Principal AI Architect - Enterprise AI & Cloud Strategy

Ford; Northern (KY); On-site; USD 133,000 - 251,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

Paid time off & holidays

Vehicle discount program

Tuition assistance

Job summary

Ford Credit is seeking a Principal AI Architect to define and lead enterprise AI strategy, delivering secure, cloud-native, production-ready systems. This leadership role manages AI, cloud, and security architects, shaping reusable standards and reference architectures while guiding a high-impact, cross-functional team.

The ideal candidate has extensive experience in production AI/ML, deep Google Cloud expertise, and a proven ability to balance strategic decisions with concrete roadmaps and

Qualifications

• 12+ years of technology experience with 8+ in architecture.
• Experience deploying enterprise AI/ML systems in production.
• Deep cloud experience on Google Cloud or a comparable hyperscaler.
• Security architecture expertise including Zero Trust.
• Ability to communicate complex trade-offs to executives.
• Formal leadership and architecture standardization experience.

Responsibilities

• Define multi-year enterprise AI architecture strategy with roadmaps.
• Establish AI-native software delivery lifecycle.
• Create reusable patterns and evidence bundles.
• Architect production agentic systems with memory and orchestration.
• Define risk tiers and human oversight for autonomy.
• Set patterns for knowledge provenance and retrieval.
• Design and govern AI applications on Google Cloud with Vertex AI, Gemini, GKE, Cloud Run, BigQuery, Pub/Sub.
• Embed Zero-Trust and security in AI and cloud architectures.
• Guide modernization of hybrid and legacy systems.
• Advise senior leaders and manage an architect team.

Skills

enterprise AI architecture

cloud architecture

security architecture

people management

executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Vertex AI

Gemini

GKE

Cloud Run

BigQuery

Pub/Sub

Job description

Ford Credit is seeking a Principal AI Architect to define and lead enterprise AI strategy, delivering secure, cloud-native, production-ready systems. This leadership role manages AI, cloud, and security architects, shaping reusable standards and reference architectures while guiding a high-impact, cross-functional team.

The ideal candidate has extensive experience in production AI/ML, deep Google Cloud expertise, and a proven ability to balance strategic decisions with concrete roadmaps and