Principal Architect, AI Platform
BMO Financial Group2 hours ago
Toronto, CanadaStaff+
Base Salary
$95k - $176k/yr
Responsibilities
- Define and maintain enterprise AI target architectures, reference architectures, standards, and platform guardrails.
- Set architectural direction across AI platform, Developer Experience, Security, DevOps, Data Engineering, and domain teams.
- Provide governance and Architecture Review Board representation for major AI initiatives, evaluating scalability, security, cost, residency, Responsible AI, and regulatory fit.
- Serve as architectural authority to the Microsoft AI Council, preparing decisions, adjudicating boundaries, and escalating unresolved disputes.
- Ensure the Control Plane, Domain Orchestration, and domain-owned execution form a coherent governed architecture.
- Oversee BMO’s Microsoft AI surface, including Copilot, Copilot Studio, Fabric Copilot, Microsoft Agent 365, citizen governance, and AI Registry federation.
- Assess emerging AI capabilities, foundation models, and architectural approaches and establish defensible positions for the bank.
- Partner with platform, developer experience, and domain solution architecture teams to implement target architecture and conforming patterns.
- Mentor architects and principal engineers and raise architectural consistency across the function.
- Steward transition architectures for AI platforms moving toward enterprise ownership.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline is required; a master’s degree is preferred.
- 10+ years of experience in software engineering, solution architecture, and enterprise architecture, including substantial principal or senior architect experience.
- 3+ years focused on AI/ML and GenAI architecture, including hands-on exposure to production GenAI systems.
- Experience with RAG, agentic workflows, model serving, guardrails, prompt patterns, fine-tuning, foundation models, embeddings, and vector stores.
- Experience establishing cross-team or cross-organizational architectural authority, standards, and governance without direct reporting lines.
- Experience architecting AI in a regulated industry and understanding model-risk management and regulatory expectations such as OSFI or OCC.
- Knowledge of AI gateways, Cedar, OPA, workload identity, zero-trust, SPIFFE, SPIRE, federated identity, guardrails, and AI observability.
- Multi-cloud architecture experience across AWS and Azure, including Microsoft AI surfaces and cloud security and IAM for AI workloads.
- Experience integrating AI with enterprise systems through APIs, event-driven patterns, and data services.
- Working knowledge of MLOps, LLMOps, CI/CD, and deployable and operable architecture patterns.
- Sufficient hands-on fluency, preferably in Python, to prototype and evaluate approaches.
- Deep grounding in Responsible AI, AI/data governance, privacy, and evaluation and guardrail design.
- Strong interpersonal, communication, facilitation, research, analytical, problem-solving, and executive-influence skills.
- Preferred certifications include AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty, Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure AI Engineer Associate, Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer, TOGAF, or relevant GenAI/LLM credentials.
Benefits
- Salary range is $94,600.00–$176,000.00 on a salaried basis.
- Health insurance, tuition reimbursement, accident and life insurance, and retirement savings plans are offered.
- BMO provides training, coaching, manager support, network-building opportunities, and career growth resources.
- Inclusive, equitable, and accessible workplace with accommodations available during the selection process.
- The role is based at 33 Dundas Street West; no remote or hybrid arrangement is stated.
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