Associate Director, AI Enterprise Architect, EY-Parthenon

Responsibilities

• Advising clients on AI target architectures and evaluating architectural options against business objectives, value creation opportunities, investment constraints and risk considerations
• Structure ambiguous client problems into hypotheses, analyses and actionable recommendations
• Designing end-to-end AI target architectures spanning data foundations, models, orchestration, integration, security, enterprise systems and the operating model required to run them
• Assessing AI, technology and data maturity of enterprises including the credibility of data/AI claims, the durability of application landscape, infrastructure and data to scale AI in a enterprise context and translating findings into executive recommendations, investment priorities and transformation roadmaps
• Defining AI solutions for targeted use cases or complex AI products that span across value streams that are underpinned by existing enterprise IT & data landscapes, including prioritisation of use cases based on value, feasibility, scalability and strategic relevance
• Develop board-ready recommendations on AI-enabled growth, productivity and transformation opportunities
• Developing the technical and economic case for AI, including inference and token costs, infrastructure requirements, cost-to-serve, gross-margin sensitivity and build, buy or partner decisions
• Advising on AI governance, security, data residency, responsible AI and relevant regulatory requirements, including the EU AI Act and the evolving UK regulatory environment
• Guiding prototyping teams and using prototypes to test strategic, operational, commercial and technical assumptions
• Defining architecture standards, reference patterns, assessment frameworks, strategy and assessment frameworks and reusable technical assets for the practice
• Communicating strategic implications, investment trade-offs, architecture decisions and technical risks clearly to boards, investment committees, executive teams and non-technical stakeholders
• Supporting proposals, technical workshops and pursuit meetings, acting as a credibility anchor on complex AI questions and leading executive workshops, client problem-solving sessions and strategic discussions
• Coaching colleagues and building AI architecture capability across EY-Parthenon and the wider EY organisation, including engagement teams comprising strategy consultants and technical specialists
  Successful candidates will combine deep technical expertise with the ability to operate effectively in a strategy consulting environment They will be intellectually curious, commercially aware and able to form clear judgements under significant time pressure

• Strong enterprise architecture experience across AI, data, applications, integration, infrastructure, security and operating-model considerations
• A practical understanding of generative AI, machine learning, foundation models, retrieval architectures, orchestration, agentic patterns and modern data platforms
• Experience designing AI or machine-learning systems that progressed beyond proof of concept into sustained production use
• Practical familiarity with Python and AI development approaches sufficient to review technical designs, guide prototyping efforts and challenge technical assumptions
• Experience with cloud-native and hybrid environments, including at least one of AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform
• Working knowledge of modern data platforms such as Databricks or Snowflake, and integration with core enterprise systems
• A strong understanding of AI unit economics and the difference between a successful demonstration and a system that is affordable, scalable and supportable in production
• Familiarity with emerging AI architectures, agentic systems and enterprise AI design patterns

• Strong answer-first communication and the ability to structure complex technical questions under demanding deadlines
• The ability to explain an architecture decision, technical risk or investment requirement clearly to a non-technical executive audience
• Evidence of constructively influencing senior stakeholders, including where the appropriate recommendation is to stop, redesign or defer an initiative
• The confidence to form a defensible view using incomplete information while being clear about assumptions and limitations
• Experience operating under compressed transaction or executive decision‑making timelines
• A collaborative and low-ego working style, with a willingness to operate as an integrated member of a…