Enterprise AI Principal Architect

*** THIS ROLE IS NOT ACCEPTING C2C, OPT, F1, H1B, H4 VISA HOLDERS, OR 1099 CANDIDATES
*** Our Client is seeking an exceptional Enterprise AI Principal Architect to help define the future of their current cloud platform and drive the organization's transition into AI-native software delivery. This is a strategic architecture leadership role for a proven technology leaderwho combines deep enterprise architecture experience with practical expertise in modern AI-powered engineering. The ideal candidate is capable of defining vision, influencing executives, establishing architecture standards, mentoring engineering leaders, and driving modernization efforts across a mission-critical public safety platform.  

Responsibilities
· Define and maintain the multi-year technology roadmaps.
· Establish reference architectures, standards, patterns, and governance practices.
· Drive platform modernization initiatives across applications, infrastructure, integrations, data, and AI.
· Partner with executive leadership to align technology strategy with business objectives.
· Lead architecture reviews across multiple engineering teams.
· Evaluate emerging technologies and determine strategic applicability.

Qualifications
· 10+ years of software engineering and architecture experience.
· 7+ years leading enterprise architecture, platform architecture, or principal architecture initiatives.
· Demonstrated success defining architecture strategy for large-scale enterprise platforms.
· Experience leading cloud-native modernization efforts.
· Experience establishing architecture governance and standards across multiple engineering teams.
· Strong background in distributed systems and microservices architecture.

AI Transformation
· Establish standards for spec-driven development and AI-assisted software delivery.
· Implement governance around LLM usage, agentic workflows, code generation, testing, validation, and security.
· Drive adoption of AI engineering tools such as Claude, Cursor, Git Hub Copilot, OpenAI, Azure AI, and emerging agent platforms.
· Create architecture patterns for AI-powered features.
· Develop frameworks for responsible, secure, and scalable AI implementation.

Platform Modernization
· Guide migration toward modern cloud-native architectures.
· Improve reliability, resiliency, observability, and operational readiness.
· Define event-driven and service-oriented architecture patterns.
· Partner with engineering teams on scalability and performance initiatives.
· Drive simplification of complex legacy systems and technical debt reduction.
· Experience working directly with executive stakeholders.
· Exceptional communication skills with both technical and non-technical audiences.
· Proven ability to influence organizational strategy and technology direction.

Job Type & Location This is a Contract to Hire position based out of Charlotte, NC.Pay and Benefits The pay range for this position is $73.38 - $92.94/hr individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.

Job Type & Location This is a Contract to Hire position based out of Charlotte, NC.Workplace Type This is a fully remote position.

About TEKsystems

We're partners in transformation. We help clients activate ideas and solutions to take advantage of a new world of opportunity. We are a team of 80,000 strong, working with over 6,000 clients, including 80% of the Fortune 500, across North America, Europe and Asia. As an industry leader in Full-Stack Technology Services, Talent Services, and real-world application, we work with progressive leaders to drive change.

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