Senior Lead System Architect (Remote, US)

Lumen is the trusted network for the AI-powered world, connecting people, data, and applications through our expansive fiber network and connected ecosystem. We enable secure, high-performance connectivity across cloud, edge, and AI workloads for enterprises, governments, and communities.

At Lumen, you’ll work on infrastructure customers rely on today and build for what’s next, where performance, security, and resilience matter.

This is a high accountability environment where bold ideas drive real innovation for our customers, partners, and industry. The work is challenging, expectations are clear, and trust is built into how we operate. If you’re ready to take ownership, deliver meaningful impact, and help shape the future of AI-ready connectivity, join us today.

The Role

At Lumen, we are igniting business growth by connecting people, data, and applications quickly, securely, and effortlessly. As a Senior Lead System Architect, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our AI ecosystem by defining and leading the architecture behind conversational, generative, and agentic AI solutions that deliver real business impact.

This is a strategic technical leadership position for an architect who thrives on solving complex, ambiguous challenges and translating business needs into scalable, production-ready AI platforms. You will establish architectural direction, influence enterprise AI strategy, and collaborate across engineering, product, and business teams to deliver innovative solutions that help our customers and employees achieve more. As a trusted technical leader, you will guide critical technology decisions, champion responsible AI practices, and help drive Lumen's next generation of intelligent experiences.

Location

This is a remote opportunity open to candidates located anywhere in the U.S.

The Main Responsibilities

Define and own end-to-end architecture for conversational, generative, and agentic AI solutions, including data, application, integration, and cloud platform designs.

Establish architecture standards, reference designs, and governance practices to ensure scalability, security, reliability, and operational excellence.

Lead technical strategy and platform decisions across Google Cloud AI services and emerging AI technologies, helping shape Lumen's AI roadmap.

Design and validate innovative AI approaches, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), multi-agent systems, vector search, and intelligent orchestration frameworks.

Architect secure integrations with enterprise applications, APIs, data platforms, and business systems to enable seamless AI capabilities.

Drive operational architecture for AI solutions, including CI/CD, monitoring, observability, model lifecycle management, and reliability engineering.

Partner with product, engineering, and business stakeholders to align technical solutions with strategic objectives and customer needs.

Serve as a technical mentor and thought leader, elevating architectural maturity and fostering innovation across teams.

Champion responsible AI principles by embedding governance, privacy, security, transparency, and ethical practices into solution design.

What We Look For in a Candidate

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical discipline.

12+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years designing and deploying AI/ML solutions and 3+ years in systems, solution, or enterprise architecture roles.

Proven success architecting and delivering large-scale AI solutions from concept through production, particularly for complex or novel business challenges.

Deep expertise with Google Cloud AI technologies, including Vertex AI, Dialogflow, Agent Builder, Conversational Agents, and related AI services.

Strong understanding of distributed systems, enterprise integration patterns, APIs, event-driven architectures, security, and cloud-native design principles.

Hands-on experience with agentic AI, LLM applications, RAG architectures, multi-agent frameworks, model evaluation, vector search, and AI orchestration technologies.

Experience building scalable AI platforms with modern data, MLOps, observability, and infrastructure automation practices.

Exceptional communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence decisions across technical and executive audiences.

Passion for innovation, continuous learning, collaboration, and applying responsible AI principles to create meaningful business outcomes.

Compensation

This information reflects the anticipated base salary range for this position based on current national data. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. Individual pay is based on skills, experience and other relevant factors.

Location Based Pay Ranges

$132,232 - $176,310 in these states: AL AR AZ FL GA IA ID IN KS KY LA ME MO MS MT ND NE NM OH OK PA SC SD TN UT VT WI WV WY

$138,844 - $185,124 in these states: CO HI MI MN NC NH NV OR RI

$145,456 - $193,940 in these states: AK CA CT DC DE IL MA MD NJ NY TX VA WA

Lumen offers a comprehensive package featuring a broad range of Health, Life, Voluntary Lifestyle benefits and other perks that enhance your physical, mental, emotional and financial wellbeing. We're able to answer any additional questions you may have about our bonus structure (short-term incentives, long-term incentives and/or sales compensation) as you move through the selection process.

Bonus Structure

Requisition #: 343106

Life at Lumen

Life at Lumen is human and connected, even in a fast moving, AI-focused organization. We set clear expectations and trust people to meet them. With real support and shared accountability, teams collaborate better, move faster, and deliver meaningful outcomes.

Our Lumen 8 behaviors guide how we interact, make decisions, and work together, shaping a culture built to perform and win.

To learn more about Life at Lumen and how we live the Lumen 8, please visit:

Background Screening

If you are selected for a position, there will be a background screen, which may include checks for criminal records and/or motor vehicle reports and/or drug screening, depending on the position requirements. For more information on these checks, please refer to the Post Offer section of our FAQ page. Job-related concerns identified during the background screening may disqualify you from the new position or your current role. Background results will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Equal Employment Opportunities

We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all persons regardless of race, color, ancestry, citizenship, national origin, religion, veteran status, disability, genetic characteristic or information, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, family status, pregnancy, or other legally protected status (collectively, “protected statuses”). We do not tolerate unlawful discrimination in any employment decisions, including recruiting, hiring, compensation, promotion, benefits, discipline, termination, job assignments or training.

Privacy Notice

Lumen is committed to protecting the privacy and security of personal information collected during the recruitment and hiring process. Our Applicant Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect applicant information, as well as how individuals may request access to or deletion of their personal data.

To review Lumen’s Global Employment Applicant and Talent Community Privacy Notice, please visit:

Disclaimer

The job responsibilities described above indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not intended to include a comprehensive inventory of all duties and responsibilities for this job. Job duties and responsibilities are subject to change based on evolving business needs and conditions.

In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Please be advised that Lumen does not require any form of payment from job applicants during the recruitment process. All legitimate job openings will be posted on our official website or communicated through official company email addresses. If you encounter any job offers that request payment in exchange for employment at Lumen, they are not for employment with us, but may relate to another company with a similar name.

Originally posted on Himalayas