Senior AI Architect - Enterprise AI & LLM Platforms (80-100%)

Our client is a forward-thinking financial services institution headquartered in Zurich, known for combining modern technology with a highly collaborative culture. The company operates with lean structures, short decision-making paths, and a strong commitment to innovation in banking operations. Employees benefit from an environment that values expertise, initiative, and continuous learning while maintaining a stable and well-established market presence.

Role Overview
As Senior AI Architect, you will define and drive the architectural vision for enterprise-wide AI systems. You will lead the design and implementation of production-grade LLM solutions, agent-based applications, and the underlying platforms and guardrails that enable responsible and compliant AI adoption. This role combines deep technical leadership with hands-on engineering, working closely with cross-functional partners to ensure that AI systems meet enterprise, regulatory, and operational requirements.

Key Responsibilities
You will shape the end-to-end AI architecture and guide teams in building enterprise-ready AI solutions. Your work spans LLM engineering, platform design, architectural governance, and hands-on prototyping.

Your responsibilities include

• Defining and evolving the company's enterprise AI architecture and driving delivery of production-grade AI systems.
• Designing and implementing LLM-based and agent-oriented AI applications.
• Establishing best practices for LLM and RAG architectures across teams.
• Engineering scalable, secure, and resilient AI platforms using distributed and event-driven designs.
• Providing hands-on architectural leadership, mentoring engineers, and delivering reference implementations while collaborating with Product, Security, Risk, Compliance, and IT functions.

Your Profile
To succeed in this role, you offer a strong engineering background combined with extensive experience in designing and delivering AI/LLM systems in complex environments. You are comfortable navigating technical ambiguity, influencing engineering practices, and building solutions that meet regulatory and operational standards. Candidates must hold a valid Swiss work permit or be citizens of an EU/EFTA country.

Additionally

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including several years in architecture or technical leadership.
• Strong backend and systems engineering skills, with deep experience in Python and modern service/API development.
• Practical expertise with LLM-powered applications, including RAG and agent-based patterns.
• Hands-on MLOps and AI platform engineering experience (model lifecycle management, evaluation, drift detection, reproducibility, auditability).
• Solid DevOps and cloud architecture background (CI/CD, IaC, Kubernetes/OpenShift, cloud-native security; Azure experience is an advantage).
• Ability to work in regulated enterprise environments and collaborate with Security, Risk, Compliance, and IT stakeholders.
• Pragmatic leadership style with excellent communication skills; fluency in English is required, German is a strong advantage.

Benefits

The company offers a modern work environment and attractive conditions designed to support both personal development and work-life balance.

• Opportunities for continuous learning through internal and external training programs.
• Flexible working models, including hybrid work options.
• A central Zurich office with modern collaboration spaces.
• Competitive compensation package with performance-based incentives.
• Additional leave options to support personal needs and work-life balance.
• A culture that promotes teamwork, knowledge-sharing, and cross-functional collaboration.