Chief AI Architect

Employment type: Full-time permanent. Seniority: Senior, reports to an executive. Package: Exec Benchmark. - Hybrid - At least 3 days in the office.

The role

A well known blue chip Australian technology business that already runs AI in production at consumer scale is appointing its first Lead AI "enterprise level" Architect. You report directly to the executive who owns the AI outcome and sit on his leadership team. You own the evolution of the AI architecture: which platforms scale and which are toys, how agents connect to production systems, what the standards are, and what the next twelve months of capability look like. You watch the market and filter it for business outcomes, drive governance thinking alongside the existing security lead, and present to the executive with backing.

You still build. This is a doer who manages some doers, not a function head. In-source engineering shop of 50+ developers, tools bought not solutions, deliberately not vendor-locked.

What you bring

• You are hands-on today. You can show production code (you understand exec roles still need to understand AI technology and pace), agents or pipelines you personally shipped in the last twelve months. If your fingernails are not dirty, this is not for you.
• Solution and platform architecture at scale: LLM orchestration, agent frameworks, MCP or equivalent tool protocols, evaluation and observability, RAG in production.
• Business-outcome judgement: you chase the result, not the technology.
• Straight talk. You survive a blunt executive and you do not need a team of architects and assistants to operate.
• Sydney, three days a week in the office. Not negotiable.
• Databricks, AWS and agent orchestration experience is useful, not required.

Not for you if you are a management consultant, a strategy-deck operator, or an AI leader whose recent work is roadmaps rather than systems this role is not for you. This is a genuine executive level role but we need delivery and practical solutions that change.

If this role sounds like you, if you are an executive who is passionate about AI and wants to be part of a front running Ai transformation this role is for you. Please apply for a confidential discussion.