AI Application Architect

Procore; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 233,000 - 321,000; Full time

Job summary

Procore seeks an experienced AI Application Architect to lead the design and evolution of its AI-powered product suite. You will shape AI-native applications across agent orchestration, LLM infra, data pipelines, and developer tooling.

You will define scalable architectures, drive secure implementations, and mentor engineers while partnering with product and ML practitioners to translate ambitious AI capabilities into production-grade systems.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering with 5+ years in architect-level roles.
• Hands-on experience shipping production LLM-powered apps.
• Experience building SaaS/enterprise platforms.
• Strong frontend (React, TS/Node) with Python API design.
• Knowledge of RBAC/ABAC, audit logging, multi-tenant governance.
• Security-minded with cost governance for AI systems.
• Cloud-native infra (Kubernetes, Helm) experience.

Responsibilities

• Define architecture for AI-native apps with agentic systems and LLM integration.
• Lead infrastructure decisions for scalable AI workloads and data pipelines.
• Govern the integration layer between LLMs and backend services.
• Lead LLMOps and observability strategies with tracing and evaluation.
• Establish security posture and compliance for AI systems.
• Collaborate with product/research on new AI capabilities adoption.
• Champion engineering standards, API design, and ADRs.
• Mentor senior engineers and foster AI platform communities.

Skills

AI architecture

LLM-powered apps

Full-stack leadership

React/TypeScript/Node.js

Python API design

Kubernetes & cloud

Security & compliance

Observability & ADRs

Production LLM delivery

Job description

We are looking for an experienced AI Application Architect to lead the technical design and evolution of our AI-powered product suite. You will be the technical authority on how we build, scale, and secure AI-native applications — spanning agent orchestration, LLM infrastructure, data pipelines, and developer tooling. You'll work closely with engineering leads, product managers, and ML practitioners to translate ambitious AI capabilities into robust, production-grade systems.

What You’ll Do:

• Define architecture for AI-native applications including agentic systems, RAG pipelines, multi-model inference layers, and human-in-the-loop workflows

• Drive infrastructure decisions for scalable AI workloads: vector databases (Turbopuffer, pgvector, Milvus), workflow orchestration (Temporal, Airflow), and async compute patterns

• Design and govern the integration layer between LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, open-source) and backend services, including prompt management, context window optimization, and cost governance

• Lead LLMOps and observability strategy — tracing (OpenTelemetry), evaluation pipelines, prompt versioning, drift detection, and integration with platforms like Langfuse or Arize

• Establish security and compliance posture for AI systems — SSRF/injection hardening, LLM guardrails, data residency, and supply chain security for model artifacts and dependencies

• Partner with product and research to evaluate emerging AI capabilities and determine when/how to adopt them (e.g., reasoning models, multimodal, fine-tuning, RLHF)

• Champion engineering standards — API design, schema governance, testing strategies, and architecture decision records (ADRs)

• Mentor senior engineers and establish guild-level technical communities around AI platform topics

What We’re Looking For:

• 10+ years of software engineering with 5+ years in a principal/staff or architect-level role

• Hands-on experience designing and shipping production LLM-powered applications (not just prototypes)

• Experience shipping complex, user-facing application platforms — particularly in SaaS, productivity tools, or enterprise software.

• Demonstrated ability to lead full-stack teams building rich web application experiences (React, TypeScript/Node.js, modern frontend architectures) with strong backend (Python) and API design sensibility

• Deep understanding of enterprise requirements: User Management, RBAC/ABAC permission models, audit logging, compliance frameworks, multi-tenant governance, and admin tooling.

• Experience building contextual or adaptive UX — applications that respond to user state, workflow context, or personalization signals.

• Strong grasp of cloud-native architecture (Kubernetes, Helm, container security, CI/CD) on AWS, GCP, or Azure

• Solid understanding of API security: OAuth2, CSRF, rate limiting, secrets management, and zero-trust principles applied to AI endpoints

Preferred Experience:

• Experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol) or comparable tool-calling/plugin infrastructure

• Familiarity with workflow orchestration engines (Temporal, Prefect) for long-running AI tasks

• Exposure to LLM evaluation frameworks (automated judging, red-teaming, regression suites)

• Background in developer-facing products or internal AI platforms / AI coding tooling

• Understanding of supply chain security for ML models (artifact signing, registry enforcement, SBOM)

• Contributions to open-source AI tooling or published architectural writing

Additional Information

Base Pay Range: 233,360.00 - 320,870.00 USD Annual

This role may also be eligible for Equity Compensation and/or Bonus Incentive Compensation. Procore is committed to offering competitive, fair, and commensurate compensation. Actual compensation will be based on a candidate’s job-related skills, experience, education or training, and location.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:

Procore will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable federal, state, and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act.

A criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment: 1. appropriately managing, accessing, and handling confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information, as well as accessing Procore's information technology systems and platforms; 2. interacting with and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external customers, stakeholders, and/or colleagues; and 3. exercising sound judgment.