Principal Architect, AI Platform
BMO Financial Group2 months 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.
Categories
About BMO Financial Group
BMO Financial Group is a publicly traded North American bank offering personal and commercial banking, wealth management, and capital markets services to consumers, businesses, and institutions. Founded in 1817 and headquartered in Toronto, it operates in Canada and the United States, including BMO Bank N.A. in the U.S. The company is listed on the NYSE and TSX under the symbol BMO.