Principal Architect - AI and Data Platforms

Canadian Tire Corporation; Oakville; On-site; CAD 140,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Store discounts

Profit Sharing

Learning Academy

Job summary

Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited invites applications for a Principal Architect – AI & Data Platforms to lead the Enterprise AI and Emerging Technology team's architectural strategy. You will define end-to-end architecture vision for AI, data platforms, and data governance, guiding large-scale transformations and mentoring teams across business and technology stakeholders.

The role emphasizes platform governance, cloud-based AI/ML solutions, data engineering pipelines, and enterprise-wide

Job description

What you'll do

As a Principal Architect – AI & Data Platforms, you will play a pivotal leadership role within the Enterprise AI and Emerging Technology team, responsible for shaping and executing the organization’s strategy across AI, Data Platforms, and Data Governance (DG). You will define and drive the end-to-end architecture vision, ensuring alignment between business strategy, enterprise architecture standards, and modern platform capabilities. This includes leading the design and implementation of scalable AI and data solutions, establishing governance and standards, and guiding large-scale transformation initiatives. You will work closely with stakeholders across business and technology teams to build future-ready AI and data ecosystems, while leading architectural practices and mentoring teams.

Strategy & Architecture Leadership

• Define and evolve the AI and Data Platform architecture strategy and roadmap, aligned with enterprise business priorities
• Establish future-state architecture vision across AI, data, analytics, and governance domains
• Develop and maintain architecture models, standards, and roadmaps that guide technology investments and delivery
• Lead enterprise-wide solution blueprints covering data platforms, AI pipelines, BI, and governance capabilities

Platform & Technology Leadership

• Design and evolve modern data platforms (e.g., Lakehouse architectures, data engineering pipelines, BI/reporting ecosystems)
• Architect scalable AI/ML systems leveraging cloud platforms such as Azure (preferred), or GCP
• Lead adoption of event-driven, streaming, and integration architectures across enterprise systems
• Evaluate emerging technologies and guide build vs. buy and innovation decisions

Governance, Standards & Compliance

• Enforce AI, data, and architecture governance standards in collaboration with enterprise governance functions
• Ensure solutions align with architecture principles, security standards, and compliance requirements
• Contribute to the evolution of enterprise architecture frameworks, practices, and processes
• Lead architecture reviews and govern solution design through project lifecycle gates

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Partner with business and technology stakeholders to translate requirements into architecture solutions
• Drive cross-functional alignment across data engineers, data scientists, BI teams, and platform teams
• Present architectural strategies and solutions to senior leadership and executive stakeholders
• Advocate for enterprise architecture practices and promote technology standardization and reuse

Leadership & Practice Development

• Lead and mentor architecture team members and contribute to capability growth (including direct reports where applicable)
• Drive continuous improvement in engineering practices, performance optimization, and solution quality
• Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence across AI and data domains

What you bring

• 5–10+ years of experience in enterprise architecture, data platforms, or AI/ML solutions
• Proven experience delivering large-scale, complex solutions across AI and data ecosystems
• Agentic AI experience (Tool Usage, Agentic Orchestration Frameworks, LLMs, Testing and Evaluation, AgentOps)
• GenAI (LLMs, Monitoring, Testing and Evaluation, LLMOps, Observability, RAG)
• Data platforms & lakehouse architectures (e.g., ADLS Gen2, Databricks, Synapse, ETL/ELT, Unity Catalog)
• MLOps technologies (ML, NLP)
• Cloud platforms (Azure preferred; AWS/GCP knowledge beneficial)
• Big data technologies (e.g., Spark, Hadoop)
• DevOps & CI/CD practices, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, etc.)
• Containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Leadership Skills Strong strategic thinking and enterprise architecture leadership capabilities Excellent communication and storytelling skills, with ability to engage executive audiences Ability to operate effectively in complex, evolving environments Collaborative mindset with a focus on value delivery, standardization, and scalability

Education

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (PhD considered an asset)

Benefits & Perks

• Competitive salaries and wages to CTC employees
• Store discounts
• Supported learning through our Triangle Learning Academy
• Canadian Tire Profit Sharing
• Retirement and savings programs for eligible employees
• Mental health benefits in the amount of $5,000 per year for benefits-eligible employees and their families, including total well-being, and mental health tools and resources for all employees

About Us

Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (“CTC”) is one of Canada’s most admired and trusted companies. With more than 90 Owned Brands, over 1,600 retail locations, financial services, exemplary e-commerce capabilities, and exciting market-leading merchandising strategies.

We dream big and work as one to innovate with purpose for our customers at every level of our business, investing in new technologies and products, and doubling down on top talent to drive the company forward.

Join us in helping to make life in Canada better through living and working our Core Values: we are innovators and entrepreneurs at our core, outcomes drive us, inclusion is a must, we are stronger together and we take personal responsibility.

It is an especially exciting time to join CTC and its family of companies where career opportunities are wide-ranging!

Join us, where there's a place for you here.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

We are committed to fostering an environment where belonging thrives, and diversity, inclusion and equity are infused into everything we do.

We believe in building an organizational culture where people are consistently treated with dignity while respecting individual religion, nationality, gender,