Application Architect (AI & Cloud) - Flex

United Parcel Service Sweden Aktiebolag; New Jersey; On-site; USD 190,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

UPS in New Jersey is seeking an experienced Application Architect to lead end-to-end architecture and modernization of enterprise applications with Generative AI, agentic AI, and cloud-native technologies. You will define scalable patterns and oversee AI, API, and data integration across complex systems.

The role requires hands-on experience with LangGraph, LangChain, GCP, RAG, and observability frameworks, plus strong security and deployment discipline.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 12+ years of experience designing and delivering enterprise applications, including significant architecture work.
• Experience with distributed systems, APIs, microservices, event-driven architecture, and enterprise integration patterns.
• Hands-on experience designing AI-powered solutions using Generative AI, LLMs, agentic AI, RAG, and tool-calling architectures.
• Experience with LangGraph and/or equivalent agent orchestration frameworks, including stateful workflows and multi-agent patterns.
• Experience architecting cloud-native solutions on GCP.
• Strong experience integrating applications with enterprise APIs, transactional systems, and legacy platforms.
• Experience with enterprise security patterns including identity, authentication, authorization, service identity, and secrets management.
• Experience with production observability, distributed tracing, resiliency, and operational readiness.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end application architecture across frontend, backend, AI/agent layers, orchestration, integrations, data, and cloud services.
• Define scalable, reusable architecture patterns supporting multiple business capabilities and workflows.
• Determine appropriate use of deterministic workflows, APIs, rules, AI agents, and hybrid approaches.
• Architect stateful and long-running workflows including session management, retries, idempotency, and recovery patterns.
• Design agentic solutions using LangGraph, LangChain, RAG, APIs, MCP, and other orchestration patterns.
• Define secure multi-persona architectures with authentication, authorization, entitlements, and service identities.
• Architect integrations with enterprise APIs, legacy systems, SaaS platforms, and data services via REST, gateways, MCP, and messaging.
• Define data, semantic retrieval, vector search, and knowledge architecture using relational/graph/vector tech.
• Specify non-functional requirements for scalability, availability, performance, resiliency, security, and cost efficiency.
• Guide CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, containerization, DevSecOps, and production deployment patterns.

Skills

Enterprise architecture

Distributed systems

APIs & microservices

AI/agentic AI design

Cloud platforms

Education

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

Tools

GCP

LangGraph

LangChain

Vertex AI

Job description

Explore your next opportunity at a Fortune Global 500 organization. Envision innovative possibilities, experience our rewarding culture, and work with talented teams that help you become better every day. We know what it takes to lead UPS into tomorrow-people with a unique combination of skill + passion. If you have the qualities and drive to lead yourself or teams, there are roles ready to cultivate your skills and take you to the next level.

Job Description

We are seeking a highly skilled Application Architect to lead the end-to-end architecture and modernization of enterprise applications incorporating Generative AI, agentic AI, cloud-native technologies, and enterprise systems . The ideal candidate combines strong enterprise application architecture fundamentals with hands‑on experience designing AI-powered solutions using technologies such as LangGraph, LangChain, GCP, RAG, MCP, and modern observability frameworks . This role requires the ability to determine where AI adds value and where deterministic workflows, APIs, rules, and traditional application patterns provide the better solution.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end application architecture across frontend, backend, AI/agent layers, orchestration, integrations, data, and cloud services.
• Define scalable, reusable architecture patterns supporting multiple business capabilities, personas, and workflows.
• Determine appropriate use of deterministic workflows, APIs, rules, AI agents, and hybrid approaches based on reliability, performance, explainability, cost, and maintainability.
• Architect stateful and long-running workflows , including session and context management, checkpoints, retries, idempotency, human-in-the-loop interactions, and recovery patterns.
• Design agentic solutions using LangGraph, LangChain, RAG, APIs, MCP, and other orchestration patterns .
• Define secure multi-persona architectures with appropriate authentication, authorization, entitlements, data‑access boundaries, and service identities.
• Architect integrations with enterprise APIs, transactional and legacy systems, SaaS platforms, and data services using REST APIs, Apigee/API gateways, MCP, messaging, and event‑driven patterns .
• Define application data, semantic retrieval, vector search, and knowledge architecture patterns using appropriate relational, graph, vector, and search technologies.
• Define non‑functional requirements for scalability, availability, performance, resiliency, security, maintainability, recoverability, and cost efficiency .
• Design cloud‑native architectures on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) using services such as Vertex AI, GKE, Cloud Run, AlloyDB, BigQuery, Pub/Sub, and Eventarc.
• Establish architecture patterns for AI observability, distributed tracing, evaluation, monitoring, Responsible AI, and operational readiness .
• Define reference architectures, engineering standards, architecture decision records (ADRs), and reusable patterns, and guide engineering teams through implementation.
• Evaluate architecture alternatives through prototypes and proof-of‑concepts and clearly communicate technical trade‑offs to engineering, product, security, platform, and business stakeholders.
• Guide CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, containerization, DevSecOps, and production deployment patterns .

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 12+ years of experience designing and delivering enterprise applications, including significant experience in Application or Solution Architecture.
• Strong experience with distributed systems, APIs, microservices, event‑driven architecture, data persistence, state management, and enterprise integration patterns .
• Hands‑on experience designing solutions using Generative AI, LLMs, agentic AI, RAG, and tool‑calling architectures .
• Experience with LangGraph and/or equivalent agent orchestration frameworks , including stateful workflow and multi‑agent patterns.
• Experience architecting cloud‑native solutions on GCP .
• Strong experience integrating applications with enterprise APIs, transactional systems, and legacy platforms.
• Experience with enterprise security patterns including identity, authentication, authorization, service identity, secrets management, and least privilege.
• Experience with production observability, distributed tracing, resiliency, performance engineering, and operational readiness.
• Ability to develop prototypes and reference implementations to validate architectural decisions.
• Strong communication and stakeholder‑management skills with the ability to translate complex business requirements into scalable technical solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Experience with MCP, LangFuse, OpenTelemetry, Vertex AI, Gemini, OpenAI, or Anthropic ecosystems.

Ex