Principal AI Architect

We are looking for a hands-on Principal Engineer to help architect and build ONDC's next generation of intelligent systems. This is not a traditional architect role. At ONDC, architects build. You will work closely with the CTO and AI leadership to design and implement systems spanning the following: Small Language Models (SLMs) Agentic Systems Knowledge Architectures Commerce Intelligence Platforms Multilingual AI Distributed AI Infrastructure.

Responsibilities:

• Architect and build AI-powered platforms and intelligent systems for ONDC.
• Design and develop SLM training, fine-tuning, distillation, and deployment pipelines.
• Build deep knowledge and reasoning systems that combine structured, unstructured, and real-time commerce data.
• Design agent orchestration frameworks for buyers, sellers, and ecosystem participants.
• Drive cost-efficient, scalable, and reliable AI infrastructure suitable for India-scale adoption.
• Contribute hands-on through architecture, coding, reviews, experimentation, and production deployment.

Requirements:

• 8-12 years of strong software engineering and research experience.
• Proven track record of building large-scale distributed systems.
• Hands-on experience building or training Small Language Models (SLMs), LLM-based systems, or advanced AI platforms.
• Strong understanding of neural networks, transformers, knowledge systems, model distillation, fine-tuning, and inference optimization.
• Experience designing intelligent orchestration systems, agents, or complex decision-making platforms.
• Ability to reason deeply about scale, latency, reliability, accuracy, privacy, and cost.
• Strong ownership, curiosity, and builder mindset. This role is best suited for someone who enjoys building foundational intelligence systems rather than simply integrating AI APIs.