Architect, you are accountable for defining and driving the Bank’s enterprise AI architecture strategy, including the reference architectures, guardrails, and scalable patterns required to enable AI adoption and operationalization across the organization. Reporting to the Chief Architect, you ensure that AI solutions can scale safely, remain aligned with enterprise standards, and operate within the Bank’s risk appetite.

Prerequisites:

• Minimum of 15 years of experience in enterprise and/or solution architecture, including significant hands‑on experience in AI‑related domains.
• Deep expertise in AI technologies, including machine learning, generative AI, agent‑based systems, and the enterprise platforms required to operationalize them.
• Strong understanding of AI governance, ethics, regulatory constraints, and risk management in large organizations.
• Demonstrated experience designing AI reference architectures, defining enterprise guiding principles, and shaping scalable architectural patterns.
• Solid knowledge of data platforms, MLOps / LLMOps, and cloud‑native AI services such as AWS and Azure.
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence executives and senior peers, challenge stakeholders constructively.

Languages:

Reason to require this language: you will need to discuss frequently with our service providers or partners who speak a language other than French.

Skills

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Artificial Intelligence Cloud Computing Coaching Diversity & Inclusion Enterprise Architecture Solution Architecture Teamwork Architecture Governance Cloud‑Native Architecture Decision Making Domain‑Driven Design Empathy Event Driven Architecture Initiative Mobilization

In addition to competitive compensation, upon hiring you’ll be eligible for a wide range of flexible benefits to help promote your wellbeing and that of your family such as:

• Health and wellness program, including many options
• Employee Share Ownership Plan
• Employee and family assistance program
• Preferential banking services
• Involvement in community initiatives
• Virtual sleep clinic

We have an offer that keeps up with trends as well as your needs and those of your family.

Our dynamic work environments and cutting‑edge collaboration tools foster a positive employee experience. We value employees’ ideas. Whether through our surveys or programs, regular feedback and ongoing communication are encouraged.

Making a bold move in a people‑first environment

We’re a bank on a human scale that stands out for its courage, entrepreneurial culture, and passion for people. Our mission is to have a positive impact on people’s lives. Our core values of partnership, agility, and empowerment inspire us, and inclusion is central to our commitments. We aim, wherever possible, to provide a barrier‑free and accessible environment to all employees.

We strive to provide accessibility measures throughout the recruitment process within the limits of our available resources. If you require accommodations, feel free to let us know during our initial conversations. We welcome all candidates! What can you bring to our team?

Why work at National Bank?

For an environment that supports your career path

There are many varied opportunities for you to progress and develop, and move ahead in your career. This includes on‑the‑job learning and training, co‑development and pairing with other employees, professional support and mentoring, internal career days or discussion forums with our leaders.

For an inclusive and diverse environment

We foster inclusion in an environment where each person’s unique qualities, whether visible or invisible, are celebrated and valued. We welcome all candidates! What can you bring to our team?

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