Principal Architect, AI-Native Security

World Wide Technology Healthcare Solutions•Jenks, OK

2d•$170,000 - $200,000•Hybrid

About The Position

WWT Digital is establishing a joint AI + Security practice with WWT Global Security Solutions and is seeking a Principal Architect to lead the technical design and client delivery of its AI-native security offerings. This role serves as the technical anchor for the practice, responsible for setting architectural standards, owning the Statement of Work (SOW) narrative, and acting as the senior escalation point for engagements. The Principal Architect will work collaboratively with an AI Security Consultant and an AI Security Engineer. While the AI Security Consultant handles individual engagement discovery and requirements, the Principal Architect is responsible for defining what gets built and how it is scoped across the practice. This role involves operating as the senior technical resource on client engagements from architecture design through delivery oversight, requiring executive presence to engage with CISO, CTO, and CIO level stakeholders. Success in this position demands genuine dual expertise in both AI/ML systems and security architecture.

Requirements

8–12 years in solutions architecture; T-shaped profile with deep expertise across both AI/ML systems and security architecture, and enough breadth across the broader technology landscape to contribute credibly beyond the security domain when needed
Can design agentic AI systems from scratch AND identify their attack surface without needing a security person to translate
Comfortable getting hands dirty — uses AI-assisted development tools to prototype and validate ideas quickly; treats implementation as a thinking tool, not just a downstream deliverable
Proactive and curious by default — tracks the AI security landscape independently, brings new ideas to the practice without waiting to be asked, and finds ways to move fast in ambiguous situations
Deep cloud architecture experience (Azure, AWS, or GCP) with security-native design patterns: zero trust, least privilege, IAM/NHI design
Familiarity with MITRE ATT&CK, OWASP (traditional and Agentic Top 10), NIST AI RMF — able to apply them in architecture design, not just cite them
Strong SDLC and DevSecOps architectural knowledge — understands where security controls fit in the development lifecycle
Executive presence — can hold a room with a CTO and CISO simultaneously and keep both engaged
Experience in professional services, consulting, or managed services delivery — knows how to scope work, protect margin, and manage client expectations
Demonstrated ability to define and own SOW language, acceptance criteria, and delivery phasing

Nice To Haves

Prior experience building or growing a practice, not just delivering into one
Experience with WWT partner ecosystem (Palo Alto Prisma, Microsoft Defender, Cisco Hypershield, Snyk)
Delivered at an enterprise IT services firm (Accenture, Deloitte, Cognizant, KPMG, IBM)

Responsibilities

Set and maintain architectural standards across all Digital + Security offerings, ensuring repeatability, quality, and margin integrity across engagements
Own the technical SOW narrative: scope definitions, assumptions, acceptance criteria, and phasing for all practice engagements
Lead technical discovery workshops on strategic or complex engagements — assessing current-state AI and SDLC maturity, identifying security exposure, and defining target architecture; hand off day-to-day discovery execution to the Consultant on standard engagements
Design end-to-end solutions across CI/CD security hardening, AI vulnerability assessment, and AI-native security feedback loop engagements
Co-present findings and solution designs alongside the Consultant at CISO, CTO, and CIO-level stakeholders — providing architectural depth and translating between engineering complexity and business risk language
Mentor the AI Security Consultant and AI Security Engineer; serve as the senior escalation point on delivery across all engagements
Get hands-on with prototypes and proof-of-concept implementations — leveraging AI-assisted development tools to move quickly from architectural concept to working demo, helping the practice stay ahead of a fast-moving threat and technology landscape
Collaborate with WWT partner ecosystem (Palo Alto, Cisco, Microsoft, AWS, Snyk) to integrate partner capabilities into joint architectures
Own the technical architecture of the AI-native security agentic system end-to-end — from initial implementation through iterative evolution; incorporating lessons from client engagements, emerging threat models, and partner capability changes into versioned architectural updates that propagate across all active and future deployments, establishing the framework within which the AI Security Engineer implements and customizes solutions for individual client engagements
Define the architectural approach to AI governance and compliance for regulated client environments — establishing the design patterns for audit trails, model provenance, data lineage, and access logging that the AI Security Engineer implements, ensuring they hold up to regulatory scrutiny in sectors such as banking and financial services
Actively track the evolving AI threat and adversarial research landscape — monitoring emerging attack techniques against agentic systems, evaluating their relevance to the practice’s client base, and feeding findings back into architectural standards, offering updates, and team knowledge; this is an ongoing responsibility, not a background activity
Contribute to practice growth: offering development, reusable accelerators, and go-to-market positioning in partnership with practice leadership