AI Architect

Koch Engineered Solutions (KES) is searching for an AI Architect to join our global Information Technology (IT) capability. The role may be based in Houston, TX, Tulsa, OK, or Wichita, KS and will require travel. The position is not eligible for visa sponsorship. Our Team An AI Architect works with IT and business teams to drive solution design for organizational transformation initiatives and ensures architecture best practices are applied throughout the design process. What You Will Do Partner with product and business teams to identify high‑value AI and Generative AI use cases, then lead the technical solutioning process to build detailed architecture. Consider the enterprise picture as part of AI solution design to produce reference architectures and patterns consistent with IT vision, data strategy, and responsible‑AI standards. Leverage expertise across multiple technical domains (Machine Learning, GenAI/LLMs, Data Engineering, Security, Cloud Infrastructure, Application Integration, etc.) in the solutioning process. Lead the development and alignment of AI architecture strategy, patterns, and guardrails across the engineering and design organization. Identify, prototype, and evaluate emerging AI models, agentic frameworks, and tooling to solve new problems within the organization. Establish and champion responsible AI practices—including model governance, security, data privacy, evaluation, and ongoing monitoring of solutions in production. Execute on initiatives as appropriate. Who You Are (Basic Qualifications) Experience designing and deploying AI/ML and Generative AI solutions on modern cloud platforms (Azure AI / Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock/SageMaker, Claude, etc.). Working knowledge of core Generative AI building blocks—large language models, prompt engineering, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), embeddings, and vector stores. Proven experience communicating AI and technology concepts to technical and business audiences. Capability partnering with customers to understand business models and translate them into AI‑enabled solution proposals. 5+ years of experience in Information Technology, including hands‑on delivery of data, analytics, or AI/ML solutions. What Will Put You Ahead Experience supporting discrete engineering and manufacturing. Experience designing and deploying agentic AI (conversational and action‑oriented AI agent platforms). Deep understanding of Generative AI and large language model architecture (transformer models, fine‑tuning, RAG, embeddings, and prompt/context engineering). Experience operationalizing AI—LLMOps/MLOps practices for model deployment, evaluation, prompt and version management, monitoring, and drift detection. Experience with vector databases and retrieval systems (Azure AI Search, pgvector, Pinecone, etc.). Experience with AI orchestration and agent frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, or similar). Familiarity with Responsible AI and AI governance—safety, guardrails, bias mitigation, data privacy, and emerging regulatory requirements. Experience with data architecture supporting AI (data lakes, graph/knowledge‑graph technology, feature stores, and data pipelines). Technical experience with serverless and event‑driven cloud services, microservices, and containers (e.g., Lambda/Azure Functions, SQS/SNS, EventBridge, API Gateway, Docker, Kubernetes, AKS/ECS). Experience with DevOps and MLOps methodologies and tools (CI/CD, GitHub, Azure DevOps). Benefits Our goal is for each employee and their families to live fulfilling and healthy lives. We provide essential resources and support to build and maintain physical, financial, and emotional strength, focusing on overall wellbeing. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, flexible spending and health savings accounts, life insurance, disability, retirement, paid vacation/time off, educational assistance, and may also include infertility assistance, paid parental leave, and adoption assistance. Specific eligibility criteria are set by the applicable Summary Plan Description, policy or guideline and benefits may vary by geographic region. Equal Opportunities Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status. Except where prohibited by state law, some offers of employment are conditioned upon successfully passing a drug test. This employer uses E‑Verify. Please click here for additional information. (For Illinois E‑Verify information click here, aquí, or tu). #J-18808-Ljbffr Koch