AI Solution Architect

Location: White City Campus - Hybrid

About the role:

Are you an architect who can see both the big picture and the detail of how artificial intelligence should be designed, governed and adopted, and would like to shape how a world-leading university puts AI to work safely and well?

As AI Solution Architect, you will act as a cross-cutting design authority for AI across all of ICT and more widely across Imperial, shaping how generative AI, machine learning and data-driven capabilities are designed into our products and platforms.

What you would be doing:

• Lead the development of AI and data solution architectures across ICT product lines and Imperial, aligned to enterprise architecture principles, technology standards and the Digital Strategy.
• Design AI solutions spanning generative AI and large language models, machine learning, and the data pipelines and MLOps needed to deploy and operate them responsibly and at scale.
• Define reference architectures and guardrails for AI agents, including tool access, permissions, autonomy levels and human oversight.
• Ensure solutions meet responsible AI, data governance, security and regulatory obligations, and uphold cybersecurity, data protection and technology standards.
• Contribute to the Technical Design Authority, technology working groups and communities of practice, reviewing and assuring solution designs across the ICT portfolio.
• Guide delivery teams to implement approved designs and champion modern engineering practices, including API-first, cloud-native, DevOps, platform-based architecture and MLOps.
• Act as a cross-cutting AI design authority, advising and enabling product lines across ICT and teams across Imperial on the responsible adoption and integration of AI.
• Support research groups adopting AI tools and platforms, balancing academic freedom with security and data obligations.

What we are looking for:

• Experience designing complex digital or enterprise solutions within large, diverse or federated organisations
• Experience designing and delivering AI, machine learning or data-driven solutions, and integrating AI capabilities across multiple systems, product lines or domains
• A strong understanding of AI and machine learning concepts, including generative AI and large language models, and how they are applied in enterprise solutions
• Understanding of the data architecture, pipelines and MLOps needed to build, deploy and operate AI solutions, and of AI and ML platforms, tooling and services (cloud AI/ML services, LLM frameworks and vector data stores)
• The ability to design responsible, secure and ethical AI solutions, embedding guardrails, evaluation and human oversight, and to assess and apply AI responsibly, weighing value, risk, ethics, security and compliance
• A strong grasp of modern architecture approaches, including cloud, integration platforms, APIs, microservices and secure-by-design, across multiple technology domains
• Experience across the full product or platform lifecycle, from discovery and design through to live service and decommissioning
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage audiences from senior stakeholders through to technical teams and suppliers, and to advise and enable teams on responsible AI adoption

What we can offer you:

• The opportunity to shape how AI is designed, governed and adopted across a world-leading university
• A central, cross-cutting role in Architecture & Technology Operations, with influence over enterprise architecture standards and strategic technology decisions
• Access to Imperial’s wider staff benefits and development opportunities

Further Information

If you require any further details about the role, please contact: shirish.tiwari@imperial.ac.uk

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