Position Title: AI Solutions Architect
Location: Phoenix, AZ (Local Candidates Only)
Work Arrangement: 100% Remote after first-day onsite equipment pickup
Duration: 12 months Contract
Interview Mode: In-Person Interviews Required
Position Overview
The AI Solutions Architect Contractor will partner with the internal AI Product Management team, vendor partners, and existing development teams to design, implement, enhance, and streamline enterprise AI systems supporting the State of Arizona DES environment.
This role requires a highly experienced architect capable of independently leading AI initiatives, defining enterprise-grade AI architectures, and ensuring solutions align with security, compliance, governance, and public-sector standards. The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in Agentic AI, Azure OpenAI, LLM orchestration, RAG pipelines, and enterprise AI integration strategies.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of secure, scalable AI and Agentic AI solutions aligned with DES mission objectives and public-sector compliance standards.
- Define end-to-end AI architectures including:
- Data ingestion frameworks
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines
- LLM orchestration
- Human-in-the-loop workflows
- AI governance models
- Provide technical leadership and develop architecture documentation, technical specifications, and approval artifacts.
- Ensure compliance with State of Arizona standards related to:
- Security
- Privacy
- Accessibility
- Data governance
- PII, HIPAA, and CJIS requirements where applicable
- Establish enterprise reference architectures and best practices for ethical, responsible, and compliant AI adoption.
- Evaluate, integrate, and optimize AI platforms, cloud services, and third-party AI solutions in collaboration with procurement and legal teams.
- Design AI systems with explainability, transparency, auditability, and bias mitigation capabilities.
- Collaborate with DevOps, cybersecurity, cloud operations, and data engineering teams to operationalize AI solutions from proof-of-concept through production deployment.
- Support AI strategy development, roadmap planning, and executive-level briefings to scale AI capabilities across DES programs.
- Mentor and guide development teams on AI architecture best practices and modern development methodologies.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field.
- Strong experience designing and implementing enterprise AI and Agentic AI solutions.
- Hands-on expertise with:
- Azure OpenAI
- LLMs
- Machine Learning
- RAG architectures
- Human-in-the-loop workflows
- Experience with:
- .NET technologies (C#, VB.NET)
- HTML
- JavaScript
- Automation tools including OCR, IDP, and AI/ML platforms
- Ability to translate business requirements into scalable technical architectures and AI solutions.
- Strong understanding of AI governance, architecture patterns, and enterprise integration methodologies.
- Experience developing:
- Technical specifications
- Architecture diagrams
- Solution design documentation
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to break down complex business challenges into logical technical solutions.
- Ability to analyze existing codebases and understand implementation approaches.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Proven ability to manage multiple priorities in fast-paced environments.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with Azure DevOps, Git, and CI/CD pipelines.
- Familiarity with REST and SOAP APIs/services.
- Experience with:
- MS Office
- Google Workspace
- OnBase Unity Client
- Experience mentoring developers and promoting engineering best practices.
- Strong background in Agile methodologies including:
- Scrum
- Kanban
- Trello
- SAFe
- Lean principles
- Knowledge of SDLC and ITIL processes.
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