Architect Advisor

American Century Investments® is a leading global asset manager with over 65 years of experience helping clients achieve their financial goals. Our expertise spans global equities, fixed income, multi-asset strategies, ETFs, and private investments. Privately owned and independent, we focus solely on investment management. We direct 40% of our dividends—over $2 billion since 2000—to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, supporting breakthroughs in life-threatening diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s.

About the role

We’re hiring a highly technical Architect Advisor to accelerate our cloud migration, automation, and AI-enabled platform strategy. This hybrid role reports to the Director of Enterprise Architecture and is based in Kansas City, Missouri. This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship; applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.

Responsibilities

• Partner with application teams to deliver strategic consulting on cloud migration, platform modernization, and responsible AI adoption.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to identify, design, and implement scalable infrastructure and platform services.
• Enable access to cloud-based IaaS and PaaS solutions supporting business and technology objectives.
• Drive adoption of AI and automation capabilities to improve efficiency, innovation, and operational effectiveness.
• Evaluate business and technical requirements to recommend and deliver cloud and platform solutions.
• Influence platform and product roadmap priorities by identifying opportunities for feature enhancements and innovation.
• Foster cross-functional partnerships to accelerate technology transformation and maximize cloud/AI investments.
• Craft solution collateral, including documents, effort estimates, and risk assessments.
• Work cohesively with other technology practices to integrate multi-disciplinary services for application teams.
• Demonstrate American Century Investments’ Winning Behaviors: Client Focused, Courageous and Accountable, Collaborative, Curious and Adaptable, Competitively Driven.

Requirements

• BS degree in Computer Science or equivalent relevant experience.
• 10+ years of technical experience.
• 3+ years’ experience administering SaaS-based products.
• Diverse technical and operational interests/capabilities, including Java, Microsoft, databases, virtualization, monitoring, and automation technologies.
• Extensive experience with public cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google, etc.).
• Experience with AI/ML or generative AI in enterprise environments, including cloud AI services, model integration, prompt-driven solutions, AI assistants, or responsible AI governance.
• Expert knowledge of DNS, load balancing, DB clustering, and high availability across all architecture tiers.
• Proven background in scripting and development (Python, Node.js).
• Ability to assess AI use cases, translate business needs into technical solutions, and communicate AI architecture to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience with automated deployment technologies, infrastructure as code, and container management/deployment.
• Ability to work in high-stress environments with tactical and strategic deliveries.
• Detail-oriented, task-driven, and strong communication skills.
• Works effectively with internal and external teams to achieve goals and resolve problems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing and developing system architecture for IaaS and PaaS platforms.
• Develop automation tools for infrastructure management (provisioning, updates, backup, failover, disaster recovery).
• Evaluate and implement cloud technologies to improve service availability, performance, and cost optimization.
• Implement AI-enabled technologies (machine learning, generative AI, intelligent automation, cloud-native AI services) to enhance business outcomes and operational efficiency.
• Build and implement standards for configuration management, system/application infrastructure, security, and performance monitoring.
• Effectively communicate design concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Document system architectures, configurations, and technical operational processes/policies.
• Collaborate with data, security, architecture, and application teams to define AI solution patterns, governance guardrails, and integration approaches.
• Solve complex operational and performance issues.
• Experience with AWS in production environments with complex infrastructure requirements.
• Experience with Kubernetes, OpenShift, AWS CloudFormation.
• Strong scripting skills (Python, Bash, Ruby, Perl, etc.).
• Knowledge of IP networking, VPNs, DNS, load balancing, and firewalls.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation package with bonus plan.
• Generous PTO and competitive benefits.
• 401k with 5% company match plus annual performance-based discretionary contribution.
• Tuition reimbursement and formal mentorship program.
• Live and online learning opportunities.

Employees are required to be in the office on a scheduled frequency as part of this hybrid role.