Principal Engineer - AI Platform Architect

Description

The company connects people to what matters to them, and this role sits at the core of its enterprise AI platform.

The platform has five layers and serves every global business unit. You will be the principal architect, an individual contributor role where influence and consensus across the organization matter as much as design depth.

You will work with a team that spans the company's business units.

Responsibilities

• Direct the five-layer stack: Model Foundation, Agent Factory, Agent Runtime, Experience and Control Plane. Define layer boundaries, interface contracts and interaction patterns that let the platform scale.
• Set standards for API conventions, enterprise security patterns and observability. Review components and advise Business Unit agent architectures so they align with the platform.
• Align Gateway routing with the Registry's RBAC models, connect the ADLC pipeline to existing guardrail frameworks, and give FinOps end-to-end token visibility.
• Write Architecture Decision Records, lead Architecture Review Board submissions, and run build-vs-buy analyses backed by 3-year Total Cost of Ownership models.
• Shape a multi-cloud strategy that balances central platform services with decentralized needs.
• Design multi-stage security flows covering identity, authentication, execution safety and audit. Build Responsible AI (RAI) guardrail architectures that stay compliant with emerging international regulations.
• Work with executives and external cloud partners on capacity planning and integration. Add high-impact reference architectures to the enterprise library.

Requirements

• Principal-level architect with a focus on technical interface contracts and Total Cost of Ownership modeling, and a proven record of building scalable distributed platforms.
• You have earned credibility with executives and engineering teams through Architecture Decision Records.
• You can back build-vs-buy recommendations with robust 3-year financial models and adapt quickly as AI technology changes.
• Deep knowledge of LLM architecture, including attention mechanisms, KV-cache, context windows and token economics.
• Bachelor's degree or 4+ years of work experience.
• 6+ years of relevant experience, gained through work, military service, specialized training, or a combination.
• Experience in software or platform architecture, including AI/ML systems.
• Experience as a system-level architect, with ADRs and reference architectures to show for it.
• Experience with agentic development and design patterns, including LangGraph and Google ADK.
• Experience with distributed systems: service mesh, API gateways, event-driven patterns, multi-tenancy and data isolation.
• Experience running Kubernetes at enterprise scale.
• Experience with LLM architecture: transformers, attention, KV-cache, context windows, token economics and routing patterns.
• Experience across multi-cloud environments on GCP and AWS.
• Experience designing API platforms: OpenAI-compatible interfaces, SDKs and developer experience.
• Experience presenting architecture recommendations to VP and SVP leaders.
• Even better if you have one or more of the following:
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or an MBA.
• Experience architecting agentic AI systems: agent runtimes, multi-agent orchestration and memory systems.
• Security architecture experience: zero trust (SPIFFE/SPIRE), mTLS, OPA, Vault, and regulated environments (CPNI, PCI-DSS).
• Experience designing MCP (Model Context Protocol) and A2A (Agent-to-Agent) protocols.
• Experience designing RAG architectures: vector databases, hybrid search and re-ranking.
• Experience with MLOps/LLMOps at scale: model registry and RLHF/RLAIF.
• Experience with FinOps at scale, including unit economics for AI workloads.
• Telecom or regulated enterprise architecture background.
• Experience architecting OpenTelemetry-based observability platforms.
• Published architecture writing or open-source AI/ML contributions.
• Certifications: AWS Solutions Architect Professional, GCP Professional Cloud Architect.
• You are encouraged to apply even if you do not meet every 'even better' item.

Conditions

Hybrid role: a defined work location that includes working from home plus a minimum of 3 days per week in the office, set by your manager.

You are responsible for following hybrid work policies.

Scheduled hours: 40 per week.

Pay depends on location and on confirmed job-related skills and experience. This is an incentive-based position with potential to earn more.

Part-time pay is adjusted to reflect hours worked.

Annual salary range for the listed location(s), full-time: $120,500.00 - $231,000.00.

Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision coverage, short and long term disability, basic and supplemental life insurance, AD&D insurance, identity theft protection, pet insurance, and group home and auto insurance.
• Matched 401(k) savings plan.
• Up to 8 company paid holidays and up to 6 personal days per year.
• Paid parental leave, adoption assistance, tuition assistance and other incentives.
• Premium pay such as overtime, shift differential, holiday pay and allowances, depending on the role.
• Newly hired employees receive up to 15 days of vacation per year, which grows with additional service.
• Part-timers may qualify for some benefits depending on their individual circumstances.