Location: Phoenix, AZ – Hybrid (1-3 days a month in the office | Only Local Candidates)
Duration: 18 months contract with possible extension
Payrate:  $69.76/HR w2

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Solutions Architect (Contractor) will work with our existing internal AI product management team, vendor teams, and existing development staff to develop, enhance, and streamline our AI systems.

This position works with minimal supervision and exercises independent judgment within well-defined parameters.

Major Responsibilities

1. Lead the design and implementation of secure, scalable AI and Agentic AI solutions aligned with mission, policies, and public-sector standards.
2. Define end-to-end AI architectures including data ingestion, RAG pipelines, LLM orchestration, and human-in-the-loop workflows.
3. Provide technical leadership, relevant architectural documentation for approvals, and guidance to internal teams and system integrators.
4. Establish reference architectures and best practices for responsible, ethical, and compliant AI use.
5. Evaluate and integrate AI platforms, cloud services, and vendor solutions in coordination with procurement and legal teams.
6. Design architectures that support explainability, auditability, bias mitigation, and transparency in decision-support systems.
7. Collaborate with DevOps (cloud ops), cybersecurity, and data teams to operationalize AI solutions from proof of concept to production systems.
8. Support AI strategy, roadmap development, and executive briefings to scale AI capabilities across programs.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science

Skills Required

• AI development with Agentic AI and Azure OpenAI
• LLM, ML, RAG, and human-in-the-loop workflows
• .NET (C#, VB.NET), HTML, JavaScript, and advanced automation tools (OCR, IDP, AI/ML)
• Demonstrable written and oral communication skills
• Ability to design and implement AI agentic solutions from business and technical requirements
• Ability to develop technical specifications, designs, and architecture artifacts
• Ability to break down business problems into logical tasks and think creatively
• Ability to perform code analysis to understand how code is implemented
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and changing priorities

Skills Preferred

• Azure DevOps, Git, CI/CD
• Familiarity with APIs/Services (REST & SOAP services), MS Office, Google Suite, and OnBase Unity Client
• Continued education and mentoring of developers in best practices
• Experience with Agile development methodologies including Scrum, Trello, Kanban, SAFe, and Lean principles
• Experience with Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and ITIL processes

Required Skills

• AI Architecture
• Data Ingestion
• RAG Pipelines
• LLM Orchestration

Preferred Skills

• Azure DevOps
• GIT
• CI/CD
• .NET (C#, VB.NET), HTML, JavaScript

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