Senior Solutions Architect, Emerging Technologies AI/ML

Senior Solutions Architect, Emerging Technologies AI/ML

Our vision for the future at Empower is rooted in the belief that transforming financial lives begins with empowering our people to transform their own. We offer a flexible work environment and dynamic career paths, actively encouraging and celebrating internal mobility. We also prioritize purpose, well-being, and work-life balance. Within Empower and our communities, we are dedicated to fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment, with associates volunteering thousands of hours for causes they deeply care about.

Chart your unique path and advance your career while helping more customers achieve financial freedom. Empower Yourself.

The Senior Solutions Architect, Emerging Technologies AI/ML provides essential technical leadership, designing complex solution architectures that align with business strategy and optimize technology-enabled workflows. This role involves close collaboration with business owners, product, data, and engineering teams to meticulously document current-state systems and engineer scalable, resilient, and secure cloud-based solutions. A key focus of this position is on emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative AI (GenAI), and Machine Learning (ML), guiding solutions from initial research and analysis through architecture, delivery support, and ultimately, operational readiness.

What You Will Do

• Lead discovery sessions with business and technology partners to thoroughly understand objectives, constraints, current-state systems, and critical integration points.
• Document existing architecture and meticulously define target-state designs, encompassing system context diagrams, detailed component designs, integration patterns, and comprehensive data flows.
• Design and modernize applications, transforming them into cloud-compatible or cloud-native architectures utilizing microservices, serverless, and event-driven patterns where appropriate.
• Create strategic roadmaps and robust migration designs for seamlessly transitioning applications and data workloads to various cloud platforms.
• Design advanced AI and ML-enabled solutions, including the integration of models into products and business processes, along with patterns for scalable inference and low-latency serving when required.
• Design innovative Generative AI solution patterns, such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), tool and API integration, effective prompt and context management, and rigorous evaluation approaches.
• Define comprehensive reference architectures for AI platforms and enabling capabilities, including robust data pipelines, efficient feature and embedding generation, secure vector storage, reliable model endpoints, and seamless integration with enterprise APIs.
• Establish industry-leading best practices for MLOps and AI operations, covering model versioning, deployment, monitoring, drift detection, proactive incident response, and strategic cost management.
• Incorporate security-by-design practices into all architectures, including robust identity and access controls, advanced encryption, secure secrets management, secure networking, and comprehensive audit logging.
• Partner closely with governance and risk stakeholders to ensure responsible AI considerations are fully incorporated, addressing privacy, explainability, safety, compliance, and model risk controls as applicable.
• Drive alignment and broad adoption of proposed solutions by clearly articulating tradeoffs, potential risks, and inherent value, securing stakeholder alignment and necessary governance approvals.
• Support teams responsible for thorough testing and validation, and assist in triaging and resolving design-related issues identified during development, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), or production phases.

What You Will Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Mathematics, Business, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in agile software delivery environments, demonstrating increasing architecture and design responsibility.
• Demonstrated experience in designing distributed systems using microservices and/or serverless patterns.
• Proven experience designing and integrating AI and ML capabilities into applications, including critical model serving considerations and data dependencies.
• Experience with one or more programming languages such as Java, Python, Node.js, or Scala.
• Experience with diverse data persistence technologies, encompassing both SQL and NoSQL databases.
• Experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) and a strong understanding of core cloud design patterns.
• Working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices, including automated testing and deployment automation.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to translate complex business needs into clear, actionable technical direction.

What Will Set You Apart

• Hands-on experience with GenAI and Large Language Model (LLM) solutions, including retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, evaluation methodologies, and production monitoring.
• Extensive experience with AI and ML platforms or services, such as AWS SageMaker, Amazon Bedrock, Azure AI, Azure OpenAI, or Google Vertex AI.
• Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) experience, specifically with tools like Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Container and orchestration experience, utilizing technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes, and cloud container platforms like ECS or EKS.
• Experience with vector databases and advanced search technologies, along with associated indexing and retrieval patterns.
• Experience with enterprise observability solutions, including centralized logging, tracing, metrics, robust alerting, and overall operational readiness.
• Strong database and procedural development experience, including PL/SQL, and solid data modeling concepts.
• Familiarity with responsible AI practices, governance controls, and specific security considerations relevant to AI systems.

What We Offer You

We provide a comprehensive array of diverse and inclusive benefits, catering to you regardless of your career stage. We firmly believe that empowering our employees with the resources for healthy, balanced lives leads to optimal work performance.

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance
• Retirement savings – 401(k) plan with generous company matching contributions (up to 6%), financial advisory services, potential company discretionary contribution, and a broad investment lineup
• Tuition reimbursement up to $5,250/year
• Business-casual environment that includes the option to wear jeans
• Generous paid time off upon hire – including a paid time off program plus ten paid company holidays and three floating holidays each calendar year
• Paid volunteer time — 16 hours per calendar year
• Leave of absence programs – including paid parental leave, paid short- and long-term disability, and Family and Medical Leave (FMLA)
• Business Resource Groups (BRGs) – BRGs facilitate inclusion and collaboration across our business internally and throughout the communities where we live, work and play. BRGs are open to all.

The base salary range for this position is $125,400.00 - $181,875.00. Actual compensation may vary based on location, experience, education, and skill level.

Empower is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity and a drug-free workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age (40 and over), race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, religion, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable state or local law.

For remote and hybrid positions, you will be required to provide reliable high-speed internet with a wired connection and a suitable home workspace with limited disruption. Other necessary computer equipment will be provided. You may be required to work in the office if your home work environment or internet connection is inadequate.

Key skills/competency

• Solutions Architecture
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Generative AI
• Cloud Platforms
• Microservices
• System Design
• MLOps
• Data Pipelines
• Security-by-Design