AI Solutions Architect

AI Solutions Architect
18 Months from projected start date
Phoenix AZ

The Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) Solutions Architect ( Contractor ) will work with our existing internal AI product management team, Vendor Teams and existing development staff to develop, enhance and streamline our AI systems.

This position works with minimal supervision and exercises independent judgment within well-defined parameters.
1. Lead the design and implementation of secure, scalable AI and Agentic AI solutions aligned with DES mission, policies, and public-sector standards.
2. Define end-to-end AI architectures including data ingestion, RAG pipelines, LLM orchestration, and human-in-the-loop workflows.
3. Provide technical leadership, relevant architectural documentations for approvals, and guidance to internal teams and system integrators.
4. Ensure compliance with State of Arizona security, privacy, accessibility, and data-governance requirements (PII, HIPAA, CJIS where applicable).
5. Establish reference architectures and best practices for responsible, ethical, and compliant AI use across DES.
6. Evaluate and integrate AI platforms, cloud services, and vendor solutions in coordination with procurement and legal teams.
7. Design architectures that support explainability, auditability, bias mitigation, and transparency in decision-support systems.
8. Collaborate with DevOps (cloud ops), cybersecurity, and data teams to operationalize AI solutions from proof of concept to production systems.
9. Support AI strategy, roadmap development, and executive briefings to scale AI capabilities across DES programs.

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Skills Required
AI Development with Agentic AI and Azure OpenAI
LLM, ML, RAG, and human-in-the-loop workflows
Net (C#, VB.Net), HTML, JavaScript, and advanced automation tools (OCR, IDP, AI/ML)
Demonstrable written and oral communication skills
Ability to design and implement AI agentic solutions from business and technical requirements
Ability to develop technical specifications, designs, and architecture artifacts
Ability to break down business problems into logical tasks and think creatively
Ability to perform code analysis to understand how code is implemented
Ability to manage multiple tasks and changing priorities

Skills Preferred
Azure DevOps, Git, CI/CD
Familiarity with using API/Services (REST & SOAP services), MS Office, Google Suite, OnBase Unity Client,
Continues to educate and mentor developers in best practice
Experience with agile development Scrum, Trello, Kanban, SAFe, Lean principles and software development life cycle (SDLC) and ITIL Process

Required Skills
AI Architecture
Data Ingestion
RAG Pipelines
LLM Orchestration

Preferred Skills
Azure Devops
GIT
CI/CD
.Net (C#, VB.Net), HTML, JavaScript