Vajra Talent

AI Architect – Enterprise AI & Generative AI ( Remote) - Contractual

Experience: 8+ years

Location: Remote, India

Employment Type: Contractual

Working Hours: 3:00 PM – 12:00 AM IST

Client Engagement: US-based client

About the Role

We are looking for a hands-on, client-facing AI Architect to lead the architecture, technical direction, and production implementation of enterprise AI and Generative AI solutions for a US-based client.

You should combine strong software engineering and cloud architecture fundamentals with practical experience building secure, scalable, and reliable AI applications. This role involves end-to-end technical ownership, from solution design and prototyping to production deployment and optimization. It is not a research-only, advisory-only, or prompt-writing position.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end architecture and delivery of AI/ML and Generative AI solutions, from discovery and proof of concept to production rollout.
• Design LLM-powered applications using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), embeddings, vector databases, AI agents, and orchestration frameworks.
• Define data ingestion, chunking, retrieval, grounding, evaluation, and knowledge-refresh strategies.
• Select appropriate AI models and platforms based on quality, latency, cost, security, and operational requirements.
• Design cloud-native architectures, APIs, integrations, identity controls, monitoring, and resilient deployment patterns.
• Create architecture diagrams, technical designs, implementation roadmaps, and technical standards.
• Implement AI quality and safety measures, including hallucination mitigation, guardrails, access controls, and prompt-injection defenses.
• Guide engineering, data, ML, and DevOps teams through implementation, code reviews, troubleshooting, and go-live readiness.
• Lead technical discussions and design reviews with US client stakeholders.
• Establish production monitoring, CI/CD, versioning, incident handling, and performance and cost optimization practices.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant experience in software engineering, AI/ML engineering, data engineering, or technology architecture.
• Proven experience personally architecting and deploying at least one enterprise-grade AI or Generative AI solution into production.
• Strong practical knowledge of LLMs, RAG, embeddings, vector databases, orchestration frameworks, and model evaluation.
• Hands-on experience with Python and APIs, including prototyping, code review, and troubleshooting.
• Experience with at least one major cloud platform: Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• Understanding of data pipelines, SQL/NoSQL databases, containers, CI/CD, MLOps, and LLMOps.
• Knowledge of enterprise security, privacy, identity and access management, and responsible AI practices.
• Experience independently leading architecture workshops, design reviews, and technical discussions with US clients.
• Excellent written and spoken English, documentation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Availability to work from 3:00 PM to 12:00 AM IST and willingness to accept a contractual engagement.

Preferred Experience

• Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, or Google Vertex AI.
• Azure AI Search or equivalent retrieval tools.
• LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, and agent/tool orchestration.
• Model fine-tuning, predictive ML, document intelligence, multimodal AI, or real-time AI applications.
• Experience in cloud modernization, enterprise integrations, data analytics, or technology consulting.
• Relevant AI/cloud architecture certifications and experience mentoring technical teams.

What Success Looks Like

• Designing secure, scalable, production-ready AI solutions rather than demos or conceptual presentations.
• Making sound technical decisions around feasibility, performance, reliability, cost, and AI risks.
• Taking ownership of architecture decisions and resolving technical blockers with limited supervision.
• Building trust with senior US stakeholders and collaborating effectively with India-based delivery teams.

Contract Details

• Initial engagement: Minimum 3 months, with extension subject to project requirements and performance.
• Working schedule: 3:00 PM – 12:00 AM IST.
• Potential permanent employment: After 18 months, the client may consider direct permanent employment at its sole discretion. Conversion is not guaranteed.

Mandatory Screening Criteria

Candidates should be able to:

• Explain an enterprise AI/GenAI solution they personally architected and deployed, including architecture, scale, evaluation, and business impact.
• Whiteboard an enterprise RAG or agentic solution covering data flow, security, authentication, authorization, monitoring, and cost controls.
• Discuss real-world model-quality issues, hallucinations, privacy risks, incidents, and architectural trade-offs.
• Lead a technical design review with US client stakeholders.
• Confirm acceptance of the working hours and contractual engagement.

Apply only if you have hands-on experience architecting and deploying enterprise AI/GenAI solutions in production.