Senior AI Platform Architect

Midwest Startups; Addison (IL); On-site; USD 183,000 - 203,000; Full time

Job summary

Parts Town seeks a Senior AI Platform Architect to define enterprise AI platform architecture, standards, and guardrails. You will guide the delivery of AI agents, RAG workflows, and integrations, partnering with data, security, and business teams to ensure scalable, secure solutions.

You will lead architects in MCP, function calling, and model orchestration, building scalable, compliant AI ecosystems and driving adoption across the enterprise.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 8+ years shaping enterprise architecture, software engineering, or platform engineering initiatives at scale.
• Experience designing, building, and deploying enterprise‑grade AI solutions and intelligent agent ecosystems.
• Deep expertise in agentic AI, including MCP, function calling, tool orchestration, and context management strategies.
• Strong command of RAG, LLMs, semantic search, AI evaluation, monitoring, and responsible AI practices.
• Proficient in Python, Java, and TypeScript.
• Experience with modern development frameworks such as React, Rails, Spring, or equivalent.
• Architected and delivered microservices, event‑driven systems, APIs, and enterprise integration solutions.

Responsibilities

• Define enterprise AI platform architecture, standards, and guardrails aligned with technology strategy.
• Establish reference architectures, approved tooling, and reusable patterns for agents, retrieval, and orchestration.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and recommend adoption, integration, and governance approaches.
• Document architectural decisions balancing innovation, scalability, cost, and risk.
• Translate business needs into production‑ready AI solutions, including agents, assistants, and workflows.
• Design agentic capabilities using function calling, MCP, model orchestration, memory, and grounding.
• Guide teams hands‑on from PoC through deployment and operationalization.
• Ensure solutions follow established platform and engineering standards.
• Architect integrations between AI platforms, enterprise apps, collaboration tools, and business systems.
• Align AI solutions with the enterprise data ecosystem, preserving data quality and meaning.
• Design secure APIs, connectors, and event‑driven integrations respecting permissions.
• Partner with engineering to deliver reliable, scalable integrations.
• Define and enforce AI governance frameworks, policies, and standards.
• Establish controls for model deployment, agent publishing, integration approval, and lifecycle management.
• Collaborate with Security on identity, access, data protection, and regulatory requirements.
• Lead AI‑specific risk assessments for new capabilities, integrations, and vendors.
• Define standards for monitoring, observability, incident response, and platform support.
• Establish evaluation methods for agent quality, grounding, and production readiness.
• Track platform health, adoption, and value realization with metrics and dashboards.
• Serve as senior escalation point for AI platform issues.
• Lead architecture reviews and communicate decisions to audiences.
• Coach engineers and architects, building a bench for future leadership.
• Influence cross‑functional priorities with technical expertise.
• Act as go‑to expert for enterprise AI architecture and platform engineering.

Skills

Enterprise architecture

AI platform architecture

Agent frameworks

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Cloud-native technologies

Python

Java

TypeScript

Kubernetes

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Job at a Glance

The Senior AI Platform Architect owns the architecture, standards, and technical direction of our enterprise AI ecosystem, spanning platforms, models, agents, and integrations. This role ensures AI solutions are scalable, secure, compliant, and aligned with business goals.

As a hands‑on senior leader, you will design and guide delivery of AI agents, assistants, RAG solutions, and AI‑powered workflows, partnering closely with data, infrastructure, security, application, and business teams. This is a senior individual contributor role with a path to platform leadership as the AI function grows.

The ideal candidate combines enterprise architecture expertise with hands‑on experience building AI solutions using modern agent frameworks, APIs, function calling, Model Context Protocol (MCP), enterprise SaaS platforms, and cloud‑native technologies.

Key Responsibilities

AI Platform Strategy & Architecture

• Define enterprise AI platform architecture, standards, and guardrails aligned with the broader technology strategy.
• Establish reference architectures, approved tooling, and reusable patterns for agents, retrieval, and orchestration.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and recommend adoption, integration, and governance approaches.
• Document architectural decisions that balance innovation, scalability, cost, and risk.

AI Solutions & Agent Development

• Translate business needs into production‑ready AI solutions, including agents, assistants, RAG, and workflows.
• Design agentic capabilities using function calling, MCP, model orchestration, memory, and grounding.
• Guide teams hands‑on from proof of concept through deployment and operationalization.
• Ensure solutions follow established platform and engineering standards.

Enterprise Integration & Data

• Architect integrations between AI platforms, enterprise applications, collaboration tools, and business systems.
• Align AI solutions with the enterprise data ecosystem, using governed data that preserves quality and meaning.
• Design secure APIs, connectors, and event‑driven integrations that respect source‑system permissions.
• Partner with engineering teams to deliver reliable, scalable, and supportable integrations.

Governance, Security & Compliance

• Define and enforce AI governance frameworks, policies, and operating standards.
• Establish controls for model deployment, agent publishing, integration approval, and lifecycle management.
• Partner with Security and Compliance on identity, access, data protection, and regulatory requirements.
• Lead AI‑specific risk assessments for new capabilities, integrations, and vendors.

Platform Operations & Reliability

• Define standards for monitoring, observability, incident response, and platform support.
• Establish evaluation methods for agent quality, safety, grounding accuracy, and production readiness.
• Track platform health, adoption, and value realization through clear metrics and dashboards.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for AI platform and integration issues.

Technical Leadership

• Lead architecture reviews and communicate decisions clearly to technical and business audiences.
• Coach engineers and architects, building a bench for future AI platform leadership.
• Influence cross‑functional priorities through technical expertise and pragmatic judgment.
• Act as the go‑to expert for enterprise AI architecture and platform engineering.

To Land This Opportunity

• You bring a bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• You have spent 8+ years shaping enterprise architecture, software engineering, or platform engineering initiatives at scale.
• You have successfully designed, built, and deployed enterprise‑grade AI solutions and intelligent agent ecosystems.
• You possess deep expertise in agentic AI, including MCP, function calling, tool orchestration, and context management strategies.
• You understand the AI landscape end‑to‑end, with a strong command of RAG, LLMs and SLMs, semantic search, AI evaluation, monitoring, and responsible AI practices.
• You are a versatile developer, proficient in languages such as Python, Java, and TypeScript.
• You thrive in modern development environments, leveraging frameworks such as React, Rails, Spring, or comparable technologies.
• You have architected and delivered microservices, event‑driven systems, APIs, and enterprise integration solutions that drive business value.
• You bring strong cloud architecture expertise, including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure‑as‑code, and observability best practices.
• You have hands‑on experience scaling containerized workloads, using Docker, Kubernetes, and autoscaling technologies to optimize performance and reliability.
• You champion secure and compliant solutions, with solid knowledge of enterprise security, identity management, RBAC, privacy, and regulatory requirements.
• You are an exceptional communicator, capable of influencing stakeholders, translating complex technical concepts, and building strong cross‑functional partnerships.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI coding tools such as Cursor (preferred), Claude Code, or Codex.
• Experience governing AI ecosystems across multiple collaboration and productivity platforms.
• Experience with OAuth, SSO, SCIM, delegated authorization, and enterprise identity patterns.
• Certifications in cloud architecture, enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, or AI.

About Your Future Team

We are about working hard and playing hard. We are about having each other’s back, taking on responsibility and making things better for all. We are gritty, roll back your sleeves and get the job done with an inclusive, positive can‑do attitude. We enjoy our social events, celebrating with food (of course) and celebrating our team members’ life’s milestones and events At Parts Town, we value transparency and are committed to ensuring our team members feel appreciated and supported.

Salary and Benefits

We prioritize our positive workplace culture where collaboration, growth, and work‑life balance are celebrated. The salary range for this role is $ 182,523.26 to $203,437.39 /annually which is based on including but not limited to qualifications, experience, and geographical location. Parts Town is a pay-for performance company. In addition to base pay, some roles offer a profit‑sharing program, and an annual bonus depending on the role.

Our comprehensive benefits package includes health, dental and vision insurance, 401(k) with match, employee assistance programs, paid time off, paid sick time off, paid holidays, paid parental leave, and professional development opportunities.

Diversity and Inclusion

Parts Town welcomes diversity and as an equal opportunity employer all qualified applicants will be considered regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status.