Lead AI Architect - Data Platform

Banyan Software

15h•CA$180,000 - CA$240,000•Remote

About The Position

Banyan Software is seeking a Lead AI Architect to design, build, and manage a centralized data and AI platform. This role is crucial for consolidating data into a Banyan data lake, enabling safe AI experimentation for internal teams like Finance, M&A, and Business Development. The position is modeled on an Enterprise Architect role adapted for an AI-first environment, requiring the individual to set the target-state architecture, select standard patterns, write code, and own the outcomes. Collaboration with embedded business analysts and functional leaders is key to grounding the platform in real-world use cases. This is a player-coach role, starting with hands-on work and evolving to lead a small platform team.

Requirements

10+ years of experience building production data and AI platforms at scale.
Deep hands-on AWS expertise with S3, IAM, KMS, networking, Glue, Lake Formation, Athena, Redshift, SageMaker, Bedrock, and EKS or ECS.
Strong data architecture skills including lakehouse patterns, open table formats (Iceberg, Delta, or Hudi), data modeling, ingestion frameworks, orchestration, and lineage.
Experience with modern AI/ML platform patterns: feature stores, model registries, experiment tracking, prompt and evaluation frameworks, retrieval-augmented generation, and agentic workflows.
Working knowledge of AI safety principles: data classification, PII handling, access tiering, evaluation, and model-risk controls.
Hands-on coding proficiency in Python and SQL.
Comfort with infrastructure as code tools like Terraform or AWS CDK.
Player-coach experience, including leading small teams, mentoring engineers, setting hiring standards, and developing talent.
Strong communication skills, capable of driving architecture decisions and explaining trade-offs to both engineers and executives.
Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree.
Experience in private-equity-backed or holding-company environments with multiple business units and inconsistent source systems.
Experience designing AI guardrails for non-public, regulated, or competitively sensitive data.
Track record of treating internal platforms as products with named users, SLAs, and adoption strategies.
Experience with Snowflake or Databricks.
Past experience as the first or early platform hire at a growth-stage company.

Responsibilities

Define and own the target-state data and AI architecture for Banyan, documenting explicit trade-offs.
Design and build the AWS-centric data lake, establishing patterns for storage, cataloging, query, ingestion, modeling, and lineage.
Set up the AI experimentation layer for model access via LLMs like Anthropic and OpenAI.
Establish data contracts, schema standards, naming conventions, and a domain model.
Partner with Senior Business Analysts to translate use cases into platform requirements.
Define security, privacy, and AI safety guardrails, including data classification, access tiering, and rules for handling sensitive information.
Write code, ship infrastructure, conduct code reviews, and debug production issues.
Build and mentor a team, including Senior Business AI Analysts, data platform engineers, ML platform engineers, and data engineers.
Own platform reliability, observability, and cost management, setting SLOs and monitoring usage.
Represent Banyan's AI and data architecture to executives, portfolio companies, and external partners.