Senior AI Architecture Lead | Data, Cost & Security

The Citation Group; Newcastle upon Tyne; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

The Citation Group is seeking an AI Architect to lead architectural decisions across AI, data and platform delivery, reporting to the Chief AI Officer. You will shape patterns, governance and cost-aware design across products and systems.

In this senior role, you will own design standards, supervise AI/data architecture work, influence without headcount, and ensure production AI initiatives meet security, observability and compliance requirements while balancing risk and value.

Qualifications

• Senior level with 6+ years in software, data, or platform engineering/architecture.
• Hands-on experience with production AI systems, not just pilots.
• Ability to influence across Product, Engineering, Security, Infrastructure and Business without direct reports.

Responsibilities

• Architectural standards and patterns ownership across AI systems including retrieval/grounding, agent orchestration, prompt design and guardrails.
• Own the AI-specific application of architecture standards and escalate decisions to Architecture Review Board.
• Define and enforce a decision framework for model selection, data readiness, cost governance and security.
• Provide production quality, observability, and incident response guidance for AI deployments.
• Oversee third-party delivery with architectural reviews of Statements of Work and design choices.

Job description

The Citation Group is seeking an AI Architect to lead architectural decisions across AI, data and platform delivery, reporting to the Chief AI Officer. You will shape patterns, governance and cost-aware design across products and systems.

In this senior role, you will own design standards, supervise AI/data architecture work, influence without headcount, and ensure production AI initiatives meet security, observability and compliance requirements while balancing risk and value.