Principal AI Architect
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About the Role
As an AI Architect within Thoughtworks' Data & AI Service Line, you will be at the forefront of helping our clients design, build, and scale enterprise-grade AI systems. You will operate as a trusted technical leader and advisor — shaping AI strategy, establishing architectural patterns, and delivering impactful solutions that create measurable business value.
This is a hands-on, consulting-first role. You'll partner with client stakeholders across industries, lead multidisciplinary teams, and bring Thoughtworks' hallmark of technical excellence to every engagement — from early discovery through to production.
About Thoughtworks & the Data & AI Service Line
Thoughtworks is a global technology consultancy that integrates strategy, design and engineering to drive digital innovation. Our Data & AI Service Line partners with forward-thinking organizations to harness the power of data and artificial intelligence — building the foundations, capabilities, and solutions needed to compete in an AI-native world.
Our practice spans the full AI lifecycle: from data strategy and modern data platforms to machine learning engineering, generative AI, responsible AI, and MLOps. We work with enterprises across financial services, healthcare, retail, media, and the public sector, delivering outcomes that matter.
What You'll Do
AI Architecture & Solution Design
- Architect scalable, production-ready AI and ML systems, including LLM-powered applications, agentic frameworks, and real-time inference platforms
- Define and deliver end-to-end technical blueprints covering model development, data pipelines, serving infrastructure, monitoring, and governance
- Lead the design of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, fine-tuning pipelines, and model evaluation frameworks
- Evaluate and recommend AI/ML platforms, cloud-native services (AWS, GCP, Azure), vector databases, and open-source tooling
Client Advisory & Consulting
- Act as a strategic AI advisor to C-suite and senior technical stakeholders, translating business challenges into AI-driven solutions
- Lead architecture discovery workshops, technical due diligence, and capability assessments
- Shape and present compelling technical proposals, RFP responses, and point-of-view documents
- Navigate complex client organisations, managing stakeholder expectations and building lasting trust
Engineering Leadership
- Lead and mentor cross-functional teams of engineers, data scientists, and ML practitioners on client engagements
- Define engineering standards, architectural principles, and best practices for AI systems
- Champion responsible AI practices including fairness, explainability, privacy, and security by design
- Drive hands-on delivery — this is not a purely advisory role; you will write code, review designs, and unblock teams
Practice & Community
- Contribute to Thoughtworks' AI practice development: thought leadership, internal accelerators, reusable frameworks, and IP
- Represent Thoughtworks at conferences, publish articles, and engage with the broader AI community
- Mentor and grow the next generation of AI practitioners within the firm
What You'll Bring
Technical Expertise
- 8+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, or ML engineering, with at least 3 years in a senior architecture or technical leadership role
- Deep expertise in designing and deploying ML and AI systems at scale — spanning classical ML, deep learning, and generative AI
- Strong command of LLM ecosystems: prompt engineering, fine-tuning, RLHF, RAG architectures, LangChain, LlamaIndex, or equivalent frameworks
- Proficiency in Python and familiarity with ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face, scikit-learn)
- Solid grounding in data architecture: streaming (Kafka, Spark), lakehouses, feature stores, and vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector)
- Hands-on experience with cloud AI services across AWS (SageMaker, Bedrock), GCP (Vertex AI), or Azure (Azure ML, OpenAI Service)
- Familiarity with MLOps and LLMOps practices: CI/CD for ML, model registries, A/B testing, drift detection, and observability
Consulting & Leadership Skills
- Demonstrated experience operating in a consulting or professional services environment, managing client relationships and delivering on commercial commitments
- Ability to communicate complex AI concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
- Proven track record of leading delivery teams in agile environments, with experience across the full software development lifecycle
- Comfortable operating with ambiguity — adept at framing problems, structuring workstreams, and driving clarity
Nice to Have
- Experience with autonomous AI agents, multi-agent systems, or AI orchestration frameworks
- Contributions to open-source AI/ML projects or published research
- Domain expertise in one or more verticals: financial services, healthcare, retail, or the public sector
- Familiarity with AI governance frameworks, EU AI Act, or responsible AI toolkits (e.g. IBM AI Fairness 360, Microsoft Responsible AI)
Other things to know
Learning & Development
There is no one-size-fits-all career path at Thoughtworks: however you want to develop your career is entirely up to you. But we also balance autonomy with the strength of our cultivation culture. This means your career is supported by interactive tools, numerous development programs and teammates who want to help you grow. We see value in helping each other be our best and that extends to empowering our employees in their career journeys.
Responsible Use of AI in Recruitment
At Thoughtworks, we use AI tools to support our recruitment team with administrative tasks such as drafting communications, scheduling interviews and writing job descriptions.
Crucially, our AI tools do not screen, assess, rank or make hiring decisions. Every application is reviewed by our team and all selection decisions are made exclusively by our interviewers and hiring managers.
We are committed to fairness and responsible AI. We actively manage our AI systems by testing, monitoring for biased outcomes and implementing mitigation measures. We hold our third-party vendors to these same high standards through a rigorous governance process. For additional information, please see our full Thoughtworks AI Policy for Recruitment.
EEO
Thoughtworks is an equal-opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind and are dedicated to providing a work environment free from discrimination and harassment. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, stermination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.
Thoughtworks is also an affirmative action employer of veterans and individuals with disabilities.
For additional information, please see the Thoughtworks, Inc. Equal Employment Opportunity & Affirmative Action Policy Statement.
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