AI Architect

Alpha Associates Recruitment; Illinois; On-site; USD 180,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Alpha Associates Recruitment collaborates with a Chicago-based company seeking a Principal AI Architect to own the end-to-end architecture of its enterprise AI platform and to set the technical standard for building, deploying and governing AI at scale.

This is a hands-on architecture role spanning ML, deep learning, computer vision, LLMs and agentic AI, with travel to customer sites across the US and onsite presence in Chicago.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in software engineering / enterprise architecture.
• 5+ years architecting and deploying production AI/ML systems at enterprise scale.
• Strong depth across ML/DL, computer vision, LLMs and agentic AI.
• Proven enterprise cloud experience across AWS, Azure or GCP.
• Strong Python and modern AI/ML ecosystem experience.
• Experience with PyTorch/TensorFlow, Hugging Face, Kubernetes, vector databases and AI orchestration frameworks.
• Strong understanding of AI security, governance and Responsible AI.
• Excellent communication skills, from hands-on engineering through to executive level.

Responsibilities

• Own enterprise AI platform architecture, reference architectures and technical standards.
• Design and build production AI systems across ML, CV, GenAI and LLMs.
• Architect RAG, agentic and multi-agent systems.
• Work with LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel and modern foundation models.
• Establish MLOps/LLMOps, CI/CD, observability, evaluation and monitoring.
• Embed security, Responsible AI and governance into production systems.
• Partner with senior engineering, security, data and business leaders.
• Travel regularly to customer sites across the US.

Skills

Enterprise architecture

AI/ML systems

Python

Cloud platforms

Communication skills

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Hugging Face

Kubernetes

LangChain

LangGraph

Semantic Kernel

Vector databases

Job description

Chicago | 5 days onsite | 50-60% US travel

I’m working with a company looking for a Principal AI Architect to own the end-to-end architecture of its enterprise AI platform and set the technical standard for how AI is built, deployed and governed at scale.

This is a genuinely hands-on architecture role, spanning ML, deep learning, computer vision, LLMs and agentic AI.

What you’ll be doing:

• Own enterprise AI platform architecture, reference architectures and technical standards
• Design and build production AI systems across ML, CV, GenAI and LLMs
• Architect RAG, agentic and multi-agent systems
• Work with LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel and modern foundation models
• Establish MLOps/LLMOps, CI/CD, observability, evaluation and monitoring
• Embed security, Responsible AI and governance into production systems
• Partner with senior engineering, security, data and business leaders
• Travel regularly to customer sites across the US

What we’re looking for:

• 10+ years in software engineering / enterprise architecture
• 5+ years architecting and deploying production AI/ML systems at enterprise scale
• Strong depth across ML/DL, computer vision, LLMs and agentic AI
• Proven enterprise cloud experience across AWS, Azure or GCP
• Strong Python and modern AI/ML ecosystem experience
• Experience with PyTorch/TensorFlow, Hugging Face, Kubernetes, vector databases and AI orchestration frameworks
• Strong understanding of AI security, governance and Responsible AI
• Excellent communication skills, from hands-on engineering through to executive level

This is a high-impact opportunity for someone who wants to set the technical direction of enterprise AI rather than simply contribute to it.