Principal Architect - Applied AI & Machine Learning (SME)

Are you looking for a role that motivates and challenges you? Are you ready for an opportunity for growth? Do you want to work on teams where people roll up their sleeves to take on tough problems together, and regularly blow the doors off our clients with their outstanding teamwork? If you answered yes to those questions, 3Cloud might just be for you!

At 3Cloud, we hire people who aren’t afraid to experiment or fail. We hire people who are willing to give direct and candid feedback to their managers, leaders, and team members. We hire people who jump at those opportunities because they care about our collective growth and success. We hire people who challenge and hold each other accountable for living 3Cloud’s core values because they know that it will result in amazing experiences and solutions for our clients and each other.

The Principal Architect AI SME in Delivery leads architecture for large Azure programs that span applications, 

platforms, and data. You connect business goals to cloud modernization roadmaps, define architecture 

frameworks, and guide multi-team execution.

At this level, you act as an organization-wide technical leader. You set technical direction across practices, 

orchestrate cross-team discovery, keep designs aligned across multiple teams, and turn successful 

patterns into reusable models. You promote strong engineering, automation, and AI-assisted practices, 

mentor Senior Architects and Delivery Architects, and help build an inclusive, continuously improving 

engineering culture while supporting clear investment and modernization decisions for 3Cloud and our 

clients.

Responsibilities:

Solution Architecture and Technical Leadership

• Lead architecture and technical strategy for large Azure programs and portfolios so solutions meet 

client goals for value, security, scalability, reliability, performance, and cost. 

• Define modernization blueprints and reference architectures across applications, platforms, and data, 

including system and subsystem designs, patterns, and standards that simplify delivery and 

operations over time. 

• Translate business and product strategy into cloud architecture roadmaps and execution plans that 

drive measurable outcomes and adapt based on production feedback and telemetry. 

• Guide major architecture decisions across programs, promote shared design standards and reusable 

models, and resolve high-impact technical trade-offs. 

• Work across teams to connect solutions into cohesive end-to-end architectures with clear ownership 

boundaries and integration contracts. 

• Provide architectural oversight during delivery through design reviews, forums, and governance, 

keeping cross-cutting concerns (security, performance, resilience, availability, compliance, 

observability, and cost) aligned across teams. 

• Promote modular design, clear boundaries, testability, CI/CD, and observability so non-functional 

requirements are treated as first-class and systems remain reliable and maintainable. 

• Use AI tools to accelerate discovery, design, code, tests, documentation, and analysis, and scale 

successful practices so teams adopt them consistently.

Delivery and Consulting Excellence

• Lead or co-lead executive and senior stakeholder conversations on cloud modernization, platform 

strategy, AI adoption, and program roadmaps. 

• Use structured problem solving to clarify scope, dependencies, risks, and trade-offs, and shape 

delivery plans that balance value, cost, speed, and long-term system health. 

• Set discovery strategy so program objectives flow into a clear, traceable backlog tied to architecture 

and business outcomes. 

• Explain complex architecture and modernization strategies in clear language for executives, business 

leaders, and technical teams, including options, trade-offs, and recommendations. 

• Build trusted relationships with technology and business leaders, influencing priorities and investment 

decisions in ways that help mature their engineering and architecture practices. 

• Run structured decision-making forums (such as architecture reviews or steering committees) that 

produce clear decisions, documented rationale, and actionable next steps. 

• Define architecture, discovery, and delivery frameworks and working agreements that support 

predictable, incremental delivery across multiple teams and time zones, including cadences, artifacts, 

escalation paths, and hybrid delivery guidelines. 

• Align teams on shared outcomes, APIs, integration contracts, and operating models, ensuring crossteam dependencies are identified early, owned, and tracked through to completion. 
• Support effective use of Agile methods at program scale so architecture, backlogs, and release plans 

support meaningful increments, stable team velocity, low defect escape, clear definitions of done, and 

course corrections based on telemetry and feedback. 

• Track risks, technical debt, quality trends, and architectural drift across teams, and recommend 

adjustments that keep programs on track while balancing short-term delivery needs with long-term 

system health. 

• Support cross-practice opportunity qualification and estimating using playbooks, benchmarks, and 

templates so the organization focuses on high-fit pursuits and improves proposal quality and 

confidence in value, risk, and margin.

Mentorship and Team Development

• Mentor Senior Architects, Delivery Architects, and senior engineers, helping them grow systems 

thinking, architectural judgment, cross-team awareness, and their ability to lead multi-team initiatives. 

• Provide architectural oversight across programs, modeling pragmatic decision-making, including 

when to keep solutions simple, when to standardize, when to extend patterns, and when to introduce 

new technologies. 

• Help shape career paths and development plans for architects by clarifying expectations for operating 

at program scale and providing concrete examples of what “good” looks like. 

• Create and maintain high-leverage learning assets-such as reference implementations, architecture 

decision records, playbooks, and mentoring guides-that accelerate onboarding and skill growth. 

• Support hiring, calibration, and talent development by defining interview standards, participating in 

senior-level interviews and promotion reviews, and training others to apply those standards 

consistently. 

• Set a high bar for executive-ready communication and storytelling, and coach others so their 

narratives support clear decisions and strengthen client trust. 

• Help build a culture of psychological safety, inclusion, constructive feedback, and continuous 

improvement within and across teams, and support new ways of working that endure beyond a single 

project.

Growth and Innovation:

• Grow the company by identifying opportunities within your accounts across all our capabilities and 

pursuing them with the support of the account team.

• Intentionally build executive relationships within accounts to expand our partnership and create 

opportunities to provide strategic value.

• Drive sales opportunities by participating in pursuit teams as either the Pursuit Lead or Technical 

Solution Lead.

• Partner with sales, account, and practice leaders to shape technical strategy for strategic pursuits, 

projects and/or programs.

• Lead the creation of solution options, program-level architectures, and estimates, clearly documenting 

assumptions, dependencies, and risks and explaining how proposed approaches drive business 

value and reduce risk. 

• Operate as a senior technical advisor whose guidance shapes multi-track initiatives and supports 

long-term account growth. 

• Identify follow-on and adjacent opportunities-such as platform extensions, additional modernization 

waves, AI-enabled capabilities, or data estate modernization-that align with client strategies and 

3Cloud’s strengths. 

• Define and evolve reusable assets-such as reference architectures, modernization playbooks, 

landing zone templates, workshops, accelerators, and starter repositories-that become standard 

patterns for delivery teams and reduce cycle time and rework while honoring architectural and nonfunctional requirements. 

• Champion adoption of modern frameworks, cloud platform capabilities, automation practices, and AIassisted tools in a responsible and secure way, using pilots and experiments with clear success 

criteria to turn innovation into stable, repeatable practice. 

• Contribute to internal cross-practice initiatives that share patterns and lessons from large programs 

and reinforce our credibility with clients and partners. 

• Shape enablement programs that grow capabilities and reusable assets across accounts and 

package applied innovation into offerings and assets used in delivery and pursuits. 

Requirements:

• 12+ years of experience delivering solutions in a primary domain such as application development, 

cloud platform engineering, DevOps, or data and analytics, including significant work at enterprise 

scale. 

• 7+ years of experience in solution architecture and leading development or engineering teams, 

including multi-team or multi-workstream efforts at program scale. 

• Ten or more years of relevant experience with a demonstrated ability to set vision and lead 

enterprise-wide AI/ML adoption strategies.

• Thought leadership and deep expertise across several of the following: 
• Agents & Orchestration - leveraging Semantic Kernel, LangChain, or similar frameworks to 

design intelligent workflows; applying tool/function calling, planner and agent-based patterns, and 

workflow automation engines.

• Search & Retrieval - implementing solutions with vector databases such as Azure AI Search, 

Pinecone, FAISS, or Milvus; applying hybrid search methods, re-ranking strategies, and selecting 

embedding models for accuracy and performance.

• Evaluation, Quality & LLM Operations - establishing offline and online evaluation approaches; 

using golden datasets, hallucination and groundedness validation, toxicity and safety testing; 

building telemetry and feedback loops; managing monitoring, deployment pipelines, and ongoing 

optimization of large language models.

• Responsible AI, Security & Privacy - incorporating practices such as threat modeling, privacy 

reviews, data minimization, safety guardrails, policy enforcement, auditability, and model risk 

management in line with GDPR and organizational standards.

• AI Platforms & Data Foundations - applying hands-on experience with Azure AI services, 

Databricks, Azure OpenAI, and related modern data platforms.

• Cloud Engineering - designing with APIs, containers, microservices, and DevOps pipelines to 

deliver scalable, cloud-native solutions.

• Data Integration & Governance - developing and managing data pipelines; applying quality 

controls, metadata practices, and master data management approaches.

• Analytics & Visualization - delivering insights with Power BI and other visualization tools.
• Proven ability to integrate emerging AI frameworks into enterprise-ready solutions.
• Expertise with modern development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor).
• Knowledge of analytics and data science tools, frameworks, and advanced techniques.
• Relevant Azure or Databricks certifications in AI, Data, or Architecture.
• Proven experience leading architecture and delivery for Azure-based modernization, transformation, 

AI, or platform programs at enterprise scale. 

• Experience defining solution and platform architectures that connect business strategy with scalable 

technical design, strong delivery practices, and measurable outcomes. 

• Experience leading hybrid and remote teams and working with multiple stakeholders across time 

zones while maintaining alignment, quality, and predictable delivery. 

• Deep understanding of core concepts, languages, frameworks, and design patterns in a primary 

domain, with the ability to apply them at system and program scale. 

• Experience designing and integrating quality, automation, and observability practices at scale, 

including automated testing strategies and embedding quality checks into delivery workflows. 

• Experience using AI-augmented development and integrating AI and machine learning capabilities 

into solutions (for example, using APIs, frameworks, or cloud-based AI services and tools for code, 

test, and documentation acceleration). 

• Significant experience working in Agile or Scrum environments at scale, including backlog structuring, 

dependency management, integration planning, and release management. 

• Proven success in consulting or professional services, including client-facing leadership and 

executive engagement. 

• Familiarity with key Azure services used in modern solutions that are relevant to your domain (for 

example, messaging, compute, data, security, networking, management, and integration services). 

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with strong presentation, written, and verbal 

communication skills for both technical and business audiences. 

• Commitment to continuous learning in cloud, data, and AI, with the ability to turn that learning into 

practical improvements for teams and clients. 

• Ability to foster culture, inclusion, and community participation across the organization in ways that 

support rapid cross-team collaboration. 

• Relevant cloud architecture certifications (for example, Azure-focused architect certifications or 

comparable role-based certifications) are strongly preferred.

Don’t meet every single requirement? At 3Cloud we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and 

authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly 

with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway.

At this time, we cannot sponsor applicants for work visas

3Cloud Total Rewards Highlights Include:  

• Flexible work location with a virtual first approach to work!
• 401(K) with match up to 50% of your 6% contributions of eligible pay
• Generous PTO providing a minimum of 15 days in addition to 9 paid company holidays and 2 floating personal days  
• Two medical plan options to allow you the choice to elect what works best for you!
• Option for vision and dental coverage
• 100% employer paid coverage for life and disability insurance
• Paid leave for birth parents and non-birth parents
• Option for Healthcare FSA, HSA, and Dependent Care FSA
• $67.00 monthly tech and home office allowance
• Utilization and/or discretionary bonus eligibility based on role
• Employee Assistance Program to help with everyday challenges

3Cloud offers competitive compensation. In addition to base pay employees are eligible to receive an annual discretionary/utilization bonus. If you are hired at 3Cloud your final base salary is based on factors such as skills, education, experience and/or geographic location. Please keep in mind that the range mentioned above includes the full base salary range for the role. It is not typical for offers to be made at or near the top of the range.

Base Salary Range

$176,200—$264,300 USD

Don’t meet every single requirement? At 3Cloud we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway.

At this time, we cannot sponsor applicants for work visas.