Enterprise Architect - CONTRACT

Engagement Type: Contract, 1099 Preferred

Duration: 6 month engagement starting in early August

Rate: Commensurate with experience - details provided on initial call

Hours: 40 hours per week

Location: On-site in Salt Lake City, UT

The Enterprise Architect- AI will lead the design, strategy, and implementation of AI-enabled systems and intelligent platforms across the enterprise. This role will define how AI is responsibly and effectively integrated into the client's ecosystem, leveraging strong foundations in data architecture, APIs, and event-driven systems to drive innovation, personalization, and operational efficiency. This position offers the opportunity to shape our technological landscape and drive transformative change.

The Enterprise Architect designs, implements, maintains, and solves complex enterprise-wide solutions. This role evaluates current systems and applies technical proficiency, creativity, and collaboration to recommend enhancements to ensure flexibility, resilience, scalability, and high performance. The Enterprise Architect is recognized as a master within the technical discipline and will possess extensive experience in building robust systems and strong collaboration, design, and negotiation skills to align technology solutions with business objectives. This position works closely with cross-functional, distributed teams to develop and sustain a cohesive enterprise architecture framework that supports organizational goals. This position offers the opportunity to shape our technological landscape and drive transformative change.

Primary Responsibilities

• Define and maintain enterprise architecture standards, roadmaps, and reference architectures.
• Align business strategy with technology investments across academic and administrative systems.
• Partner with senior leaders to guide long-term digital transformation.
• Frequently provides mentorship, guidance, and training to team members and other employees across the organization.
• Lead API-first architecture strategy, governance, and lifecycle management.
• Establish best practices for REST, GraphQL, and asynchronous APIs.
• Drive reuse, discoverability, and security of enterprise services.
• Design and implement event-driven systems using modern messaging platforms (e.g., Kafka, SNS/SQS).
• Define event schemas, contracts, and governance models.
• Guide integration of ML/AI services into enterprise platforms.
• Evaluate and operationalize emerging technologies responsibly and ethically.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with product, engineering, data, and security teams.
• Influence architecture decisions across multiple domains and portfolios.
• Mentor architects and senior engineers.

Governance & Standards

• Establish architecture review processes and ensure compliance with standards.
• Drive adoption of cloud-native, microservices, and domain-driven design principles.

Required

• 10+ years in software engineering, architecture, or related roles.
• 3 years as an Enterprise or Solution Architect or 8 years in a technical leadership role (e.g., technical lead, principal engineer).
• Proven experience designing enterprise-scale distributed systems and delivering a successful technology transformation.
• Deep expertise in:
  • API architecture and integration patterns
  • Event-driven systems and messaging platforms
  • Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Strong understanding of microservices, domain-driven design, and system integration.
• Experience working with cross-functional stakeholders and executive leadership.
• Exceptional collaboration, design, and negotiation skills, with the ability to effectively communicate, present, and document complex technical concepts to diverse stakeholders.
• Development experience in languages such as Java, C++, or Python.
• Hands-on experience with AI solutions

Preferred

• Experience with AI/ML systems integration (e.g., LLMs, MLOps pipelines).
• Background in higher education, EdTech, or mission-driven organizations.
• Familiarity with data architecture, analytics platforms, and governance.
• Certifications (e.g., TOGAF, AWS/Azure Architect) are a plus.