Principal Architect - Remote Job Plymouth Minnesota USA,IT/Tech

Primary Responsibilities

Strategy and Business Alignment
- Define and evangelize the enterprise AI and GenAI vision, translating business strategy and outcomes into a coherent, prioritized technology roadmap
- Partner with business, product, and executive stakeholders to identify high-value AI opportunities and build the case for investment, including ROI and risk trade-offs
- Act as the primary bridge between business leadership and technical teams - able to speak fluently in both business value and technical feasibility
- Continuously scan the AI/GenAI landscape (models, platforms, frameworks, vendors) and translate emerging capabilities into practical business opportunity
Architectural Direction (not detailed design)
- Set enterprise-level direction and guardrails for AI architecture patterns (e.g., RAG, agent frameworks, model orchestration, foundation model selection) without owning detailed solution design
- Evaluate and recommend AI platforms, foundation models, and tooling based on enterprise fit, cost, scalability, and risk - partnering with solution/technical architects to execute
- Establish enterprise standards, reference patterns, and decision frameworks that solution architects and engineering teams use to design and build
- Provide "second opinion" architectural judgment on major AI initiatives - enough technical depth to ask the right questions and stress-test decisions, without being the implementer
Governance and Responsible AI
- Define enterprise-level principles and guardrails for Responsible AI - privacy, fairness, explainability, model risk, auditability - and ensure they're embedded across initiatives
- Partner with legal, compliance, and security to ensure AI initiatives meet regulatory and governance standards at a portfolio level
- Establish a lightweight governance model (not heavy process) for how new AI use cases get vetted, approved, and scaled
Communication and Influence
- Build and deliver executive-level presentations and narratives that make AI strategy and value tangible to non-technical stakeholders
- Serve as a trusted advisor and thought leader to business unit leaders on "what's possible, what's practical, and what's next" in AI
- Facilitate alignment across cross-functional and onshore/offshore teams, ensuring shared understanding of AI direction and priorities
- Represent AI strategy in forums, steering committees, and business reviews
Adoption and Change Leadership
- Drive organizational AI adoption and literacy - helping business and technical teams understand how to work with AI-first tools and practices (e.g., Copilot-assisted development, agentic workflows)
- Identify modernization opportunities where GenAI can meaningfully improve automation, insight generation, or user experience
- Track and communicate the business impact of AI initiatives, refining the roadmap based on outcomes and adoption patterns
Cross-Org Alignment and Reuse
- Stay closely connected to AI and technology initiatives across other domains and business units to identify reuse, avoid duplication, and align on shared direction before work kicks off
- Build a solid peer network across the enterprise to enable early collaboration, and represent domain AI strategy in cross-functional architecture forums
- Flag and help resolve misalignment or fragmentation risk across teams - championing reuse of existing patterns and platforms over redundant investment

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or related field, or equivalent experience
8+ years of progressive experience in technology strategy, enterprise architecture, or technology consulting
3+ years of experience focused on AI/GenAI transformation
Demonstrated experience translating business strategy into technology roadmaps and influencing…