Principal AI Architect

Innovation Associates, Inc.• US,

1d•$170,850 - $231,150

About The Position

As Principal AI Architect, you will be the senior hands-on technical leader advancing AI adoption and platform modernization across every division. You will establish AI as a durable, governed capability; architect and build production-grade AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers; own the agentic AI architecture; and drive modernization projects. The role combines hands-on execution with technical decision-making authority and accountability for KPIs tied to business impact, including margins, customer service-level performance, and team productivity. You will develop agent frameworks, integration patterns, evaluation and guardrail standards, model and vendor selection, and a governed path from prototype to production. You will build secure, reliable, observable AI agents and MCP servers for NEXiA capabilities; define and drive Retained Workflow Adoption; sequence modernization of legacy NEXiA components; and establish AI governance with Security and Compliance. You will also advance AI-assisted customer support, upgradability, and backward compatibility. In the first year, expected outcomes include a shared agentic AI reference architecture and component library adopted across divisions; at least two production AI agents and supporting MCP servers; quarterly AI adoption scorecards and at least 80% Retained Workflow Adoption in the top three divisions; an approved and funded modernization roadmap with at least two legacy components retired or re-platformed; an AI-assisted support capability with measured MTTR improvement; zero critical or high-severity field defects attributable to AI features; and an architecture guild and AI pattern library. The role works daily with division engineering leads, Product, Support, Cloud Engineering, Data/Analytics, and Security/Compliance. It documents architecture and build/buy/partner decisions, prototypes to reduce risk, delegates and coaches to scale patterns, mentors senior engineers, and briefs executives and the board on AI direction, KPIs, and risk. Applicants must be authorized to work for any U.S. employer; the employer will not sponsor work visas.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in software engineering.
5+ years of architecture leadership across multiple teams or business units.
Hands-on experience designing and shipping LLM-based or agentic systems to production, including tool/function calling, MCP or equivalent integration protocols, evaluation, observability, guardrails, and cost and latency management.
Track record modernizing a large, revenue-bearing platform while it remained in service, including monolith decomposition, re-platforming, and API and event architecture.
Experience in a regulated domain such as healthcare, pharmacy, medical devices, or financial services.
Fluency in architectural implications of HIPAA/PHI, FDA software, or equivalent constraints.
Demonstrated ability to drive adoption of standards across teams not directly managed and measure whether adoption persisted.
Clear written and verbal communication with engineers, executives, and customers.
Authorization to work for any employer in the United States; visa sponsorship is not available.

Nice To Haves

Background in pharmacy automation, supply chain, robotics/PLC integration, or industrial software.
Experience with .NET and cloud-native modernization on Azure or AWS, and with data platforms that feed AI workloads.
Prior ownership of a company-level AI governance program or AI center of excellence.
Experience with Microsoft 365 Copilot, Claude, OpenAI, or similar enterprise AI platforms and their governance tooling.

Responsibilities

Own agentic AI architecture across iA, including agent frameworks, tool and integration patterns, evaluation and guardrail standards, model and vendor selection, and governed production pathways.
Design and build production-grade AI agents that automate high-value workflows across divisions.
Design and build secure, reliable, observable MCP servers exposing NEXiA data, tools, and operations.
Define, publish, and drive the Retained Workflow Adoption KPI across divisions.
Develop a platform modernization roadmap, including retirement or re-platforming of legacy NEXiA components.
Partner with Security and Compliance to establish AI governance for HIPAA/PHI handling, FDA software boundaries, DEA requirements, and customer and government security obligations.
Develop AI-assisted customer support capabilities such as triage, telemetry analysis, and self-healing patterns to improve support outcomes.
Set upgradability and backward-compatibility standards to keep customers on NEXiA N-2 or newer.
Deliver a shared AI reference architecture, component library, production AI agents, adoption scorecards, modernization roadmap, support capability, and release gates for AI features.
Partner with division engineering leads, Product, Support, Cloud Engineering, Data/Analytics, and Security/Compliance.
Document architecture decisions, build/buy/partner analyses, and option memos for leadership.
Prototype to de-risk decisions and delegate and coach to scale patterns.
Mentor senior engineers toward the architect track and build succession depth for AI and architecture roles.
Brief executives and the board on AI direction, progress against KPIs, and risk.
Build an architecture guild and AI pattern library to improve AI fluency across engineering and operations.