Application Architect - AI Integration

IBM; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Consulting is seeking an experienced Application Architect for AI Integration in Philadelphia. You will design end-to-end architectures that embed AI into enterprise applications and workflows, collaborating with stakeholders to balance vendor services and custom development while governing AI governance and lifecycle management.

You will lead architecture decisions, define scalable reference patterns, and ensure performance, security, and cost objectives are met in a complex, regulated

Qualifications

• 12+ years of enterprise application architecture experience
• Led cross-domain target-state design in a lead or principal role
• Proven expertise in microservices, event-driven architectures, and API-first design
• Experience with AWS cloud services including EKS, RDS/Aurora, API Gateway, Lambda, SQS/SNS, MSK, and AI/ML services
• Strong governance and cost, performance, security considerations

Responsibilities

• Design end-to-end architectures embedding AI into enterprise applications and workflows
• Translate business objectives into scalable, policy-compliant designs
• Govern AI integration including prompts, guardrails, and lifecycle management
• Collaborate with stakeholders and mentor engineers across teams

Skills

Enterprise Architecture

Microservices

API-first Design

Kafka / Event-driven

AWS

AI/ML Services

Data Architecture

Regulatory Compliance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

LangChain

LlamaIndex

SageMaker

Job description

Introduction A career in IBM Consulting is built on long-term client relationships and close collaboration worldwide. You’ll work with leading companies across industries, helping them shape their hybrid cloud and AI journeys. With support from our strategic partners, robust IBM technology, and Red Hat, you’ll have the tools to drive meaningful change and accelerate client impact. At IBM Consulting, curiosity fuels success. You’ll be encouraged to challenge the norm, explore new ideas, and create innovative solutions that deliver real results. Our culture of growth and empathy focuses on your long-term career development while valuing your unique skills and experiences.

Introduction A career in IBM Consulting is built on long-term client relationships and close collaboration worldwide. You’ll work with leading companies across industries, helping them shape their hybrid cloud and AI journeys. With support from our strategic partners, robust IBM technology, and Red Hat, you’ll have the tools to drive meaningful change and accelerate client impact. At IBM Consulting, curiosity fuels success. You’ll be encouraged to challenge the norm, explore new ideas, and create innovative solutions that deliver real results. Our culture of growth and empathy focuses on your long-term career development while valuing your unique skills and experiences.

Your Role And Responsibilities

As an Application Architect for AI Integration, this role is responsible for designing and governing end-to-end architectures that embed AI capabilities into enterprise applications and workflows. The Application Architect collaborates with stakeholders to translate business objectives into scalable designs, balancing vendor‑managed services with custom development, and drives governance for AI integration.

Your Primary Responsibilities Will Include

• Designing Architectures: defining reference patterns for AI services, models, and orchestration layers to integrate seamlessly with existing systems, APIs, and data platforms.
• Collaborating with Stakeholders: translating business objectives into scalable, resilient, and policy‑compliant designs, ensuring performance, security, compliance, and cost objectives are met.
• Governing AI Integration: driving governance for prompts, guardrails, and lifecycle management, ensuring observability, privacy, and responsible AI principles are embedded from design through operations.

Required Technical And Professional Expertise

Core Architecture

• 12+ years of enterprise application architecture experience, with at least 3 years in a lead or principal architect role owning cross-domain target‑state design
• Proven experience defining microservices, event‑driven (Kafka/SQS/EventBridge), and API-first architectures at scale — including versioning, lifecycle governance, and breaking-change management
• AWS cloud architecture (Solutions Architect Professional or equivalent depth) — EKS, RDS/Aurora, API Gateway, Lambda, SQS/SNS, MSK, and AI/ML services (Bedrock, SageMaker)
• Data architecture experience — OLTP/OLAP separation, CDC patterns, data domain ownership, master data management, and real-time vs. batch pipeline design

AI & Agentic Architecture

• Hands‑on architecture experience designing systems that embed AI capabilities — RAG pipelines, LLM orchestration (LangChain, LlamaIndex, or equivalent), and agentic workflow patterns
• Experience integrating AI/ML models into production enterprise systems — not just proof‑of‑concept — including model serving, prompt governance, output guardrails, and cost/latency management
• Familiarity with AI governance frameworks — responsible AI principles, explainability requirements, audit trails for AI-assisted decisions — particularly in regulated industries
• Experience evaluating and selecting AI services (managed APIs vs. self-hosted models) based on data privacy, compliance, and total cost of ownership constraints

Domain & Regulatory

• Financial services or insurance domain experience — understanding of policy lifecycle, commission structures, agent licensing, or carrier integration is strongly preferred
• Experience designing systems that operate under regulatory frameworks — FINRA, FSRA, SOC 2, GLBA, CCPA, or equivalent — with audit logging, data retention, and access control as first-class architecture concerns

Technical Leadership

• Demonstrated ability to drive architecture decisions through ambiguity — producing clear documentation, facilitating design reviews, and building consensus across engineering and business stakeholders
• Experience working in Agile/scaled delivery environments — integrating architecture practice into sprint cadence without becoming a bottleneck
• Track record of mentoring senior engineers and establishing architecture standards that teams adopt and maintain

Preferred Technical And Professional Experience

• Experience with agent/broker distribution platforms, MLM commission hierarchies, or multi-carrier insurance marketplaces
• Familiarity with ACORD standards, NIPR/Sircon integrations, or DTCC financial messaging
• Experience with Valkey/Redis, Kafka, or distributed caching architecture in high-availability Kubernetes environments
• Prior experience in a consultancy or systems integrator context — ability to operate as a trusted advisor alongside a client engineering team