Principal AI Architect

Jobtailor; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 190,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

SecurityScorecard is seeking a high-impact architect to lead system design for agentic AI capabilities in a production environment. You will define orchestration, context/state handling, tool boundaries, and reliability patterns to enable scalable, non-deterministic systems.

You will prototype decisions, collaborate with Data Science, review TDRs, and mentor senior engineers while communicating trade-offs to executives and customers. This role is based in Austin, TX.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering, with senior/lead architecture experience.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, REST, and scalable operation.
• Hands-on with agentic/LLM-powered systems: context, memory, tool integration.
• Data engineering basics: modeling, pipelines, streaming vs batch.
• Influence and buy-in across teams; strong technical writing.
• Clear communication of architectural trade-offs to executives.

Responsibilities

• Lead system design for agentic AI capabilities.
• Design orchestration, context/state, tool boundaries, and reliability patterns.
• Write TDRs, design docs, and standards establishing direction.
• Prototype architectural decisions before teams scale.
• Partner with Data Science to integrate AI with APIs, events, and storage.
• Review engineering TDRs and provide architecture feedback.
• Build consensus across engineering teams.
• Drive AI-assisted development adoption across teams.
• Mentor senior and staff engineers on agentic design.
• Communicate architectural decisions and trade-offs to executives and customers.

Skills

Distributed systems

Architectural design

Technical writing

Mentorship

Influencing without authority

Tools

Node.js

TypeScript

PostgreSQL

ClickHouse

Kafka

AWS

Kubernetes

Job description

• Lead system design for SecurityScorecard's agentic AI capabilities
• Design orchestration, context and state, tool boundaries, and reliability patterns for non-deterministic systems
• Write Technical Design Reviews, design documents, and standards that establish architectural direction
• Prototype architectural decisions before teams commit to them at scale
• Partner with Data Science to integrate agent and model work with APIs, event streaming, and storage
• Review engineering TDRs and provide substantive architecture and risk feedback
• Build consensus and alignment across engineering teams
• Drive AI-assisted and agentic development adoption across engineering
• Mentor senior and staff engineers on agentic system design
• Communicate architectural decisions and trade-offs to executives and customers

Requirements

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including significant time as a senior, staff, or principal-level architect or technical lead designing production systems
• Deep expertise in distributed systems: service boundaries, consistency models, event-driven architecture, REST API design, and reliable operation at scale
• Hands-on experience building, prototyping, and architecting agentic or LLM-powered systems in production, including agent loop design, context engineering, MCP and tool/function-calling integration, RAG architectures, memory and state management, and reliability and guardrail patterns
• Working knowledge of data engineering fundamentals, including data modeling, pipeline design, and streaming vs. batch
• Track record of influencing without authority and earning genuine technical buy-in
• Strong technical writing and mentorship skills, including TDRs, design docs, and decision records
• Ability to communicate complex architectural decisions clearly to executives and customers
• Comfort operating as a senior individual contributor
• Node.js/TypeScript, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, Kafka, AWS, and Kubernetes experience preferred
• Experience leading AI-assisted or agentic development adoption preferred
• Experience partnering with data science or ML teams preferred
• Cybersecurity industry background preferred
• No immigration sponsorship is provided for this position

Core Competencies

Demonstrates deep expertise in distributed systems and agentic AI capabilities, with a strong focus on architectural design, technical writing, and mentorship. Proven ability to communicate complex decisions and drive adoption of innovative development practices across engineering teams.

Highest-signal resume keywords

• Distributed Systems Expertise
• Architectural Design
• Technical Writing
• Mentorship Skills
• AI-Assisted Development Adoption

ATS Optimization Keywords

Hard Skills

• Service Boundaries
• Consistency Models
• Event-Driven Architecture
• REST API Design
• Agent Loop Design
• Context Engineering
• Data Modeling
• Pipeline Design
• Memory Management
• Reliability Patterns

Soft Skills

• Influencing Without Authority
• Communication Skills

Industry Keywords

• Cybersecurity

Tools & Technologies

• Node.js
• TypeScript
• PostgreSQL
• ClickHouse
• Kafka
• AWS
• Kubernetes