Principal Agentic AI Architect

About the role

As a Principal Agentic AI Architect, you will design and lead the development of enterprise-scale Agentic AI platforms, frameworks, and reusable capabilities that accelerate AI adoption across the organization. You will collaborate with product owners, business stakeholders, architects, and engineering teams to deliver scalable, secure, and responsible AI solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of the enterprise Agentic AI Framework Catalog, defining reusable agent architectures, implementation patterns, and engineering standards.
• Architect and deliver scalable AI solutions leveraging Java, Python, Node.js, React, GraphQL, Neo4j, DynamoDB, AWS Bedrock, Claude, and AWS cloud services.
• Establish standards and best practices for agent orchestration, memory management, context engineering, tool integration, and multi-agent collaboration.
• Drive the development of reusable AI accelerators, SDKs, APIs, templates, and reference implementations to enable rapid solution delivery.
• Lead knowledge graph and data architecture initiatives using Neo4j, DynamoDB, and GraphQL to support contextual retrieval and intelligent decision-making.
• Define and implement Responsible AI practices, including governance, security, observability, auditability, and human-in-the-loop controls.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders, product owners, architects, and engineering teams to translate business requirements into scalable AI capabilities and strategic roadmap initiatives.
• Mentor cross-functional teams, conduct architecture reviews, foster innovation, and drive the successful delivery and adoption of Agentic AI solutions.

Requirements

• Strong experience developing enterprise applications using Java, Python, and/or Node.js.
• Hands-on experience designing and implementing Agentic AI solutions and AI-powered applications.
• Expertise with AWS cloud services, including AWS Bedrock.
• Experience working with foundation models such as Claude.
• Proficiency with React, GraphQL, Neo4j, and DynamoDB.
• Strong understanding of AI architecture, distributed systems, APIs, and cloud-native application design.
• Experience establishing AI governance, security, observability, and Responsible AI frameworks.
• Proven ability to lead architecture initiatives and mentor engineering teams.

Qualifications (Preferred)

• Experience architecting multi-agent AI ecosystems at enterprise scale.
• Expertise in knowledge graph architectures and contextual retrieval solutions.
• Experience building reusable AI frameworks, accelerators, SDKs, and developer platforms.
• Familiarity with AI/LLM observability, model governance, and operational best practices.
• Experience leading AI transformation initiatives across large, complex organizations.
• Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
• Experience working in Agile environments and leading geographically distributed teams.

Schedule

This is a hybrid position requiring 3 days a week in a client or Cognizant office in Charlotte, NC, Iselin, NJ, or Dallas, TX.

Pay

The annual salary for this position is between $70,000 to $117,000, depending on experience and other qualifications. This position is also eligible for Cognizant’s discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant’s applicable plans.

Benefits

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan