Lead Solutions Architect

Job Title: Lead Solutions Architect Job Code: AZ 14298 Client: State of Arizona – Arizona Department of Economic Security (AZDES) Location: Phoenix, Arizona Work Arrangement: Hybrid – 4 days per week working from home; local candidates only Contract Duration: Through June 30, 2027 Working Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM–5:00 PM (40 hours/week; overtime available) Work Location Address: 1400 W. Washington St., Phoenix, AZ 85007

Position Overview The State of Arizona is seeking a Lead Solutions Architect to lead enterprise application architecture and development, with a strong focus on AI-enabled solutions. This role combines technical leadership, employee management, cloud architecture, and AI strategy to deliver scalable, secure, and cost-effective enterprise systems.

The ideal candidate will have at least three years of experience leading and managing employees, hands-on knowledge of AI/ML and Generative AI, enterprise and cloud architecture expertise, and experience with Agile methodologies and Jira or Azure DevOps.

Required Skills

• At least 3+ years of experience in a lead role managing employees.
• Experience with AI/ML, Generative AI, LLMs, NLP, vector databases, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
• Strong understanding of enterprise and cloud architecture, distributed systems, microservices, and API-first design.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as Salesforce, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), including AI/ML services.
• Experience with Jira or Azure DevOps.
• Knowledge of Agile/Scrum methodologies.
• Strong technical leadership, team mentoring, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering.
• Ability to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions and communicate architecture decisions to executive stakeholders.

Preferred Skills

• TOGAF or other enterprise architecture frameworks, such as Zachman.
• Product management experience.
• Experience with Azure AI Studio, MLOps, data engineering, CI/CD, and AI model deployment and monitoring.
• Knowledge of AI security, privacy, responsible AI practices, and compliance frameworks such as NIST AI RMF and the EU AI Act.
• Experience with cloud cost optimization, AI computing costs, and token-based pricing models.
• Programming knowledge in Python, SQL, Java, or Go.
• Experience with technical roadmapping, budgeting, vendor management, and build-versus-buy evaluations.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of scalable, secure, AI-enabled enterprise applications.
• Develop enterprise architecture strategies and multi-year technical roadmaps.
• Evaluate AI models, third-party APIs, and cloud services to identify suitable solutions.
• Guide development teams, cloud architects, data scientists, and machine learning engineers.
• Ensure AI solutions meet security, privacy, compliance, and performance requirements.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders, product managers, legal teams, and security leaders.
• Manage technical vendors, budgets, and cloud cost optimization.
• Communicate technical strategies, architecture decisions, risks, and business value to executive leadership.

Primary Skills Solutions Architecture, Application Development Management, AI/ML, Generative AI, RAG, LLMs, Salesforce, Azure, GCP, Azure AI Studio, MLOps, Data Engineering, Microservices, Agile/Scrum, Jira, Azure DevOps, TOGAF, Product Management.

Flexible work from home options available.