Remote Principal AI Architect

Optum; Plymouth (MN); On-site; USD 134,600 - 230,800; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits package

Equity stock purchase program

401k contribution

Job summary

Optum is seeking a Principal AI Architect to lead design and implementation of enterprise-scale AI/ML solutions. This senior role sets the AI architecture vision, drives technical strategy, and aligns engineering, product, and business stakeholders.

You’ll work remotely within the U.S., with on-site four days a week in the Minneapolis or Washington, DC area when required. Bring deep AI/ML expertise, cloud-native architectures, and the ability to translate complex problems into scalable

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software/systems engineering with 5+ years in AI/ML architecture.
• 5+ years owning and defining AI/ML architecture roadmap aligned to enterprise strategy.
• 5+ years designing end-to-end AI solutions spanning data pipelines, model training, inference, and MLOps frameworks.
• 5+ years hands-on MLOps: CI/CD for ML, monitoring, drift detection, and lifecycle management.
• Deep expertise in ML, DL, NLP, LLMs and generative AI technologies.
• Proficiency with cloud platforms AWS, Azure, or GCP and cloud-native AI services.
• Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, Hugging Face, LangChain).
• Strong understanding of data architecture, data engineering, and real-time/batch pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the AI/ML architecture roadmap, ensuring alignment with enterprise technology strategy and business objectives.
• Lead the design of end-to-end AI solutions including data pipelines, model training, inference infrastructure, and MLOps frameworks.
• Mentor AI/ML engineers, tech leads, and solution architects across the organization.
• Collaborate with product managers, data scientists, and engineering teams to translate business requirements into robust architectural designs.
• Evaluate and recommend AI/ML platforms, tools, and frameworks (LLMs, RAG pipelines, agent frameworks, vector databases).
• Drive adoption of responsible AI principles including explainability, fairness, bias mitigation, and model governance.
• Partner with security, compliance, and infrastructure teams to ensure AI solutions meet regulatory and enterprise standards (HIPAA, SOC2, etc.).
• Lead architecture reviews, proof-of-concepts, and technical spike initiatives.
• Represent the AI architecture function in cross-functional leadership discussions and executive briefings.

Skills

AI/ML architecture

Cloud-native architectures

Python

ML frameworks

Data pipelines

MLOps

Leadership

Education

Bachelor or Master in science or STEM

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Scikit-learn

Hugging Face

LangChain

LLMs

Vector databases

AWS/Azure/GCP

Job description

Optum is seeking a Principal AI Architect to lead design and implementation of enterprise-scale AI/ML solutions. This senior role sets the AI architecture vision, drives technical strategy, and aligns engineering, product, and business stakeholders.

You’ll work remotely within the U.S., with on-site four days a week in the Minneapolis or Washington, DC area when required. Bring deep AI/ML expertise, cloud-native architectures, and the ability to translate complex problems into scalable