Lead Architect (AI)

Travelers•Hartford, CT

19h•$169,400 - $279,600

About The Position

As a member of AI and Emerging Technology Architecture, you'll be joining a strategic and collaborative team that is passionate about transforming our business and technology capabilities and paving the way for best-in-class solutions. As a Lead Architect, you will collaborate with senior Technology and Business leaders and apply your deep technical proficiency and visionary thinking to architect AI systems that drive business value while maintaining ethical standards.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in technology-related field or equivalent, with 8 to 10 years of architecture experience.
Advanced level architecture and recent hands-on strong engineering experience with modern technologies.
Successful execution of complex, large scale technology strategies.
Proven track record defining scalable, production-grade AI systems, including distributed and parallel processing architectures.
Hands-on expertise in AI/ML development and deployment, with deep knowledge of ML algorithms, neural network architectures, and optimization techniques.
Strong architecture leadership and experience.
Strong mathematical foundation in linear algebra, statistics, and probability theory, supporting rigorous model design and evaluation.
Experience with MLOps & AI Ops practices and CI/CD pipelines for AI/ML systems.
Hands-on experience with agentic coding tools such as Claude Enterprise/CLI/Code, OpenAI Codex, and GitHub Copilot.
Hands-on experience with Generative AI foundation — including transformer architectures, LLMs, prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and RLHF.
Experience with multimodal AI systems.
Experience building autonomous AI systems with planning and reasoning capabilities, including reinforcement learning and decision-making frameworks.
Hands-on experience with agentic patterns — tool use, function calling, API integration, memory systems, RAG, vector databases, and multi-agentic orchestration.
Hands-on or working experience with agent orchestration frameworks/ADKs/SDKs and protocols including MCP and Agent2Agent.
Deep experience with cloud AI services including AWS Bedrock AgentCore (optional: Azure Foundry/Agent 365, or GCP/Gemini AI), including SaaS AI and agentic capabilities.
Knowledge of AI ethics, bias mitigation, responsible AI practices, and regulatory frameworks (EU AI Act, GDPR).
Experience with AI governance frameworks and model risk management.
Advanced leadership skills with the ability to leverage cross-functional networks to collaborate with architecture and engineering leaders on problem-solving, build company-wide credibility, prioritize critical architectural challenges, and strengthen the Architecture organization through knowledge sharing, mentoring, and creating development opportunities for team members.
Extensive experience working in an agile operational model.
Advanced experience supporting transformational change. Able to adjust plans, priorities and strategies in response to changing circumstances.
Experience developing technology target states and roadmaps that align to short- and long-term business goals.
Strong understanding of value creation and business capability models.
Strong knowledge of the insurance industry.
Advanced experience identifying and analyzing current/future problems and opportunities, evaluating information to understand root causes, and exploring alternative solutions for effective decision-making.
Proven ability to work collaboratively with colleagues to achieve mutually responsible results.
Extensive experience exercising sound judgment, making decisions and committing to a position.
Advanced and effective verbal, written and listening communication skills.
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, related STEM field, or its equivalent in education and/or work experience.
7 additional years of architecture/software engineering experience.
2 years of technical leadership experience.

Nice To Haves

Insurance technology experience preferred.

Responsibilities

Define and maintain the architectural principles, best practices, standards, and reference architectures for Travelers' AI platforms and AI-enabled products.
Guide strategic technology decisions involving AI platforms, cloud providers, model hosting strategies, vector databases, orchestration frameworks, AI infrastructure, build-versus-buy evaluations, and platform investments.
Lead architecture reviews for major AI initiatives and provide guidance on system design, scalability, resiliency, interoperability, security, compliance, and cost optimization.
Establish enterprise AI integration patterns, AI architecture standards, governance frameworks, and operational processes that ensure consistency across AI and non-AI systems.
Apply hands-on expertise in AI/ML, Generative AI, and Agentic AI systems — including autonomous agent design, multi-agent orchestration frameworks, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and Agent2Agent integration — to architect scalable, production-grade AI solutions across the enterprise.
Provide consulting expertise to division and domain architects, driving architecture alignment across lines of business and serving as a champion for establishing an enterprise AI solutions architecture practice.
Align AI platform capabilities to the strategic needs of business groups — spanning LLM strategy, selection and routing, RAG pipelines, memory systems, and tool/function-calling patterns — while promoting reusability, interoperability, and responsible AI design.
Help establish AI standards, best practices, governance, risk, and control processes that ensure safe, compliant, and sustainable AI deployments, informed by frameworks such as the EU AI Act, GDPR, NAIC, and NIST AI RMF, and grounded in strong AI ethics and bias mitigation principles.
Demonstrate a strong passion for tracking and communicating the evolving AI platform roadmap — spanning foundation models, agentic frameworks, and emerging autonomous systems — while surfacing competitive landscape insights and highlighting opportunities and challenges that complement enterprise initiatives.
Bring strong collaboration, communication, and mentoring skills to bridge complex AI concepts for non-technical stakeholders, build consensus across diverse teams, and foster a knowledge-sharing culture within the architecture community.