AI Architecture Lead — Design, Cost & Governance

The Citation Group; Cardiff; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Citation seeks an AI Architect to own the AI/Data architecture across the delivery area, reporting to the Chief AI Officer. You will define patterns and guardrails for AI systems, ensuring architectural consistency and risk management across teams.

The role requires hands-on experience with production AI systems, strong governance, and the ability to influence Product, Engineering, Security, and Infrastructure. This is a high-impact, cross-functional leadership position.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in software, data, or platform engineering/architecture with hands-on production AI experience.
• Experience reviewing and governing AI-related architectural decisions.
• Ability to influence across Product, Engineering, Security and Infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain AI architecture standards and patterns.
• Own design patterns for AI systems, including retrieval, grounding, and tool-calling conventions.
• Assess vendor proposals and Statements of Work from an architecture perspective.
• Oversee cost, security, and observability for AI solutions.
• Escalate decisions to the Architecture Review Board when needed.

Skills

AI architecture

Production AI systems

Cross-functional influence

Architecture governance

Job description

Citation seeks an AI Architect to own the AI/Data architecture across the delivery area, reporting to the Chief AI Officer. You will define patterns and guardrails for AI systems, ensuring architectural consistency and risk management across teams.

The role requires hands-on experience with production AI systems, strong governance, and the ability to influence Product, Engineering, Security, and Infrastructure. This is a high-impact, cross-functional leadership position.