Lead AI Architect (AI)

TL;DR

Lead AI Architect (AI/AWS): Designing and building a centralized data lake and AI platform to consolidate internal data and enable AI experimentation with an accent on reference architectures and safety guardrails. Focus on scaling model selection, RAG implementation, and ensuring data governance across multiple business units.

Location: United States

Compensation: CAD $180,000 – $240,000 plus performance bonus

Company

hirify.global acquires and grows vertical market software businesses worldwide, providing a permanent home for software companies to modernize through shared AI expertise.

What you will do

• Define and own the target-state data and AI architecture for Banyan.
• Design and build a centralized data lake on AWS using S3, Glue, Lake Formation, Athena, and Redshift.
• Develop a reference architecture for AI, including model selection, RAG, evaluation, and observability.
• Establish data contracts, schema standards, and security guardrails for PII and confidential data.
• Act as a player-coach, writing code and shipping infrastructure while mentoring a growing platform team.
• Collaborate with Senior Business Analysts to translate functional use cases into platform requirements.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience building production-scale data and AI platforms.
• Deep hands-on expertise with AWS (S3, IAM, Bedrock, SageMaker, EKS/ECS, Glue).
• Strong knowledge of lakehouse patterns and open table formats (Iceberg, Delta, or Hudi).
• Proficiency in Python and SQL, and experience with Terraform or AWS CDK.
• Proven experience as a player-coach, leading small teams and setting engineering bars.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field.

Nice to have

• Experience in private-equity-backed or holding-company environments.
• Track record of designing AI guardrails for non-public or regulated data.
• Experience with Snowflake or Databricks.
• Previous experience as an early platform hire at a growth-stage company.

Culture & Benefits

• Greenfield opportunity with a dedicated budget and high ownership of architecture.
• Long-term investment horizon focused on compounding value rather than quarterly optimization.
• Culture of accountable autonomy and trust in professional execution.
• Competitive compensation package with meaningful long-term upside.
• Environment that treats AI as a serious operational capability.