AI Native Development lead/ Architect

Job Role: AI Native Development lead/ Architect

Job Location: Atlanta, GA (Hybrid)

Job Type: Contract

Role Summary
We are looking for an AI Native Development Architect to design and guide the build of cloud-native, data- and AI-driven applications on AWS. You will define target architectures, enable engineering teams with reusable patterns and reference implementations, and accelerate delivery using modern AI-assisted development tools.

Key Responsibilities

• Define end-to-end architecture for AI-native products, including application, data, integration, security, and operations on AWS.
• Lead design reviews and provide technical direction across Python and C#/.NET codebases.
• Architect data pipelines and analytical workloads using PySpark and AWS Glue; establish standards for data quality, lineage, and observability.
• Design and implement scalable APIs and microservices using FastAPI (and/or .NET Web APIs) with clear contracts, versioning, and performance SLAs.
• Establish reference architectures for LLM/RAG-enabled capabilities (e.g., retrieval patterns, prompt management, evaluation, guardrails) aligned with organizational policies.
• Partner with Security, Platform, and DevOps teams to implement secure-by-design practices (IAM, secrets, network controls, encryption, threat modeling).
• Define CI/CD, branching, testing, and release practices; improve developer productivity with automation and paved-road templates.
• Champion AI-assisted engineering workflows using tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Claude AI while ensuring code quality and compliance.
• Mentor engineers, create technical documentation, and drive adoption of best practices across teams.

Required Skills:

• Python: strong hands-on experience building services and data workloads using Python, PySpark, AWS Glue, and FastAPI.
• C#/.NET: ability to design and review .NET services and libraries; familiarity with modern .NET runtime and patterns.
• AWS: strong understanding of AWS architecture fundamentals (networking, IAM, compute, storage, managed services) and designing for scale, reliability, and cost.

AI Native Development Tools

• Proficiency using AI coding assistants to accelerate development while maintaining engineering rigor: GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude AI.
• Ability to establish team guidelines for AI-assisted coding (review standards, secure prompting, IP/compliance awareness, and validation/testing).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing GenAI solutions (RAG, tool/function calling, agents) and implementing evaluation/monitoring approaches.
• Experience with infrastructure as code (e.g., CloudFormation/CDK/Terraform) and container platforms (Docker/ECS/EKS).
• Knowledge of MLOps patterns (model lifecycle, feature stores, experiment tracking) and data governance concepts.
• Strong understanding of observability practices (logs/metrics/traces) and SRE-oriented reliability design.

Soft Skills & Competencies

• Architecture leadership: can balance short-term delivery with long-term platform thinking.
• Clear communication: can translate complex technical decisions for engineering and business stakeholders.
• Hands-on mindset: comfortable prototyping and jumping into code to unblock teams.
• Quality and security focus: promotes testing discipline, secure coding, and operational readiness.
• Collaboration and mentorship: builds alignment, coaches engineers, and scales best practices across squads.