Principal AI Architect

At NCS Australia, we believe in doing technology services better. Our commitment to quality, focus on people, and willingness to challenge traditional thinking set us apart. Our team partners with clients and communities to make tomorrow together. We are committed to creating an environment that prioritises innovation, collaboration, and purposeful work. Our diverse team is empowered to make a meaningful impact with curiosity, creativity and resilience to shape better outcomes. Join us and accept the challenge of creating a better tomorrow.

Job Description

As a Principal AI Architect at NCS, you'll become a trusted advisor to our clients, diving deep into their unique challenges and ambitions to strategically architect transformative AI solutions that ignite their business success. You will orchestrate the entire journey of pioneering AI initiatives from initial concept through to sophisticated design, development, and seamless implementation. This is your chance to play an instrumental role in delivering breakthrough innovation and driving substantial growth for a diverse and impressive portfolio of clients.

As a true collaborator, you'll partner with our clients, exploring their specific problems and exciting opportunities, working with our talented cross-functional teams to craft bespoke, intelligent solutions. You'll be the visionary behind robust, secure, and high-performing AI architectures and their intricate data pipelines, all meticulously tailored to address each client's distinct needs. Your expert guidance will shape the development and deployment of cutting-edge AI models, ensuring they not only meet the highest industry standards for quality and reliability but also achieve targeted, impactful client outcomes.

As a technical leader, you'll inspire and mentor our AI development teams, cultivating a vibrant culture of continuous learning, client-focused innovation, and shared success. You'll be at the forefront of AI, championing research into emerging technologies to keep our solutions cutting-edge. You will also drive the optimisation of AI models for peak performance and ensure their elegant integration within client environments and existing infrastructures. Crucially, you will champion and implement robust strategies for data governance, security, and privacy, embedding ethical and responsible AI principles at the very core of every client engagement and solution we deliver.

To thrive in this role and help us deliver exceptional AI solutions for our clients, you'll ideally bring:

• Extensive Real-World Impact: A significant track record of hands-on experience designing, building, and successfully deploying production-grade Data and AI solutions at scale. Ideally experience in a professional services environment across government, finance, or telecommunications, demonstrating delivery of tangible results (e.g., sophisticated recommendation engines, personalised user experiences, advanced NLP features).
• Deep Technical Proficiency: Comprehensive expertise across leading AI, ML, and Generative AI frameworks and cloud services, with hands-on experience in:
  • AWS: SageMaker, Bedrock, Comprehend, Rekognition, and related services.
  • Azure: Azure Machine Learning, Azure OpenAI, Form Recognizer, Cognitive Search, and similar.
  • Google Cloud: Vertex AI, BigQuery ML, AutoML, and associated tools.
  • You should also have strong capabilities with LLMs, Python, PySpark, and Vector Databases.
• Strategic Architectural Vision: Proven ability to architect innovative, scalable, and secure AI solutions aligned with enterprise strategies and future ambitions.
• Influential Leadership & Mentorship: An inspiring leader who guides diverse, cross-functional teams to success and can drive AI adoption and articulate its value at the CxO level.
• Innovation Driver: A track record of identifying and leveraging emerging AI trends to create competitive advantage and deliver cutting-edge solutions for clients.
• Strong Academic Foundations: A Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or related field. A PhD would be highly regarded.

NCS Australia is where you can feel at home, nurturing your talents and skills as we make tomorrow together, one day at a time. Our benefits include paid parental leave, wellbeing initiatives, discounted health insurance, discounts on various products and services, and recognition for high performance. We support career development through our Capability Fingerprint, training programs, special interest groups, and an AI-driven learning platform. We offer meaningful work and opportunities for growth.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity. We are committed to attracting, retaining, and developing people regardless of gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, and age. We encourage applications from all sectors of the community, including Veterans and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities. We support adjustments during recruitment and employment for people with disabilities.

Work rights and background checks: applicants must have valid work rights for Australia and be willing to undergo a comprehensive background check, including probity and police checks.

Seniority level: Mid-Senior level

Employment type: Full-time

Job function: Information Technology

Industries: IT Services and IT Consulting