AI Solutions Architect

Job Title: AI Solutions Architect Location: Pennington, NJ or Charlotte, NC Duration: Contract - 11 months Pay Range: Pennington, NJ: $73.67/hr (W2) | Charlotte, NC: $70.23/hr (W2) Job ID: 373888 About BCforward BCforward is a leading global IT consulting and workforce solutions firm providing services and support to Fortune 500 and government clients. Founded in 1998, BCforward has grown with our customers needs into a full-service business solutions provider. With delivery centers and offices across North America and India, we take pride in building long-term relationships and delivering excellence through innovation, collaboration, and integrity. Job Description We are seeking an Application Architect III to provide central architectural support that translates business demand into production-ready AI solutions. The ideal candidate will have strong experience in AI/ML solution architecture, hybrid cloud platforms, and containerized delivery and a proven ability to embed security and compliance by design, standardize architectures, and accelerate enterprise AI adoption. Responsibilities: Define reusable reference architectures and engineering patterns to enable faster and safer AI adoption. Embed regulatory, security, and model risk requirements into solution designs and delivery pipelines. Align AI investments to an enterprise roadmap to reduce duplication and rework. Provide architectural oversight to improve solution quality, resiliency, cost efficiency, and time to value. Design and guide delivery of AI/LLM solutions, including orchestration, RAG, evaluation, and production operations. Partner with engineering and business stakeholders to translate use cases into scalable architectures. Required Skills & Qualifications: 5+ years in technology architecture and solution design, including 3+ years of hands-on software engineering. 2+ years designing and delivering AI/LLM solutions in enterprise environments. Hands-on experience deploying and operating solutions using Sierra AI and/or Decagon. Strong background in platform architecture, solution design, and hybrid on-prem/cloud deployments. Experience with AI orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and evaluation frameworks. Proficiency with containers, Kubernetes or OpenShift, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code. Strong communication skills with the ability to engage technical and business stakeholders. Demonstrated leadership, collaboration, and mentoring capabilities. Experience with conversational AI, contact center AI, or enterprise automation. Experience designing and deploying IVR, voice-driven, or headless agentic AI solutions, including event-driven systems. Experience integrating AI agents with telephony, IVR platforms, or voice infrastructure, including call flows, intent routing, and backend service invocation. Preferred Skills: Experience in regulated industries such as financial services. Knowledge of multiple LLM providers and model serving strategies. Familiarity with headless AI agent architectures such as background automation and asynchronous orchestration. Understanding of voice and multimodal AI including speech-to-text, text-to-speech, intent management, and conversational state handling. Relevant cloud, security, or data certifications. Familiarity with model risk management, AI governance, and safety testing. Role Logistics & Process: Hybrid schedule. Minimum 3 days onsite per week. Onsite day 1. Target start: May/June. Interviews: 2-3 video rounds with senior architects. Approved locations and rates: Pennington, NJ ($104.63/hr) or Charlotte, NC ($99.74/hr). Glider ID verification required. Max 3 submissions per vendor. Candidate Submission Notes: Include current location and relocation plan on resume. State availability, earliest start date, and any cooling-off requirements. Primary/Secondary Skills: Primary: Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Secondary: Cloud Architect Tertiary: Kubernetes Why BCforward? At BCforward, we believe in advancing lives and careers. When you join our team, you gain access to: Competitive compensation and benefits Opportunities for growth with global clients A supportive, inclusive culture that values innovation and people Exposure to cutting-edge technologies and projects About Our Commitment BCforward is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status. Interested? Apply Now! If this sounds like the right opportunity for you, please apply with your most recent resume and include the requested submission notes.