Applied AI Architect (Principal/Lead)

Salesforce, Inc.; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 163,000 - 218,000; Full time

Job summary

Salesforce, Inc. is seeking an experienced Enterprise Architect to lead multi-domain architecture efforts for its AI-driven platform.

You will focus on coordinating between Platform Advantage, Emerging Tech, Data & AI Excellence, and Governance & Trust while aligning with customer business needs. The role demands senior stakeholder influence, deep domain expertise, and a track record of delivering architecture that lands in production.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in enterprise or solutions architecture with senior stakeholder impact.
• Experience with AI tooling to build solutions and improve efficiency.
• Deep expertise in at least one focus domain and credibility to speak authoritatively.
• Fluency across Salesforce or relevant adjacent technologies.

Responsibilities

• Lead with the customer business and technical problem across domains.
• Collaborate with pre and post sales teams to align goals.
• Resolve platform-fit ambiguity and map problems to capabilities.
• Direct domain placement and orchestrate domain-specific architecture work.
• Engage through delivery to ensure implementation lands, not just recommendations.
• Maintain clear ownership by routing ambiguous work to the right domain.

Skills

Enterprise architecture

AI tooling

Domain expertise

Salesforce fluency

Delivery continuity

Education

B.S., M.S. or PhD in Computer Science, Software Engineering or MIS

Job description

To get the best candidate experience, please consider applying for a maximum of 3 roles within 12 months to ensure you are not duplicating efforts.

Job Category

Sales

Job Details

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn't a buzzword - it's a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You're in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

About the Role

Our architect team is organized into four domains that together make the platform work for customers: Platform Advantage (why Salesforce, why now), Emerging Tech & UI Innovation (agent execution and dev tooling), Data & AI Excellence (data, semantics, and AI context), and Governance & Trust (identity, security, and audit). This req can land in any of the four, based on where your deepest expertise fits and where the team has the most need at the time of hire. Across all four domains, the DNA is the same: you lead with the customer's business and technical problem, not a product pitch, you're fluent across Salesforce and its alternatives, and you stay engaged through execution so the work actually lands, not just the recommendation.

What You'll Do

Your day-to-day will concentrate in one or two of the following, depending on domain placement:

• Agent Architecture (Platform Advantage / Governance & Trust): orchestration, agent-to-agent interaction, state and memory, guardrails, testing.
• MCP & Capability Architecture (Platform Advantage / Emerging Tech): exposing business capabilities for agents to discover and act on, not just raw objects.
• Data 360 & Semantic Architecture (Data & AI Excellence): unified customer data, semantic layers, and the context AI needs to be useful.
• Headless & Composable Architecture (Platform Advantage / Emerging Tech): APIs, headless experiences, and composable extensions of Salesforce beyond the standard UI.
• AI-Assisted Development (Emerging Tech): coding assistants, reviewing AI-generated work, dev lifecycle and quality practices.
• AI Governance & Security (Governance & Trust): identity and permissions, data access, agent authority, human-in-the-loop controls, audit.

Regardless of domain, you'll also:

• Work collaboratively across multiple pre and post sale teams.
• Align C-suite stakeholders around a shared view of a business problem and map it to a capability someone can act on.
• Help resolve platform-fit ambiguity for customers facing conflicting internal recommendations or a troubled prior rollout.
• Name ambiguity and route it explicitly to the right domain rather than letting unclear work default to whoever's in the room.

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years in enterprise or solutions architecture, with direct experience influencing senior technical and business stakeholders.
• Experience with AI tooling to build solutions, learn new skills, and be more efficient with your job.
• Deep, credible expertise in at least one of the six focus areas above, deep enough to be the final word in a room, not conversational familiarity.
• Fluency across the Salesforce platform or at least one major alternative / adjacent technology relevant to your focus area.
• A track record of staying engaged through delivery, including recovering stalled or politically stuck work.
• B.S., M.S. or PhD in Computer Science, Software Engineering or MIS

Preferred:

• Working knowledge of a second focus area above, enough to know when to hand off rather than overreach.
• Experience untangling a failed or stalled enterprise rollout (data, MDM, platform, or AI) for a customer.
• Strong visual communication skills for architecture storytelling.

Domain Placement

Final domain assignment (Platform Advantage, Emerging Tech & UI Innovation, Data & AI Excellence, or Governance & Trust) is determined during the interview process based on demonstrated depth and current team need, not fixed at the time of posting.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you'll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we'll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love.

Accommodations

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form.

Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates' resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see our Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that's inclusive, and free from discrimination. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications - without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

Compensation and Benefits

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions.The typical base salary range for this position is $148,190 - $198,170 annuallyThere is a different range applicable to specific work locations. In California and New York, and select cities in the metropolitan areas of Boston, Chicago, Seattle, and Washington DC, the base pay range for this role in those locations is $162,960 - $217,980 per year. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.