Principal Architect - Data & AI

Overview Microsoft Industry Solutions – Global Center Innovation and Delivery Center (GCID) delivers end-to-end solutions by enabling accelerated adoption and productive use of Microsoft technologies. An organization of well over 1000+ exceptional people, GCID presents a significant opportunity for highly experienced services professionals to shape enterprise transformation at scale. The Principal Architect is a senior executive level technical leader accountable for enterprise-wide architecture strategy, AI first delivery execution, and business outcomes across complex, multiyear customer engagements. This role serves as a trusted advisor to CEO, CIO, CTO, CDO, and executive leadership teams of customers, influencing digital, data, and AI transformation agendas. In an AI first GCID organization, Principal Architects are expected to shape vision, define guardrails, and lead execution of intelligent, scalable, and secure solutions that directly drive business value, resilience, and innovation. The ideal candidate demonstrates exceptional technical breadth, strategic depth, executive presence, and the ability to operate confidently in ambiguous, high impact environments. Responsibilities AI First Delivery Leadership • Define and drive enterprise scale AI first delivery strategies, aligned to customer business vision and executive priorities. • Lead end-to-end technical accountability for mission critical, multiprogram engagements, ensuring strategic alignment, architectural integrity, and measurable business outcomes. • Establish delivery models that scale intelligent automation, autonomous systems, and AI native execution across programs and portfolios. • Act as the executive technical authority during escalations, guiding recovery, transformation, or exit strategies for high-risk or underperforming engagements. • Partner with CIO/CTO/CDO leadership to balance innovation, governance, cost, security, and speed at enterprise scale. Engineering Excellence • Set enterprise architecture standards and technical guardrails across data, AI, platform, and engineering disciplines. • Ensure production grade quality through architecture reviews, performance benchmarks, security controls, observability, and operational readiness. • Champion modern engineering practices including DevSecOps, platform engineering, CI/CD, SRE, and AI assisted development. • Foster a culture of technical rigor, accountability, and continuous evolution across architect and engineering communities. Innovation & Thought Leadership • Shape forward-looking architecture visions for customers, leveraging emerging AI, data, and platform capabilities. • Engage in executive level discussions to influence technology roadmaps, operating models, and innovation investments. • Lead creation of reusable assets, reference architectures, accelerators, and IP that scale across customers and industries. • Represent GCID as a thought leader in architecture, AI adoption, and largescale transformation. Client Engagement & Solutioning • Act as a primary technology advisor to CEO/CIO/CTO leadership, aligning architecture decisions with long term business strategy. • Translate business imperatives into enterprise grade architecture, blueprints and execution roadmaps. • Build trusted relationships with senior customer stakeholders, enabling influence at boardroom and executive steering committee levels. • Guide customers through complex tradeoffs involving cost, risk, performance, compliance, and speed to value. Team Management & Mentorship • Mentor senior architects and engineering leaders, shaping next generation technical leadership. • Lead cross functional, cross geography architect communities to scale best practices and innovation. • Inspire a culture of ownership, excellence, and outcome driven execution. Quality & Compliance • Ensure all solutions meet enterprise security, compliance, reliability, and Responsible AI standards. • Provide executive oversight to design governance, quality gates, and production readiness for critical workloads. Other • Embody our  culture  and  values Qualifications • 22+ years of experience in software, data, and platform engineering with 15+ years in enterprise architecture and technical leadership roles. • Proven track record of influencing and delivering transformation outcomes at CXO level. • Deep expertise in modern delivery methodologies and gotomarket acceleration models. • Exceptional executive communication, stakeholder influence, and decision-making skills. • Bachelor's degree in engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent experience; advanced certifications preferred. Areas of Expertise Enterprise Data Architecture & Modern Platforms • Define and govern enterprise wide data and analytics architectures aligned to business strategy. • Partner with customer CIO/CDO organizations on modernization, platform consolidation, and cost optimization. • Drive accountability for operational stability, scalability, and long term sustainability. Data Engineering & Large Scale Data Processing • Executive oversight of largescale batch and streaming architectures across cloud and hybrid environments. • Define standards for performance, reliability, and operability of data platforms. • Champion DataOps and AIOps adoption for continuous optimization. Database Platforms, Performance & Capacity Engineering • Provide architectural guidance on transactional, analytical, and AI-driven database workloads. • Ensure cost efficient, predictable performance at enterprise scale. AI First Data Engineering & Unify Your Data • Define strategies for agentic AI driven data platforms that scale responsibly. • Influence governance, explainability, and humanintheloop adoption at enterprise level. • Drive operationalization of autonomous data systems in production environments. AI & Advanced Analytics Enablement • Shape architecture for largescale AI adoption including RAG, AI agents, and inference platforms. • Ensure AI systems meet executive expectations for trust, transparency, performance, and value realization. • Embed Responsible AI and governance by design patterns into all solutions. Solutioning, Presales & Technical Leadership • Lead executive level solutioning during complex deals, renewals, and strategic pursuits. • Influence multiyear transformation programs from vision through execution. • Act as a trusted advisor to internal leadership on strategic accounts and investments. Frontier Consulting Skills • Enterprise full stack and platform thinking across data, AI, application, and cloud layers. • Lead rapid ideation, pilots, and scaled production deployments with executive sponsorship. • Outcomesdriven execution focused on measurable business impact. • Comfortable operating with CEO/CIO/CTO stakeholders in high stakes environments. Personal Attributes • Executive presence with ability to influence at boardroom and CXO levels. • Strategic thinker with strong technical depth and business acumen. • Decisive, resilient, and comfortable navigating ambiguity. • Passionate about innovation, scale, and continuous learning. This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.