Principal AI Platform Architect for Enterprise Systems

Sandisk; Milpitas (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Sandisk is hiring a Principal Engineer to architect the Enterprise AI platform for engineering workflows, guiding hybrid on-prem and cloud design and leading agentic systems, MCP ecosystem, and the LLM gateway. The role partners with the platform architect to set technical direction and ensure scalable, secure operations as adoption grows across Nexus.

You will mentor staff, drive architecture reviews, and shape roadmaps across AI/ML stacks, distributed systems, and modern infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 5+ years in architecture or technical leadership roles, with demonstrated impact designing and operating large-scale AI/ML, platform, or distributed systems in production.
• Deep proficiency in Python; strong working knowledge of TypeScript/JavaScript, React, and at least one systems language (Go, Java, or C++).
• Expert-level understanding of modern AI/ML stacks: LangGraph, LangChain, LlamaIndex, PyTorch or TensorFlow, and the Hugging Face ecosystem.
• Strong grasp of LLM internals, transformers, embeddings, RAG architectures, fine-tuning approaches, and evaluation methodologies.
• Production experience with LLM providers and gateways (Anthropic, OpenAI or equivalent), and deep familiarity with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and agentic design patterns.
• Proven ability to design distributed systems, microservices, REST/GraphQL APIs, event-driven architectures, and high-throughput data pipelines.
• Strong experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and operating workloads in hybrid on-prem and cloud topologies.
• Working knowledge of relational (PostgreSQL), NoSQL (MongoDB, Elasticsearch), in-memory (Redis / Valkey), and vector databases, with judgment on when to use each.
• Solid background in enterprise security and identity: OAuth, OIDC, SSO, RBAC, secrets management, and data governance.

Responsibilities

• Architecture Leadership: Co-own end-to-end architecture for the Nexus platform across hybrid on-prem and cloud environments.
• Technical Strategy: Define multi-quarter technical direction in partnership with engineering leadership. Translate platform vision into actionable architecture roadmaps that balance velocity, scalability, security, and operational maturity.
• Agentic Systems Design: Architect production-grade agentic workflows using LangGraph, Deep Agents, and modern agent frameworks.
• Platform Standards: Establish and evolve standards for service design, API contracts, security, identity, observability, and developer experience across Nexus components and purpose-built applications.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Partner with InfoSec, Cloud Infrastructure, IAM, Networking, and product engineering teams.
• Technical Mentorship: Coach Staff and Senior engineers on system design, distributed systems, AI engineering, and production excellence.
• Risk and Reliability: Identify architectural risks early, drive remediation, and lead the platform's evolution toward stronger environment separation, observability, and incident response maturity.
• Innovation: Track advances in LLMs, agentic frameworks, and AI infrastructure. Evaluate emerging technologies and lead targeted POCs that translate into platform capabilities.

Skills

Python

TypeScript/JavaScript

React

Systems languages (Go/Java/C++)

LangChain

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Hugging Face

Education

Master's or PhD in AI/ML/DS/CS

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

REST/GraphQL APIs

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

Elasticsearch

Redis

Job description

Sandisk is hiring a Principal Engineer to architect the Enterprise AI platform for engineering workflows, guiding hybrid on-prem and cloud design and leading agentic systems, MCP ecosystem, and the LLM gateway. The role partners with the platform architect to set technical direction and ensure scalable, secure operations as adoption grows across Nexus.

You will mentor staff, drive architecture reviews, and shape roadmaps across AI/ML stacks, distributed systems, and modern infrastructure.