Sr. Director, Architecture and AI

iA is looking for a hands-on leadership role to drive enterprise-wide architectural transformation, modernize legacy systems with an AI-first mindset, and translate technical strategy into scalable solutions in a fast-paced growth environment.

About the Role

In this position, you will set architectural direction while actively contributing to the work—partnering with engineers, reviewing designs, shaping governance, and building reference implementations and prototypes. Key focus areas include decomposing iA’s long-standing .NET/VB6 monolith into modern, scalable services, introducing AI-native architecture, and establishing disciplined AI governance. You will also lead iA’s cloud-based Enterprise Analytics & Insights platform and bridge software, data, AI, and hardware teams. Success will be measured by business and customer outcomes, including improved scalability, operational efficiency, product velocity, and long-term growth.

Responsibilities

• Support Monolith Modernization & Services Architecture
  • Lead the strategy and execution for modernizing the .NET/VB6 monolith into scalable, independently deployable services while balancing business continuity, technical risk, and delivery pace.
  • Define target-state architecture, service boundaries, data ownership, and integration patterns, translating strategy into working reference implementations and prototypes.
  • Make strategic trade-off decisions (build vs. buy, rewrite vs. wrap, speed vs. rigor) and connect recommendations to business impact.
• AI-First Architecture & Scalable AI Practices
  • Set architectural direction for AI-first service design, embedding AI capabilities into core logic, workflows, and decision points.
  • Establish a scalable AI practice, including reusable patterns, shared infrastructure, and reference architectures for enterprise-wide adoption.
  • Serve on the Core AI Governance team, overseeing end-to-end governance of production AI systems (model risk, data privacy, human-in-the-loop controls, evaluation, monitoring, safety guardrails, and issue response).
• Agentic Interfaces for Developer & QA Productivity
  • Lead the architecture, development, and scaling of production-grade AI agents, with expertise in orchestration, tool use, memory/context management, cost/latency optimization, and failure handling.
  • Set technical standards for AI agents, including governance and operational practices for evaluation, monitoring, and safe rollback.
  • Advance agentic tooling as an enterprise capability to scale developer and QA productivity across teams.
• NEXiA Platform Scaling — PoDs, SSP, MDS
  • Lead AI-enabled scaling strategies for iA’s PoDs, SSP, and MDS within the NEXiA platform to improve throughput, reliability, and operational efficiency.
  • Ensure scaling strategies account for hardware dependencies, physical system constraints, and operational requirements.
• Customer Lifecycle Metrics — Land, Adopt, Expand, Retain
  • Use Land, Adopt, Expand, and Retention (LAER) metrics to guide architecture and AI investments, tying technical priorities to customer adoption, expansion, retention, and business growth.
  • Accelerate onboarding and initial implementation through AI-enabled workflows to shorten time-to-first-value.
  • Increase feature adoption using AI and agentic tooling to surface next-best actions for customers and internal teams.
  • Identify upsell/cross-sell opportunities and churn risks using AI-driven signals, ensuring platform architecture supports growth.
  • Translate architecture and AI initiatives into LAER-based business narratives for executives and PE sponsors.
• Hands-On Technical & People Leadership
  • Provide hands-on technical leadership through code contributions, pull request reviews, architecture spikes, and proof-of-concept development.
  • Influence strategic decisions with technical credibility, data-informed recommendations, and working prototypes.
  • Lead and unify a 6–10-person team of architects and engineers across R&D teams around shared architecture and AI standards.
  • Build, mentor, and mature an architecture and AI engineering bench to sustain modernization and AI-first capabilities.
• Enterprise Analytics & Insights Platform (Cloud)
  • Support iA’s cloud-based Enterprise Analytics & Insights platform, ensuring data quality, scalability, and alignment of AI/agentic capabilities.
  • Align the platform’s architecture with the broader modernization strategy for consistent technical direction.
  • Define, validate, and scale reusable AI-first patterns (insight generation, anomaly detection, agentic analytics) for enterprise adoption.
• Partnership with Hardware Teams
  • Lead architectural alignment between software, AI, and hardware teams, accounting for hardware dependencies and physical constraints.
  • Identify AI and agentic opportunities in hardware-adjacent workflows, including operational monitoring and scaling for PoDs, SSP, and MDS.
  • Drive cross-functional alignment to ensure architecture decisions reflect full-system trade-offs.

Requirements

• 15+ years in software architecture and engineering leadership, with hands-on ownership of large-scale system modernization.
• Demonstrated success modernizing legacy monolithic applications (e.g., .NET, VB6) into scalable, modern services architectures.
• Deep, working knowledge of LLMs and agentic AI systems, including architecture, deployment, evaluation, security, and scaling in production.
• Leadership of production AI agent initiatives (e.g., code generation, automated test generation, code review, or migration agents).
• Experience architecting or owning cloud-based enterprise analytics, insights, or data platforms at scale.
• Experience applying Land, Adopt, Expand, and Retention (LAER) or comparable customer-lifecycle metrics to connect data, AI, and product strategy with business growth.
• Proven ability to lead, develop, and align mid-sized engineering and architecture teams across multiple product areas.
• Experience bridging software and hardware/physical systems, including shared architecture decisions and technical trade-offs.
• Experience in a growth-equity environment where technical decisions are tied to value creation and exit outcomes.
• Track record of making complex technical and business trade-offs and communicating decisions clearly to engineering and executive audiences.
• Must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. (employer will not sponsor work visas).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with platforms similar to NEXiA (high-throughput operational systems with distributed processing units and service scaling demands).
• Background bridging enterprise IT and R&D, driving transformation across an organization.
• Familiarity with regulatory or compliance-heavy environments where AI safety and governance are critical.
• Direct experience building internal developer-productivity or QA platforms and measuring their adoption and impact.

Pay

The estimated base annual salary range for this position is $212,500 to $287,500, with eligibility for an annual discretionary bonus. Salary is determined based on qualifications and experience.

Benefits

• Generous time off policy prioritizing work-life balance.
• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge pharmacy automation in a high-growth tech company.
• Competitive benefits, salary, and talent development opportunities.
• Commitment to professional development and a culture where your voice is heard.

About iA

iA (Innovation Associates) is a pharmacy fulfillment company providing an integrated platform of automation and software solutions for Centralized and Community Pharmacy Fulfillment. With over 30 years of experience, iA’s solutions improve workflow efficiency, enabling pharmacists to focus on patient care. The company serves Commercial, Health Systems, Government, and Mail Order/eCommerce markets, offering scalable solutions from prescription acceptance to delivery. Learn more at iARx.com.