Solution Architect: AI & Automation

American Electric Power • Columbus, OH

18h

About The Position

At American Electric Power, the AI Solutions & Enablement team develops the platforms, guardrails, and solutions that help teams across the company work more effectively through artificial intelligence and enterprise automation. We are looking for an experienced Solution Architect to support solution architecture across that portfolio by contributing to reference architectures, evaluating the right capability for each business problem, and applying enterprise standards through practical engineering guardrails. This role will provide architecture support and technical guidance across internal teams and vendor partners, while remaining hands-on enough to validate patterns, help remove delivery blockers, and strengthen solutions in production when needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or related technical field is required.
• 6 years of relevant work experience is required.
• An equivalent combination of education and related experience may be considered.
• Experience contributing to the design of enterprise solutions across more than one capability, including AI/ML, process automation, integration, or data, with the ability to evaluate options deliberately.
• Experience with enterprise AI, automation, integration, and cloud platforms, including Azure, AWS, Microsoft Power Platform, Copilot, and related API and integration services, with the ability to evaluate when each technology is the appropriate fit.
• Experience applying or contributing to tool selection criteria, reference patterns, and solution blueprints used by other teams.
• Strong AI/ML workflow and practical MLOps knowledge, plus working experience with enterprise automation and integration patterns; hands-on when needed.
• Security and governance fundamentals applied to AI and automated systems, with experience reviewing vendor technical deliverables and spotting risks early.
• Effective communication and collaboration across business, technical, and vendor teams; balances standards with delivery realities and stays current with emerging practices.

Responsibilities

• Design solutions using the optimal mix of architectures across AI, automation, integration, and data.
• Contribute to and maintain reference architectures, reusable components, and standard patterns spanning AI/ML and process automation solutions.
• Work with business and technical teams to translate defined needs into scalable, secure designs that internal teams and vendor partners can implement consistently.
• Evaluate AI and automation platforms and services using established enterprise criteria, identify overlap and gaps, and provide recommendations on capabilities to standardize, retire, or pilot.
• Apply and help refine criteria for when each tool is the appropriate choice, including tradeoffs, constraints, and fit-for-purpose considerations.
• Translate those criteria into practical decision guidance, such as selection frameworks, comparison tools, and worked examples, that business partners and delivery teams can use when evaluating solution options.
• Support the development and improvement of the internal AI and automation platforms and development environments teams use to build solutions, including cloud AI services and process automation platforms.
• Create templates, starter kits, and reusable repositories that reduce friction from build to deploy for engineers, data scientists, and citizen builders.
• Apply responsible AI and automation standards through architecture reviews, established checklists, and controls.
• Support solution designs that incorporate security, governance, reliability, and operability, including strong identity and access controls, auditability, observability, maintainability, and attention to the risks unattended automations can introduce.
• Review vendor architectures, code, and technical deliveries for fit, security, operability, and alignment to internal standards and patterns.
• Provide technical guidance, help resolve delivery issues, and support alignment among stakeholders.

Benefits

• Base salary
• Annual bonus
• Long-term incentive
• 401(k) match
• AEP Pension
• Comprehensive benefits package designed to support and enhance the overall well-being of employees.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior