Lead IT Architect - AI Platforms
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
- Collaborative. They are interdisciplinary team players who build strong working relationships across engineering, data, product, and client teams to drive alignment and delivery.
- Systems thinkers. They design robust AI platform and agentic system architectures that address complex business problems while balancing scalability, performance, and maintainability.
- Technical leaders. They bring strong AI and platform engineering expertise to guide architectural decisions and shape high-quality technical solutions.
- Comfortable with ambiguity. They operate effectively when requirements are evolving, helping teams navigate uncertainty and converge on pragmatic architectural choices.
- Change drivers. They support organizations in adopting new AI platforms, processes, and ways of working, helping teams transition solutions from concept to production.
- Agile practitioners. They apply agile and iterative delivery approaches to guide teams through complex technical challenges and evolving solution designs.
- Innovative. They apply modern AI platform and agentic design patterns to enable the next generation of AI-enabled products and capabilities.
- Practitioner-architects. They combine hands-on technical experience with architectural thinking, contributing directly where needed while guiding broader solution design.
- Trusted partners. They work closely with senior client stakeholders and internal leaders to translate business needs into scalable AI platform architectures that align with enterprise technology strategies., We are seeking a Lead AI Platform Architect to design and guide the implementation of intelligent, agentic AI platforms. This role bridges platform architecture and hands-on technical leadership, ideal for someone who can design end-to-end AI platform solutions while remaining close to implementation through prototyping and architectural validation. You will work across AI, data, product, and engineering teams to define and deliver scalable AI architectures that integrate large language models (LLMs), data pipelines, and enterprise systems.
AI Architecture & Solution Design
- Design system architectures for AI and LLM-based solutions, balancing scalability, performance, modularity, and operational complexity.
- Evaluate emerging Ai frameworks and tooling (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndez, LangGraph, Strands, Google ADK, Semantic Kernel, etc.) and recommend fit-for-purpose usage.
- Design agentic AI solutions to enable intelligent workflow automation, including task decomposition, memory usage, and orchestration patterns.
- Define AI integration patterns such as RAG for context management, model orchestration, prompt workflows, and enterprise system connectivity.
- Contribute to architectural standards and design principles for model lifecycle management, data lineage, and responsible AI practices.
- Support architecture decisions for hybrid pipelines (batch training, real-time inference) with consideration for cost, latency, and operational risk.
Prototyping & Validation
- Develop proof-of-concepts and architectural prototypes to validate AI platform designs, RAG flows, and agent orchestration patterns.
- Support implementation of agentic workflows using modern orchestration and automation platforms in collaboration with engineering teams.
Implementation Management and Support
- Support teams and clients as AI platforms transition from prototype to production environments.
- Contribute to system performance, observability, and governance approaches as solutions scale.
- Help define development standards for versioning, testing, deployment, and monitoring of AI services and models (LLMOps).
Communication and Collaboration
- Translate complex AI platform concepts into clear narratives for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Deliver structured presentations, lead technical discussions, and support client decision-making.
- Collaborate closely with product managers, data scientists, and engineers to align architecture with business objectives.
- Facilitate technical working sessions and design workshops, providing architectural guidance and hands-on mentorship.
- Provide direction and constructive feedback on key technical work items across teams.
Team Management
- Support and guide junior team members by helping structure their work and technical approach.
- Mentor junior architects and technology consultants through ongoing feedback and development conversations.
- Provide quality assurance by reviewing outputs for technical correctness, clarity, and architectural alignment.
- Contribute to a positive team environment and model BCG's culture and values.
Innovation and Growth
- Stay current on emerging techniques in agentic AI, RAG architectures, retrieval strategies, and AI platform patterns.
- Contribute ideas that improve AI platform architectures, delivery approaches, and client outcomes.
- Develop depth as a go-to expert in AI platform and agentic system design within project teams.
- Continuously build skills and technical breadth to increase impact over time.
- Support business development through technical input, architecture sections of proposals, and solution shaping.
- Build strong working relationships with client counterparts and internal stakeholders.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, engineering, or a related field (Master's degree is a plus).
- 6+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, or AI systems with experience in architecture or technical leadership roles.
- Strong foundation in software architecture and distributed systems.
- Experience designing AI/ML or LLM-based systems in production or near-production environments.
- Proficiency in one or more programming languages (e.g., Python, Javascript, TypeScript) is nice to have.
- Experience using modern AI-assisted coding and development tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, Replit, Lovable) to accelerate prototyping experimentation, and implementation of AI platform solutions.
- Familiarity with modern AI agentic frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, LlamaIndex, etc.).
- Working knowledge of agentic AI concepts including RAG, multi-agent orchestration, memory patterns, vector databases, and function-calling.
- Understanding of Cloud architecture, data platforms, and API-based system integration, with depth in at least one hyperscaler (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform).
- Experience of deploying AI solutions on cloud AI platforms and services
- Integration of AI workflow with enterprise systems and data sources
- Exposure to containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
- Experience with AI developer tools and productivity accelerators is a plus.
- Familiarity with vector databases and retrieval patterns; exposure to Pinecone, Qdrant, Aure Search, or similar is beneficial.
- Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving skills, and attention to engineering quality.
- Ability to explain technical concepts clearly to senior technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Consulting mindset with comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.
- Agile mindset with a focus on delivering business value through modern AI platforms.
- Willingness to travel to work with clients and BCG teams as needed.
- Gen AI fluency (e.g., proven usage of GenAI such as ChatGPT, Claude) and validation of response.
Benefits & conditions
At BCG, we care about our people, and offer best in class benefits to support you personally and professionally including:
- An opportunity to work organically across disciplines and across BCG, we offer a unified and unrivaled opportunity that combines strategic thinking with hands-on applications.
- A unique experience to work alongside a team of passionate and driven problem-solvers with a mission to deliver innovative and valuable digital solutions in a supportive environment.
For U.S. Applicants:
The base compensation for this role is $190,000 in USD.
In addition to your base salary, you will also be eligible for an annual discretionary performance bonus and BCG's Profit Sharing and Retirement Fund (PSRF) contribution. BCG also provides a market leading benefits package described below.
At BCG, we are committed to offering a comprehensive benefit program that includes everything our employees and their families need to be well and live life to the fullest. We pay the full cost of medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees - and their eligible family members.* That's zero dollars in premiums taken from employee paychecks. All our plans provide best in class coverage:
- Zero dollar ($0) health insurance premiums for BCG employees, spouses, and children.
- $10 (USD) copays for trips to the doctor, urgent care visits and prescriptions for generic drugs.
- Dental coverage, including up to $5,000 (USD) in orthodontia benefits.
- Vision insurance with coverage for both glasses and contact lenses annually.
- Reimbursement for gym memberships and other fitness activities.
- Fully vested retirement contributions made annually, whether you contribute or not.
- Generous paid time off including vacation, holidays, and annual office closure between Christmas and New Years.
- Paid Parental Leave and other family benefits such as elective egg freezing, surrogacy, and adoption reimbursement.
*Employees, spouses, and children are covered at no cost. Employees share in the cost of domestic partner coverage.