AI Architect - SC Cleared

Initialize IT; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Initialize IT is seeking an AI Architect for a London-based hybrid delivery on a Government project. You will lead enterprise AI architecture across frontier models, RAG, agent frameworks, and multi-modal solutions, collaborating with clients and senior stakeholders.

Your remit includes governance, bias and data privacy, MLOps, platform design, and guiding a team of AI engineers and architects. Face-to-face with CxOs, you’ll shape roadmaps and ensure production readiness and scalable delivery.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in software engineering, data engineering, or solution architecture, incl. 3-5 years in applied AI/ML
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Responsibilities

• Architect enterprise AI solutions across frontier models and multi-modal use cases
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Skills

10+ years in software engineering, 3-5

Frontier LLMs & multi-modal models

LLMOps/MLOps

Experience with Anthropic Claude / GPT

AI governance & regulatory frameworks

Technical leadership & mentoring

Client-facing consulting & pre-sales

API design & cloud-native architecture

Computer Science/Engineering degree

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

LangGraph

AutoGen

CrewAI

Model Context Protocol

Azure OpenAI Service

AWS Bedrock

Google Vertex AI

Anthropic Claude

OpenAI

Google Gemini

Job description

AI Architect - SC cleared - London/Hybrid - £682 - 6-12 months - Government project

Key Responsibilities

• Architect enterprise-grade AI solutions using frontier foundation models (eg Claude, GPT, Gemini family) across use cases including agentic automation, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), copilots, and multi-modal applications
• Lead technical solutioning during pre-sales and discovery, translating client business challenges into scalable AI architecture and delivery roadmaps
• Design and govern the AI platform architecture: model orchestration, prompt and context management, retrieval pipelines, vector stores, agent frameworks, and tool/context integration (including emerging protocols such as MCP)
• Define and enforce responsible AI, governance, and assurance frameworks - covering bias, safety, data privacy, and model risk - aligned to client and regulatory requirements
• Lead and mentor a team of AI engineers and architects, building technical capability and clear career pathways within the practice
• Own technical relationships with hyperscaler and frontier model partners (Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Anthropic, OpenAI) to stay ahead of platform capability
• Drive reusable accelerators, frameworks, and IP that can be repeated and scaled across client engagements
• Act as a trusted advisor to client CxOs and senior stakeholders on AI strategy, architecture, and roadmap
• Own end-to-end delivery quality: architecture reviews, technical governance boards, production readiness, and post-go-live scaling
• Contribute to thought leadership - whitepapers, conference contributions, and internal capability-building

Required Skills & Experience

• 10+ years in software engineering, data engineering, or solution architecture, including at least 3-5 years focused specifically on applied AI/ML or generative AI
• Proven, hands-on architecture experience with frontier large language models and multi-modal models - including prompt engineering, fine-tuning, RAG, and agentic/multi-agent system design
• Strong grounding in LLMOps/MLOps: evaluation frameworks, observability, cost and latency optimisation, guardrails, and safe deployment at enterprise scale
• Direct experience with major frontier model providers (Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, Google Gemini, or equivalent) and cloud AI ecosystems (Azure AI/OpenAI Service, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI)
• Solid understanding of AI governance, responsible AI, and emerging regulatory frameworks (eg EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, or regional equivalents)
• Demonstrated technical leadership - leading architecture teams, chairing design/technical governance authorities, mentoring senior engineers
• Client-facing consulting experience: solutioning, pre-sales support, and stakeholder management at senior client level
• Strong software engineering fundamentals: API design, cloud-native architecture, microservices, and data pipeline/data engineering experience
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience; an advanced degree is a plus

Preferred/Desirable Skills

• Experience with agent orchestration frameworks (eg LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI) and emerging tool-integration protocols (eg Model Context Protocol)
• Public sector or other regulated-industry delivery experience (financial services, healthcare, government)
• Relevant certifications (eg Azure AI Engineer Associate, AWS Certified Machine Learning, Google Professional ML Engineer)
• Experience building or scaling an AI Centre of Excellence or comparable practice capability within a consulting organisation
• Published thought leadership, patents, or conference speaking in AI/ML