Director of Projects - Engagement Delivery Lead

Cognizant; Folsom (CA); Hybrid; USD 260,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognizant in the United States seeks a Chief Architect for enterprise AI solutions in a hybrid work model to guide strategic design and integration of generative AI and ML across complex platforms.

You will translate analytical requirements into scalable architectures, oversee governance, and mentor teams to deliver measurable customer value while maintaining ethical AI practices.

Qualifications

• 20+ years of experience designing large-scale enterprise architectures.
• Hands-on generative AI experience including model architectures and deployment strategies.
• Deep understanding of AI/ML foundations and data preparation for complex datasets.
• Practical knowledge of AI platforms for experimentation, lifecycle management and monitoring.
• Experience collaborating with data scientists, software engineers, product owners and risk partners.
• Familiarity with responsible AI principles including fairness, transparency, and privacy.
• Comfortable working in a hybrid model and day shift with distributed teams.
• Experience in multinational organizations with regulatory considerations.

Responsibilities

• Define enterprise-wide AI architecture embedding generative AI and ML into core platforms.
• Create AI solution blueprints detailing data flows, model lifecycles, and integration patterns.
• Oversee governance standards, design principles, and review processes for AI systems.
• Guide model selection, training, deployment, and optimization.
• Coordinate with data science, engineering, security, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into practical architectures.
• Develop reference architectures for AI workloads including orchestration, feature stores, and monitoring.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and provide architectural recommendations balancing innovation and readiness.
• Define non-functional requirements such as scalability, latency, reliability, observability, and regulatory alignment.
• Collaborate on data pipelines and model serving infrastructure for robust training and inference workflows.
• Support documentation of architectural decisions and operational guidelines.
• Champion reuse and cross-functional collaboration to improve customer experiences and business outcomes.
• Review complex AI implementations and provide feedback addressing security and resilience.
• Influence roadmaps for scaling AI capabilities across markets with responsibility.

Skills

Enterprise AI architecture

Generative AI expertise

Cross-functional leadership

Hybrid work coordination

Cloud deployment

Tools

Model orchestration

Data pipelines

Observability & monitoring

Job description

Job Summary

Serve as Chief Architect for enterprise grade artificial intelligence solutions in a hybrid work model guiding the strategic design and integration of generative AI and machine learning capabilities across complex business platforms. Apply deep expertise in AI and ML concepts to create scalable architectures that optimize performance reliability and ethical AI usage while aligning technology outcomes with long term organizational goals and measurable value for customers and communities.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end to end definition of enterprise wide artificial intelligence architecture that embeds generative AI and machine learning capabilities into core business platforms to deliver resilient and scalable solutions that advance strategic objectives and societal impact.

• Drive the creation of comprehensive AI solution blueprints that detail data flows model lifecycles inference services and integration patterns enabling product and engineering teams to implement consistent and reusable components across hybrid work environments.

• Oversee architectural governance for AI and ML systems by defining standards design principles and review processes that ensure technical robustness operational efficiency and ethical alignment with responsible artificial intelligence practices.

• Provide expert guidance on generative AI model selection training deployment and optimization ensuring that architectures support secure data handling controlled experimentation and transparent evaluation of model performance and bias.

• Coordinate closely with data science engineering security and business stakeholders to translate complex analytical requirements into practical AI architectures that can be maintained monitored and evolved within day shift operational constraints.

• Develop reference architectures and patterns for artificial intelligence workloads including model orchestration feature stores experiment tracking and monitoring so that teams can accelerate delivery while managing technical debt and long term maintainability.

• Evaluate emerging technologies frameworks and platforms in the AI and ML ecosystem and produce objective architectural recommendations that balance innovation risk cost and operational readiness for large multinational environments with no travel expectations.

• Guide the definition of non functional requirements for AI systems such as scalability latency reliability observability and compliance ensuring that generative AI solutions integrate smoothly with existing enterprise applications and data platforms.

• Collaborate on the design of data pipelines and model serving infrastructure that support robust training validation and inference workflows leveraging hybrid access patterns while maintaining data privacy and regulatory adherence.

• Support teams in documenting architectural decisions design rationales and operational guidelines so that AI platforms remain understandable auditable and adaptable for future enhancements and cross functional collaboration.

• Champion effective use of AI and ML concepts by mentoring teams on architecture best practices and by shaping reusable components that help products deliver measurable improvements in customer experiences and business outcomes.

• Review complex AI solution implementations and provide constructive architectural feedback that addresses security resilience performance and sustainability concerns without introducing unnecessary complexity or travel dependencies.

• Influence organizational roadmaps by articulating how generative AI and artificial intelligence capabilities can be responsibly scaled across markets thereby improving operational efficiency product personalization and social value through thoughtful technology choices.

Qualifications

• Bring extensive experience of at least twenty years in designing large scale enterprise architectures with a strong focus on applying artificial intelligence and machine learning concepts to real world business problems.

• Demonstrate advanced hands on expertise in generative AI including model architectures prompting techniques fine tuning approaches and deployment strategies across cloud native or on premises environments.

• Show deep understanding of core AI and ML foundations such as supervised and unsupervised learning model evaluation optimization techniques and data preparation practices relevant to complex organizational datasets.

• Apply practical knowledge of artificial intelligence platforms and tools used for experimentation model lifecycle management and monitoring while ensuring solutions remain secure robust and aligned with governance expectations.

• Exhibit strong experience collaborating with multidisciplinary teams including data scientists software engineers product owners and risk partners to turn conceptual AI initiatives into sustainable architectures and operational solutions.

• Possess familiarity with responsible AI principles including fairness transparency explainability and privacy and be able to embed these practices directly into architectural standards and design patterns.

• Demonstrate comfort working in a hybrid model and day shift context using modern collaboration tools and documentation practices to maintain architectural consistency and clear communication across distributed teams.

• Prefer experience with large multinational organizations where complex regulatory landscapes data residency considerations and high reliability expectations shape the overall design of AI platforms and solutions.

Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.