Lead AI Architect - Data Platform

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Lead AI Architect - Data Platform based in United States.

This is a high-impact leadership role focused on designing and building a centralized data and AI platform that enables enterprise-scale innovation. The position combines enterprise architecture, hands-on engineering, and strategic AI leadership to create the foundation for advanced analytics and intelligent automation. You will define the architecture, standards, and operating model for a modern data ecosystem while enabling teams across finance, business development, and operations. The role offers the opportunity to build greenfield solutions, establish AI governance practices, and shape how an organization leverages data at scale. As a player-coach leader, you will remain technically involved while mentoring future platform team members and driving engineering excellence. This opportunity is ideal for an experienced architect passionate about AI, cloud platforms, scalable data systems, and building transformative technology capabilities.

Accountabilities:: The Lead AI Architect - Data Platform will own the vision, architecture, and execution of a centralized data and AI ecosystem. This role requires a balance of strategic thinking, technical depth, and hands-on delivery to create scalable platforms that support business growth. Key responsibilities include:

Define and own the target-state architecture for enterprise data and AI capabilities, documenting technical decisions, standards, and long-term platform strategy.

Design and build a secure, scalable AWS-based data lake that serves as a governed source of truth for analytics, machine learning, and AI experimentation.

Establish architecture patterns for data storage, ingestion, modeling, cataloging, governance, lineage, and infrastructure automation.

Develop AI platform foundations that support experimentation and production use cases, including model access, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), evaluation frameworks, observability, and cost controls.

Create and enforce data governance, security, privacy, and AI safety standards, including access controls, data classification, audit processes, and responsible AI practices.

Partner with business stakeholders and technical teams to translate operational needs into scalable platform capabilities and data solutions.

Build and maintain integrations across enterprise data sources while establishing reliable data contracts, schemas, and domain models.

Remain hands-on by writing code, reviewing implementations, troubleshooting production issues, and improving platform reliability.

Lead the development of a future platform engineering team by mentoring engineers, establishing best practices, and supporting hiring initiatives.

Own platform performance, reliability, monitoring, scalability, and cost optimization through effective engineering practices and operational standards.

Communicate technical strategies and architecture decisions clearly to engineering teams, executives, and external partners.

Drive adoption of the platform by enabling teams to safely leverage analytics, AI tools, and data-driven decision-making.

Requirements:

The ideal candidate is an experienced data and AI platform leader with a strong background in enterprise architecture, cloud infrastructure, and modern machine learning systems. Required qualifications and skills include:

10+ years of experience building and operating production-scale data and AI platforms.

Proven experience designing and delivering enterprise data architectures with measurable business impact.

Deep expertise with AWS cloud technologies, including S3, IAM, KMS, networking, Glue, Lake Formation, Athena, Redshift, SageMaker, Bedrock, and EKS or ECS.

Strong knowledge of modern data architecture patterns, including lakehouse approaches, open table formats such as Iceberg, Delta, or Hudi, data modeling, ingestion frameworks, orchestration, and data lineage.

Hands-on experience with AI/ML platform technologies, including model management, feature stores, experiment tracking, prompt engineering, evaluation frameworks, and retrieval-augmented generation.

Strong understanding of AI governance, security controls, privacy considerations, PII handling, and responsible AI practices.

Advanced programming skills with Python and SQL, with experience using infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform or AWS CDK.

Experience troubleshooting systems, reviewing code, and delivering production-ready technical solutions.

Demonstrated player-coach leadership experience, including mentoring engineers, setting technical standards, and building high-performing teams.

Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical teams and communicate complex concepts to executive stakeholders.

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field; a master’s degree is a plus.

Experience with private-equity-backed environments, multi-business organizations, Snowflake, Databricks, or internal platform product strategies is considered a plus.

Benefits:

Competitive compensation package with a base salary range of CAD $180,000–$240,000, plus performance bonus and benefits.

Opportunity to design and own a company-wide AI and data platform from the ground up.

Long-term ownership and impact in a role focused on building scalable technology foundations.

Fully empowered environment with significant autonomy and the ability to shape architecture decisions.

Opportunity to lead future platform engineering teams and influence engineering culture.

Exposure to advanced AI initiatives and enterprise transformation projects.

Collaborative environment focused on innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Professional growth opportunities through leadership responsibilities and complex technical challenges.

How Jobgether works: We use an AI-powered matching process to ensure your application is reviewed quickly, objectively, and fairly against the role's core requirements. Our system identifies the top-fitting candidates, and this shortlist is then shared directly with the hiring company. The final decision and next steps (interviews, assessments) are managed by their internal team. We appreciate your interest and wish you the best!  Why Apply Through Jobgether?    Data Privacy Notice: By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Jobgether will process your personal data to evaluate your candidacy and share relevant information with the hiring employer. This processing is based on legitimate interest and pre-contractual measures under applicable data protection laws (including GDPR). You may exercise your rights (access, rectification, erasure, objection) at any time.     #LI-CL1