Principal AI Architect

The Principal AI Architect is a senior technical leadership role responsible for defining and governing enterprise-wide AI, GenAI, and MLOps architecture. This role sets the long-term vision, reference architectures, and reusable patterns for scalable, secure, and responsible AI adoption across the organization. This role combines strong hands-on engineering with strategic innovation to design, prototype, and deliver intelligent, data-driven solutions that power analytics, machine learning, and next-generation AI applications.

Enterprise AI & GenAI Architecture * Define and own enterprise AI and GenAI reference architectures, including LLM platforms, RAG patterns, agentic systems, and multimodal solutions. * Establish standardized architectural patterns for model serving, prompt management, orchestration, tool use, and agent frameworks. * Lead architecture decisions for buy vs. build, model selection, hosting strategies, and vendor integrations. * Ensure AI architectures align with enterprise standards, cloud strategy, security, and governance.

MLOps & AI Platform Engineering

• Prototype and operationalize advanced AI solutions, including GenAI and LLM-based systems.
• Architect end-to-endMLOpscapabilities, including model lifecycle management, CI/CD for ML, feature stores, model monitoring, and drift detection.
• Define enterprise patterns for training, fine-tuning, deployment, and observability of ML and GenAI workloads.
• Guide teams on productionizing PoCs into scalable, resilient, and supportable AI systems.
• Partner with platform teams to evolve a shared enterprise AI platform.

AWS-Centric AI Architecture * Design AI and GenAI solutions using AWS-native services, including (but not limited to): * Amazon Bedrock, SageMaker, Lambda, ECS/EKS * S3, DynamoDB, Aurora, OpenSearch * IAM, KMS, VPC, CloudWatch * Define cost, performance, and scalability guardrails for AI workloads on AWS. * Ensure architectures follow Well-Architected Framework principles.

Governance, Risk, and Responsible AI * Partner with security, legal, and compliance teams to define AI governance, guardrails, and controls. * Embed responsible AI principles, data privacy, and explainability into enterprise designs. * Establish standards for model access, auditability, and risk management. Technical Leadership & Influence

• Act as a principal-level advisor to senior technology and business leaders.
• Champion hands-on experimentation and rapid solution delivery whilemaintainingtechnical excellence.
• Mentor architects and senior engineers on AI architecture and MLOps best practices.
• Drive alignment across teams by publishing reference architectures, design standards, and decision frameworks.
• Represent the organization in architecture forums, reviews, and strategic initiatives.

• • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
    • 10+ years of experience in enterprise architecture, data platforms, or distributed systems.
    • Deep expertise in AI/ML architecture, including GenAI and LLM-based systems.
    • Strong experience designing MLOps platforms and enterprise AI foundations.
    • Proven experience architecting solutions on AWS.
    • Strong understanding of cloud security, networking, and governance.
    • Proficiency in Python, SQL, and modern data frameworks (e.g., Databricks, Airflow, Snowflake, Vertex AI).

Preferred:

• Experience with agentic AI design patterns, including tool-use orchestration, autonomous workflow agents, or AI copilots.

• Proficiency in API design, microservices, and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).

• Demonstrated ability to rapidly prototype new AI concepts and transition successful PoCs into production-grade systems.

Benefits are an integral part of total rewards and First Citizens Bank is committed to providing a competitive, thoughtfully designed and quality benefits program to meet the needs of our associates. More information can be found at https://jobs.firstcitizens.com/benefits.

#LI-DS1

#LI-DS1