Lead AI Architect

Job Summary

We are seeking a visionary AI Architect to serve as the technical cornerstone of our artificial intelligence strategy. You will design the entire ecosystem that models live in, defining the high‑level structure of our AI systems, ensuring scalability, security and seamless integration with our enterprise infrastructure.

• Define end‑to‑end architecture for AI solutions, encompassing data pipelines, model storage, inference engines and front‑end integration.
• Evaluate and select the optimal technology stack, including LLMs, vector databases and orchestration frameworks.
• Establish MLOps best practices for consistent coding standards, model versioning and deployment strategies.
• Design scalable systems capable of handling massive data throughput and low‑latency inference for real‑time applications.
• Architect Human‑in‑the‑loop systems and guardrails to ensure data privacy, compliance (GDPR/CCPA) and AI safety.
• Serve as the technical liaison between Data Science, Dev Ops and Product teams to align the AI roadmap with infrastructure capabilities.
• Mentor senior engineers and present complex architectural decisions to the C‑suite.

• 5+ years in software engineering or data science, with at least 3 years in an architectural role.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, microservices architecture, API design and cloud‑native patterns.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform or Ansible.
• Expert‑level knowledge of cloud platforms such as AWS Sage Maker, Azure ML or GCP Vertex AI.
• Mastery of the AI lifecycle:
  PyTorch, Tensor Flow, Kubeflow, MLflow or BentoML.
• Expert understanding of Generative AI, Transformer architectures, RAG and fine‑tuning methodologies.
• Experience in enterprise integration, especially migrating legacy systems to AI‑augmented workflows.
• Strategic thinking and the ability to anticipate 12–24 months ahead in AI trends.
• Proficiency in cost management, especially optimizing cloud spend for GPU/TPU resources.
• Exceptional communication skills for documenting architectural patterns and leading technical design reviews.

Required:

Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology or a closely related field. Preferred:
Master’s Degree.

• Seven (7) years in an IT discipline or business discipline.
• Preferred industry certifications:
  Java Developer, DB2, PEGA, Enterprise Architect (SCEA) or Project Management.

• Databases: DB2, Oracle, Teradata.
• Data Warehousing, Cognos, Hadoop, SQL.
• Programming: COBAL, Visual Basic, C, C++, SAS, Java/JavaScript, CSS3, Mobile, JSON, J2EE, HTML5/XML.
• Frameworks: PEGA, Cognos, Hadoop.
• Project Management Tools:
  Waterfall, Agile.

This role does not supervise other employees.

Travel is required.

The job description indicates the general nature and essential duties of work performed by employees within this job title and may not contain a comprehensive inventory of all duties.

Employees must comply with HIPAA, company privacy policies and security guidelines. All employees must adhere to the Company’s Code of Business Conduct and all applicable federal, state and local laws.

Highmark Health and its affiliates prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on veteran status, disabilities and all categories protected by applicable federal, state or local law.

We endeavor to make this site accessible to all users. For accommodation requests, contact HR Services Online at HRServices.

Pay Range: $ – $ per annum, with additional geographic differential adjustments.