AI Solution Architect

About the project: 

Softjourn is looking for an AI Solution Architect to drive high-impact client engagements across different domains and delivery contexts. This is a highly consultative role, not tied to a single product, stack, or industry. The architect will act as the strategic bridge between deep technical execution and high-level business goals, working confidently across modern applied AI systems, LLM-based applications, agentic workflows, cloud platforms, integrations, and production delivery constraints.
The role combines solution architecture, applied AI judgment, pre-sales support, and client-facing technical leadership. The AI Solution Architect should be able to take an ambiguous business problem, identify whether AI is actually useful, shape the solution options, estimate delivery, explain risks and tradeoffs, and guide the team toward a production-ready architecture.
This is not a research-only or prompt-only role. The ideal candidate has a strong engineering and architecture foundation, understands modern AI platforms and delivery patterns, and can connect AI decisions to ROI, operational efficiency, delivery risk, cloud cost, security, maintainability, and long-term business value.

Expected availability: Full-time or Part-time (at least 20 hours/week).

Requirements:

• 7+ years of total software development, architecture, or technical IT delivery experience;
• 2+ years of experience in a Solution Architect, Software Architect, AI Architect, or comparable architecture role;
• 2+ years of practical experience with applied AI, LLM-based systems, AI-enabled products, or AI platform delivery;
• Strong hands-on software engineering background, including the ability to write or review production-quality code, APIs, integrations, data flows, tests, and maintainable implementation approaches in ecosystems such as Python, Node.js, Java, .NET, or comparable production stacks;
• Experience designing architecture for complex production or enterprise-grade systems;
• Practical experience shaping AI-enabled solutions such as LLM applications, RAG systems, AI assistants, agentic workflows, AI-enabled automation, or custom AI tool integrations;
• Practical understanding of modern AI model providers and AI platforms, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Llama/open-weight models, Azure AI Foundry, AWS Bedrock, or GCP Vertex AI;
• Practical understanding of AI delivery patterns and frameworks, including orchestration, evaluation, guardrails, latency, cost, security, and production readiness using tools such as LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI, or comparable frameworks;
• Experience with RAG architecture, including data preparation, chunking, embeddings, retrieval quality, vector/search systems such as Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant, Chroma, Milvus, Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, or comparable platforms, permissions, freshness, and grounding;
• Experience with LLM evaluation and iterative improvement, including quality criteria, benchmarks, monitoring, human review, or comparable validation methods;
• Experience designing or implementing agentic workflows, tool-using AI systems, multi-step workflows, or AI automation over internal or third-party systems;
• Strong knowledge of at least one major cloud platform such as AWS, Azure, or GCP;
• Practical understanding of cloud-native delivery foundations such as Docker, Kubernetes or comparable orchestration, Kafka or comparable messaging/event streaming, DevOps, CI/CD, monitoring, and operational constraints;
• Experience with data platforms relevant to AI workloads, such as Postgres, Redis, Cassandra, BigQuery, operational databases, caches, warehouses, vector databases, search systems, or analytics platforms;
• Ability to lead discovery, clarify requirements, identify assumptions and risks, shape solution options, and estimate delivery under uncertainty;
• Ability to create clear architecture documentation, diagrams, executive summaries, high-level WBS, assumptions, risks, and decision records for technical and business audiences;
• Ability to guide delivery teams, review implementation direction, identify architectural drift, and adjust the solution as projects evolve;
• Strong problem-solving, troubleshooting, facilitation, stakeholder management, and consultative leadership skills;
• Upper-intermediate level of English.

 

Will be a plus:

• Experience in finance, ticketing, media, payments, or similar client domains;
• Deep hands-on experience with specific AI orchestration frameworks, agent frameworks, vector databases, or AI observability/evaluation tools beyond basic usage;
• Experience with multiple model providers or AI platforms, rather than only one ecosystem;
• Experience building MCP-style server/client patterns, custom AI tools, or other protocol-based AI extensions;
• Experience with AI safety, responsible AI, governance, or guardrails in regulated or high-sensitivity environments;
• Experience with multiple cloud providers rather than only one;
• Experience in consulting, agency, pre-sales-heavy, or client-facing delivery environments;
• Experience with Salesforce, ServiceNow, ERP, data platforms, or enterprise application integration;
• Experience with code audits, architecture assessments, modernization assessments, or AI opportunity assessments;
• Experience leading R&D, proof-of-concept initiatives, reusable AI accelerators, or internal knowledge-sharing;
• Experience creating C-level executive summaries, SRS documents, ADRs, or architecture assessment reports. 

 

Responsibilities:

• Lead AI-focused discovery by clarifying business goals, workflows, users, data readiness, integration needs, constraints, success criteria, and expected business value;
• Translate ambiguous client needs into concrete AI solution options, architecture decisions, technical tasks, delivery assumptions, and risk areas;
• Design and guide the delivery of LLM-based applications, RAG systems, tool-using agents, and agentic workflows from prototype through production-ready architecture;
• Evaluate foundation models, AI platforms, orchestration approaches, retrieval patterns, tool-use designs, and deployment options against client use cases, constraints, and budget;
• Define LLM evaluation approaches, including offline benchmarks, online monitoring, human-in-the-loop review, measurable quality criteria, and improvement loops;
• Measure and improve AI system performance across quality, relevance, faithfulness, latency, reliability, throughput, and cost;
• Design deployment and serving approaches for AI systems on cloud platforms with attention to scalability, reliability, security, observability, and cost efficiency;
• Prepare architecture documentation, diagrams, solution options, executive summaries, high-level WBS, assumptions, risks, and architecture decision records;
• Work with Sales, PMs, BAs, delivery teams, executives, and clients to support pre-sales, estimation, proposal shaping, and delivery handoff;
• Communicate technical decisions, AI limitations, operational expenses, and delivery tradeoffs clearly to teammates, product stakeholders, executives, and clients;
• Consult delivery teams during implementation, review technical approaches, identify architectural drift or AI-specific delivery risk, and adjust the solution as projects evolve;
• Build prototypes, review code, or contribute hands-on technical work when needed to validate feasibility and guide delivery;
• Contribute reusable internal tools, skills, integrations, AI patterns, and architecture guidance that improve future client delivery.

 

Responsible recruiter: Khrystyna Kolisnyk

 

About us:

Softjourn is a full-cycle consulting and software development company, with expert product teams experienced in Fintech, Media & Entertainment, with a special emphasis on Ticketing. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, with R&D offices in Ukraine, Poland, and Brazil, Softjourn is a global software development company with over 20 years of experience.

Softjourn has been honored as a veteran-friendly business by the Veteran Hub in Ukraine. We are committed to creating a supportive environment for veterans and implementing processes that address their needs. We highly value the unique skills and perspectives that military veterans bring to our company and are dedicated to assisting their transition to the workforce.

Softjourn Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity in all forms and are committed to maintaining a discrimination-free workplace that treats applicants and employees with dignity and respect. Our employment process is conducted without regard to race, color, religion, nationality or ethnic background, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or other attributes protected by state, federal, and local law.