About Ignite AI Partners
AI Partners is a rapidly growing AI consultancy firm that helps organisations unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence. Our team delivers expert consultancy, seamless implementation, and ongoing support, ensuring our clients are equipped to succeed in an AI-driven world.
As a small, dynamic company, we value innovation, collaboration, and a hands-on approach to solving complex challenges.
Role and purpose
The Principal AI Architect is a senior technical role at the heart of Ignite’s client delivery. You will lead the design of AI and data solutions across our projects, working closely with consultants, engineers, and delivery teams. You are accountable for bringing technical clarity to commercial conversation, ensuring scope, assumptions, dependencies, and constraints are explicitly defined so that there are absolutely no grey areas between what is sold, what is built, and what is delivered.
This role combines deep technical expertise with strong client engagement. You will work directly with client stakeholders, help shape solutions during pre-sales, and provide architectural leadership during delivery. You will also help build Ignite’s technical standards, reusable assets, and engineering capability, ensuring we continue to scale delivery quality as the business grows.
Responsibilities
Solution & AI Architecture Leadership
- Lead the architecture and technical design of AI, data, and automation solutions across client engagements.
- Translate business problems into scalable technical solutions spanning data platforms, AI models, APIs, and automation.
- Ensure solutions are secure, maintainable, and aligned with modern architecture practices.
- Provide architectural guidance and governance across multiple concurrent workstreams, ensuring architectural consistency and sound decision-making across projects.
Technical Delivery Leadership
- Act as the senior technical authority on key projects, supporting teams through complex technical decisions.
- Work closely with engineers and delivery leads to ensure solutions are implemented effectively and meet quality expectations.
- Identify technical risks early and provide pragmatic solutions to keep projects moving.
- Contribute to the selection and evolution of engineering tooling, platforms, and development environments to support efficient delivery.
Client Engagement & Pre-Sales
- Participate in sales conversations and solution design workshops with prospective clients.
- Support proposal development, statements of work, and effort shaping, ensuring solutions are technically sound, realistically scoped, and commercially viable.
- Support technical due diligence during procurement and pre-sales processes, including contributing to compliance responses, security documentation, and technical artefacts required for client risk
assessment.
- Build trust with senior client stakeholders by bringing clarity to complex AI and data topics.
Engineering Standards & Technical Quality
- Help establish and embed engineering and architecture standards across Ignite.
- Promote best practices in areas such as:
- AI solution design
- data architecture
- code quality
- DevOps and automation, and engineering tooling security and governance
- Ensure technical consistency across projects while maintaining delivery speed.
Innovation & Reusable IP
- Support the development of reusable accelerators, frameworks, and technical patterns that improve delivery efficiency.
- Contribute to internal R&D and proof-of-concept development.
- Track emerging AI and technology trends and help translate them into practical opportunities for Ignite and our clients.
Technical Leadership Through Influence
- Provide architectural leadership across projects by guiding engineers and consultants through complex design decisions.
- Mentor team members, review technical approaches, and help raise the overall engineering standard across Ignite.
- You will lead through expertise, collaboration, and credibility rather than formal hierarchy.
Hands-On Technical Leadership
- This is a hands-on architecture role. You will actively contribute to solution design, technical implementation, and problem solving across projects.
- While you will guide and mentor teams, you will also remain close to the technology – helping build prototypes, shaping complex integrations, and ensuring solutions work in the real world.
Candidate requirements
Experience
- Proven experience in a senior technical role such as Principal Architect, Lead Architect, or Senior AI/Data Architect within a consultancy, technology firm, or product organisation.
- Strong experience designing and delivering AI, data, and software solutions for multiple clients or complex organisations.
Technical Depth
- Expertise in modern AI technologies, LLMs, cloud platforms (Azure preferred), data engineering, APIs, and automation.
- Strong experience designing end-to-end solutions covering data ingestion, model development, orchestration, deployment, and monitoring.
Architecture Excellence
- Deep experience in solution architecture and data architecture.
- Comfortable producing architectural artefacts and guiding delivery teams through implementation.
- Ability to balance technical rigour with pragmatic delivery.
Client Orientation
- Strong client-facing communication skills.
- Able to simplify complex technology and build credibility with senior stakeholders.
- Experience participating in technical pre-sales and solution design.
Leadership & Influence
- Respected technical leader who can guide teams without relying on hierarchy.
- Comfortable influencing decisions and providing direction across multiple projects.
Commercial Awareness
- Understands how architecture decisions affect delivery timelines, costs, and commercial outcomes.
- Able to design solutions that balance technical excellence with practical delivery constraints.
Mindset
- Curious, pragmatic, and delivery-focused.
- Comfortable working in a fast-moving consultancy environment.
- Enjoys solving complex problems and helping organisations unlock value from AI.
Why Join Us?
Meaningful Impact
Play a key role in shaping how AI solutions are designed and delivered across a growing consultancy.
Diverse Projects
Work across multiple industries, helping organisations apply AI and data in practical, transformative ways.
Technical Influence
Help define technical standards, architecture patterns, and delivery approaches as Ignite scales.
Career Growth
Develop as a technical leader in a high-growth consultancy with opportunities to expand your influence as the business scales.
Collaborative Culture
Join a close-knit team that values curiosity, practical thinking, and shared success.
Growth Opportunity
Develop your influence and technical leadership as the business expands and takes on increasingly ambitious AI projects.
Recognition and Rewards
Enjoy a competitive salary and benefits package that recognises your expertise, leadership, and the impact you bring.
