Senior AI Architect – Finance AI Enablement

ZipStaff Inc.; San Antonio (TX); Remote; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

401(k) + 401(k) matching

Paid time off

Referral Program

Job summary

ZipStaff is seeking a Senior AI Architect to serve as the top AI/ML technical authority for the finance IT organization. This highly senior, hands-on role shapes multi-year AI/ML roadmaps, defines reference architectures, and guides engineers through design and implementation while ensuring governance and performance.

You will drive an AI-first philosophy, collaborate with senior stakeholders, and own architecture quality for high-volume financial data processing.

Qualifications

• Extensive enterprise AI/ML architecture experience in finance tech.
• Proven ability to translate business goals into AI/ML initiatives.
• Experience with GenAI, LLMs, and distributed architectures.
• Strong leadership and mentorship across engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive AI/ML architecture strategy for finance IT.
• Translate goals into AI/ML and automation initiatives.
• Establish an AI-first architectural philosophy across finance technology.
• Advise executives on AI/ML feasibility, risk and value.
• Create multi-year roadmaps for AI/ML platforms.
• Design reusable AI/ML frameworks for multiple use cases.
• Define agentic AI workflows and orchestration patterns.
• Set standards and best practices for AI/ML delivery.
• Produce detailed designs for engineering teams to build.
• Mentor engineers through technical design decisions and reviews.
• Ensure scalability and governance for high-volume data pipelines.
• Drive MLOps/LLMOps for model lifecycle management.

Skills

Enterprise architecture

Cloud architecture

Distributed systems

GenAI architecture

MLOps

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Remote work capability

Executive communication

Technical leadership

Education

Azure Solutions Architect Certification

GCP Professional Cloud Architect

AWS Solutions Architect

TOGAF

Tools

Kubernetes

Job description

Job Title: Senior AI Architect Finance Technology AI Enablement

Location: Dallas, TX (Remote)

Employment Type: Contract (W2 with Client No C2C or 1099)

U.S. Citizen or Green Card only.

About the Opportunity

ZipStaff is recruiting on behalf of a leading financial services organization for a Senior AI Architect to serve as the top AI/ML technical authority for the finance IT organization.

The successful candidate will be engaged on the client's W2. You will translate a business transformation vision into a coherent AI/ML technical strategy, design the end-to-end architecture that makes that strategy real, and guide engineering teams through detailed design and implementation. This is a highly senior, hands-on architecture role. You will operate at multiple altitudes: shaping multi-year AI/ML roadmaps with business and technology leaders, producing detailed reference architectures and design standards, and working directly with engineers to solve hard design problems. You will be the primary architectural voice for GenAI, machine learning, automation, and agentic systems across finance technology. This is a remote role. U.S. Citizen or Green Card only.

What You'll Do:

• Define the AI/ML technical strategy that underpins the finance organization's broader business transformation vision.
• Partner with business leaders and senior stakeholders to translate financial and operational goals into actionable AI/ML and automation initiatives.
• Establish and evangelize an "AI-first" architectural philosophy across finance technology.
• Act as a trusted advisor to business and technology executives on AI/ML capability, feasibility, risk, and value.
• Create high-level automation and AI/ML architecture designs and multi-year technology roadmaps aligned to business priorities.
• Architect AI/ML foundational frameworks and platforms that can be reused across multiple finance use cases (fraud detection, forecasting, reconciliation, reporting, analytics, intelligent document/content/audio processing, and beyond).
• Design high-performing, complex semantic layers using advanced techniques such as RAG, Knowledge Graphs, and GraphRAG.
• Define reference architectures for agentic AI workflows, including multi-agent orchestration, tool use, memory, and human-in-the-loop patterns.
• Set architecture and design standards, frameworks, and best practices for AI/ML solution delivery across the organization.
• Produce detailed architecture designs that engineering teams can build against.
• Guide and mentor engineers through detailed technical design decisions, code/design reviews, and solution build-out.
• Own architectural quality, scalability, and performance for high-volume financial data processing and analytics pipelines.
• Ensure solutions meet enterprise, regulatory, and financial-data governance requirements.
• Drive adoption of MLOps/LLMOps practices for model lifecycle management, monitoring, and continuous improvement.

Required Qualifications:

• 12+ years of progressive experience in enterprise architecture, cloud architecture, and distributed systems/platform solutions.
• Proven hands-on experience across major cloud platforms, Azure, GCP, and AWS.
• Deep experience with Kubernetes and container-based platform architecture.
• Strong background in event-driven architectures/frameworks and high-volume, high-throughput data processing systems.
• Demonstrated experience architecting GenAI and Machine Learning solutions in production environments.
• Experience in financial data processing and analytics, ideally within a finance, banking, or FinTech IT organization.
• Track record architecting AI/ML foundational frameworks/platforms used across multiple teams or use cases.
• Strong technical depth in GenAI (LLM application architecture, RAG, Knowledge Graphs, GraphRAG, vector databases), agentic AI, machine learning (forecasting, fraud detection, anomaly detection), automation, and analytics AI.
• Ability to operate credibly at both strategic (executive/business stakeholder) and detailed (engineering) levels.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, mentoring, and technical leadership skills.
• Ability to work fully remote.
• U.S. Citizen or Green Card preferred.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior experience within a Finance Technology, Banking, or regulated financial services environment.
• Experience with MLOps/LLMOps tooling and model governance/risk frameworks.
• Relevant cloud or architecture certifications (Azure Solutions Architect, GCP Professional Cloud Architect, AWS Solutions Architect, TOGAF, etc.).
• Hands-on experience designing semantic layers and agentic workflows specifically for complex financial data models.

Benefits:

• Health Insurance.
• Dental Insurance.
• Vision Insurance.
• 401(k) + 401(k) matching.
• Paid time off.
• Referral Program.

About ZipStaff

ZipStaff partners with leading organizations to connect skilled technology professionals with high-impact contract opportunities. We focus on quality matches, clear communication, and long-term success for candidates and clients.