AI Architect

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Full Time Colorado Springs, CO, US

2 days ago Requisition

Scientific Applications & Research Associates, Inc. (SARA) is a world-class Defense Research and Development enterprise, with a charter to create new and emerging technological innovations in support of Commercial & Government organizations. We have expertise in RF, EMP, Pulsed Power, Acoustics and Threat Warning Systems, and we prioritize partnering with our customers to address real-world problems with cost-effective solutions… that work.

The SARA High Power Electromagnetics Division (HPEM) is looking for a remarkably talented, motivated, and imaginative AI Architect to join our growing enterprise AI capability at our Colorado Springs, CO location. Working alongside our current AI Architect, this individual will help expand and accelerate the adoption of secure, practical AI solutions across business and technical functions.

The role combines hands-on architecture and implementation with technical leadership, focusing on secure onsite/private LLM deployments, enterprise data integration, and production-ready AI workflows. The AI Architect will contribute to shared platform architecture, governance, evaluation standards, and production lifecycle management while taking ownership of assigned initiatives from requirements definition through deployment and ongoing improvement.

The AI Architect will collaborate with our current AI Architect, executive leadership, IT, cybersecurity, data owners, engineering teams, and external partners to deliver AI-enabled workflows that improve decision-making, automate routine analysis, and increase efficiency. Success will be measured by adoption, business value realization, and reliable, sustainable production operations.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with the current AI Architect to advance the enterprise AI strategy, roadmap, and architectural standards
• Lead assigned AI initiatives from discovery and requirements definition through implementation, deployment, and ongoing support
• Work with business and technical stakeholders to identify, prioritize, and deliver high-value AI use cases
• Architect, implement, and maintain secure onsite and private LLM deployments.
• Evaluate and select AI tools, models, platforms, and architectures based on capability, security, maintainability, and cost
• Design and implement Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, enterprise data integrations, model hosting, and inference workflows
• Develop secure integrations with enterprise applications, databases, and services, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) interfaces where appropriate
• Contribute to reusable platform capabilities, integration patterns, and deployment practices that enable adoption across additional business areas
• Partner with IT and cybersecurity to ensure AI systems meet applicable security, privacy, access control, and governance requirements
• Establish and apply evaluation methods for model quality, retrieval accuracy, reliability, performance, and business outcomes
• Develop and maintain AI usage guidelines, guardrails, and technical documentation in collaboration with the current AI Architect
• Support internal training, user onboarding, and adoption efforts
• Monitor deployed AI systems and improve performance, usability, resource utilization, and business value over time

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related field
• 8 – 10 years of professional experience in AI, software engineering, data science, enterprise systems, or a related technical field
• 5+ years of experience leading…