Associate Director, AI Solution Architecture

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 215,000 - 263,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Variable pay

Benefits package

Job summary

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is seeking an Associate Director, AI Solution Architecture in Boston. Lead the Enterprise AI and Solution Architecture group to translate AI strategy into coherent, production-grade architectures across business lines and geographies.

You will bridge business needs to scalable AI solutions, partnering with AI engineering and delivery teams to drive adoption of intelligent assistants and agentic workflows across the enterprise.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Data Science, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• 8+ years software engineering or solution architecture experience, 3+ years in AI/ML/LLM agentic solutions.
• 3+ years leading teams of technical architects or systems designers.
• Hands-on experience with GCP services: Vertex AI Agent Builder, Vertex AI Search, BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Cloud Run.
• Proven expertise in LLM-based architectures, RAG, embeddings, multi-agent frameworks.
• Strong API design, microservices, cloud-native patterns, and enterprise integration.
• Knowledge of MLOps practices to monitor LLM quality, latency, cost in production.
• Ability to translate complex problems into structured technical architectures and present to diverse audiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a high-performing team of AI solution architects.
• Translate enterprise AI strategy into scalable architecture blueprints.
• Oversee AI agent design including model selection, prompt orchestration, RAG, and agent orchestration.
• Design multi-agent patterns for sequential, loop, parallel, and hierarchical workflows.
• Architect secure, scalable tool-use patterns and enterprise integrations to APIs and databases.
• Embed Responsible AI, governance, privacy, and ethics into designs.
• Ensure production-grade, reliable deployments through collaboration with engineering leads.
• Communicate architecture decisions effectively to non-technical stakeholders.

Skills

Team leadership

Mentorship

Solution design

Architectural leadership

Communication

API design

MLOps

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in CS/ML/DS

High school diploma (minimum education)

Tools

Vertex AI Agent Builder

Vertex AI Search

BigQuery

Cloud Storage

Cloud Run

LLM architectures

Job description

Ready to help us transform healthcare? Bring your true colors to blue.

This role has an in office expectation of 2X a week in our Boston location. We are in the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

We are looking for an Associate Director, AI Solution Architecture to lead our Enterprise AI and Solution Architecture group. In this leadership role, you will translate enterprise AI strategy into coherent, governed, and production-viable solution architectures that span business lines, platforms, and geographies.

This role does not build the core platform or own feature delivery; rather, you will define how AI capabilities are assembled into complete, end-to-end business solutions. Operating as a critical technical peer to the AI engineering and delivery function, you will bridge the gap between complex business needs and scalable architecture to drive the adoption of intelligent AI assistants and agentic workflows across the enterprise.

What You’ll Do

• Team Leadership & Mentorship: Lead, mentor, and manage a high-performing team of AI solution architects, providing technical guidance, architectural oversight, and career development.
• Solution Design & Engineering Partnership: Partner with the AI Engineering team to conduct business needs assessments and identify high-impact agentic use cases. Translate complex business requirements into robust, scalable technical blueprints that enable production-grade engineering delivery.
• Architect Agentic Solutions: Oversee the architectural design of AI assistants, establishing enterprise best practices for model selection, prompt orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agent orchestration.
• Multi-Agent Orchestration: Guide the design of intelligent, multi-step AI agents, defining patterns for sequential, loop, parallel, and hierarchical architectures to handle multi-turn, multi-domain use cases.
• System Integration: Architect secure, scalable tool‑use and function‑calling patterns, ensuring AI agents connect seamlessly to enterprise APIs, databases, and third‑party systems.
• Responsible AI & Governance: Partner with AI Governance to structurally embed ethical considerations, fairness, transparency, hallucination mitigation, and strict data privacy into all AI solutions.
• Production Scalability: Design highly available, production‑grade solutions, collaborating closely with engineering leads to ensure architectural concepts translate into reliable, high‑performance deployments.
• Communication: Serve as the primary architectural liaison, effectively articulating the value, mechanics, and design of agentic AI solutions to non‑technical business leaders and executive stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Data Science, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Experience: 8+ years in software engineering or solution architecture, with 3+ years specifically focused on designing large-scale AI/ML or LLM-based agentic solutions.
• Leadership: 3+ years of experience directly managing and leading teams of technical architects or systems designers.
• Cloud Expertise: Hands‑on architectural experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services, including Vertex AI Agent Builder, Vertex AI Search, BigQuery, Cloud Storage, and Cloud Run.
• AI Architecture: Proven expertise in designing solution architectures leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs), including RAG, embeddings, complex function calling, and multi‑agent frameworks.
• Integration & Systems: Strong command of API design, microservices, cloud‑native development patterns, and integrating AI capabilities into existing enterprise product ecosystems.
• MLOps Foundations: Solid knowledge of MLOps practices, including designing frameworks to measure and monitor LLM quality, latency, and cost in production.
• Communication: Exceptional ability to translate ambiguous business problems into structured technical architectures and present them clearly to diverse audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certifications: Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect or Professional Machine Learning Engineer.
• Advanced AI Orchestration: Deep exposure to designing architecture for autonomous tool‑use patterns and frameworks such as Google ADK, LangChain, or LlamaIndex.
• Data Retrieval: Experience integrating and scaling enterprise vector databases (e.g., Vertex AI Vector Search, AlloyDB, Pinecone) for high‑performance, embedding‑based retrieval.
• Regulated Industries: Experience working in healthcare, insurance, or finance, with a strong understanding of data privacy frameworks (e.g., HIPAA) and compliance requirements in solution design.

Minimum Education Requirements

High school degree or equivalent required unless otherwise noted above

Location

Boston

Time Type

Full time

Salary Range

$215,010.00 - $262,790.00

This job is also eligible for variable pay.

We offer comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance, 401(k), and a suite of well‑being benefits to eligible employees.

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, or any other form of compensation that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company’s sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole discretion, consistent with the law.

WHY Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA?

We understand that the confidence gap and imposter syndrome can prevent amazing candidates coming our way.

The more voices we have represented and amplified in our business, the more we will all thrive, contribute, and be brilliant.

We encourage you to bring us your true colors, your perspectives, and your experiences. It’s in our differences that we will remain relentless in our pursuit to transform healthcare for ALL.

At Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, we believe in wellness and that work/life balance is a key part of associate wellbeing.