Enterprise AI & Data Architecture Lead

Global Payments; Cincinnati (OH); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Global Payments seeks an architecture leader who has designed AI and data systems at enterprise scale. You will own the AI and data architecture, set target states, and partner with engineering to deliver systems that power analytics, merchant solutions, and risk controls across the business.

Reporting to the Head of Data Strategy, Products & AI Architecture, you will lead a team of data and AI architects and drive governance, security, and scalability across cloud platforms.

Qualifications

• Proven track record architecting ML and AI solutions that run in production and deliver measurable business results.
• Hands-on understanding of generative AI patterns such as retrieval, LLM gateways and agents, and how to control them in production.
• Thought leadership in AI and data, with a record of spotting shifts early and turning them into action.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain architecture choices plainly to executives, business leaders and technical teams.
• Deep data architecture experience at enterprise scale: lakehouse or cloud warehouse, streaming and real‑time data, data modeling, master data, metadata and semantic layers, with deep experience in at least one major cloud (AWS, Google Cloud or Azure).
• Experience leading and developing architects, and getting standards and designs adopted by teams you don't manage.
• 10+ years of experience in data and technology architecture, including recent AI architecture experience.

Responsibilities

• Own the target-state AI and data architecture and the path to get there, aligned to the enterprise Target Architecture Model.
• Define the reference architecture for ML, generative AI and agents, including lifecycle, retrieval, and integration with data and tools.
• Design levels of autonomy, approvals and kill switches for AI agents linked to model risk management.
• Set standards so data domains and semantic layers are AI-ready for models and agents to use.
• Design enterprise data domains that unify data across heritage businesses, acquisitions and cloud platforms.
• Set standards for data layers and data products to enable reuse from BI to AI agents.
• Incorporate security and compliance by design (PCI DSS, privacy, responsible‑AI) into patterns.
• Simplify by retiring duplicate warehouses, pipelines, tools and AI models with measurable savings.
• Tie major design choices to business outcomes, timelines and metrics.
• Lead and grow a team of data and AI architects.

Skills

AI architecture leadership

ML/AI in production

Generative AI patterns

Strategic communications

Enterprise-scale data architectures

Team leadership & mentorship

AI governance & risk controls

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering or related field

Tools

Snowflake

Databricks

Job description

Global Payments seeks an architecture leader who has designed AI and data systems at enterprise scale. You will own the AI and data architecture, set target states, and partner with engineering to deliver systems that power analytics, merchant solutions, and risk controls across the business.

Reporting to the Head of Data Strategy, Products & AI Architecture, you will lead a team of data and AI architects and drive governance, security, and scalability across cloud platforms.