Practice Architect AI/ML

About the role

As a Practice Architect, Level 1 at TEKsystems Global Services (TGS), you will be a hands-on technical leader who translates enterprise business problems into governed, production-ready AI solutions. You will architect and build agentic systems on the Claude platform, spanning multi-agent orchestration, Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations, and retrieval pipelines. This role balances solution architecture with hands-on coding—roughly half your time will be spent designing architectures and the other half writing code, patterns, and reusable assets. You will operate at the intersection of software engineering, cloud architecture, and applied AI, partnering with client stakeholders to ensure secure, scalable, and compliant solutions.

Responsibilities

• Design end-to-end AI/ML solution architectures for client engagements, from requirements through deployment, with clear trade-off documentation.
• Build and productionize agentic workflows using Claude, MCP servers, and agentic frameworks (LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, Semantic Kernel, or Strands).
• Lead adoption of AI coding tools such as Claude Code and Cursor AI, establishing patterns and guardrails to improve engineering velocity and quality.
• Architect and deploy solutions across GCP, AWS, or Azure, applying well-architected principles for reliability, cost, and security.
• Establish cost visibility and spend governance for AI workloads across multi-cloud estates (GCP, Azure, WCNP); model token economics and build guardrails for economic sustainability at scale.
• Design security into every solution, including secure-by-default architectures, least-privilege agent and tool permissions, input/output mediation, and defenses against prompt injection and excessive agency (aligned with OWASP LLM Top 10).
• Embed responsible-AI controls aligned to NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001, and the EU AI Act; define human-in-the-loop review gates, audit logging, and output provenance for defensibility.
• Contribute to a shared Center of Excellence (CoE) library of skills, MCP servers, and reference architectures to promote reuse across client engagements.
• Engage directly with client architects and stakeholders; present designs, run technical workshops, and mentor engineers on the account.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong foundation in Python and modern software design practices.
• 3+ years of applied AI experience, including hands-on work with LLM platforms (Claude strongly preferred) and AI development tools such as Cursor AI or Claude Code.
• Demonstrated experience building AI applications: prompt engineering, RAG pipelines, agent orchestration, or MCP/tool-calling integrations.
• Cloud architecture experience on at least one major platform (GCP, AWS, or Azure), including compute, storage, networking, and IAM fundamentals.
• Proven ability to design and document solution architectures and communicate technical trade-offs to engineers and business stakeholders.
• Working knowledge of application and AI security, including secure design principles, least privilege, and guardrails against common LLM risks (e.g., prompt injection, insecure output handling).
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Cloud architect certification on GCP, AWS, or Azure; multi-cloud exposure is a strong plus.
• Experience deploying agentic or LLM systems in regulated environments (financial services, healthcare, or retail).
• Experience with FinOps practices or AI cost governance, including token economics, multi-cloud spend optimization, or model/tooling cost management.
• Familiarity with AI governance frameworks such as NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001, or the EU AI Act.
• Security background, including secure code review, threat modeling, or OWASP LLM Top 10 assessment of AI workloads.
• Hands-on experience building MCP servers or custom agent tools.
• Contributions to internal enablement, such as reusable skills, reference architectures, or engineering playbooks.

Skills

• Agile methodologies
• Project management
• Cloud architecture (GCP, AWS, or Azure)

Pay

The pay range for this position is $136,000.00 - $204,000.00 per year. Individual compensation will depend on qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent factors. Additional earnings may be available through incentive programs like annual bonuses and profit sharing.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Critical illness, accident, and hospital insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan (pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available)
• Life insurance (voluntary life and AD&D for employee and dependents)
• Short- and long-term disability insurance
• Health spending account (HSA)
• Transportation benefits
• Employee assistance program
• Paid time off (PTO, vacation, or sick leave)

Schedule

This is a permanent, fully remote position based out of Hanover, MD.