About Cognizant Consulting
Cognizant Consulting is more than Cognizant's consulting practice—we're a global community of 6,000+ experts dedicated to helping clients reimagine their business. Blending our deep industry and technology advisory capability, we create innovative business solutions for Fortune 500 clients. And now, we're looking for our next colleague who'll join us in shaping the future of business. Could it be you?
About the role
As an Associate Director, AI Architect, you will make an impact by leading the design and delivery of enterprise-grade AI solutions built on frontier foundation models. You will be a valued member of the AI & Digital Engineering team and work collaboratively with architects, engineers, hyperscaler and frontier model partners, and clients.
This is a hybrid technical-leadership role: you'll architect solutions that push what frontier models — large language models, multi-modal models, and agentic systems — can responsibly do inside a large enterprise, while leading a team of architects and engineers and acting as a trusted technical advisor to client stakeholders. You'll sit at the intersection of deep technical credibility and client delivery — equally comfortable designing an agent orchestration layer and explaining its risk profile to a client's CTO.
In this role, you will:
- Architect enterprise-grade AI solutions using frontier foundation models (e.g. Claude, GPT, Gemini family) across use cases including agentic automation, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), copilots, and multi-modal applications
- Lead technical solutioning during pre-sales and discovery, translating client business challenges into scalable AI architecture and delivery roadmaps; design and govern the AI platform architecture including model orchestration, prompt and context management, retrieval pipelines, vector stores, agent frameworks, and tool/context integration (including emerging protocols such as MCP)
- Define and enforce responsible AI, governance, and assurance frameworks — covering bias, safety, data privacy, and model risk — aligned to client and regulatory requirements (including the EU AI Act, UK AI regulatory principles, NIST AI RMF, or regional equivalents)
- Lead and mentor a team of AI engineers and architects, building technical capability and clear career pathways within the practice; own technical relationships with hyperscaler and frontier model partners (Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Anthropic, OpenAI) to stay ahead of platform capability
- Act as a trusted advisor to client CxOs and senior stakeholders on AI strategy, architecture, and roadmap; own end-to-end delivery quality including architecture reviews, technical governance boards, production readiness, post-go-live scaling, reusable accelerators/IP, and thought leadership
Work model
We believe hybrid work is the way forward as we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role's business requirements, this is a hybrid position requiring [X] days a week in a client or Cognizant office in the United Kingdom. Regardless of your working arrangement, we are here to support a healthy work-life balance though our various wellbeing programs.
The working arrangements for this role are accurate as of the date of posting. This may change based on the project you're engaged in, as well as business and client requirements. Rest assured; we will always be clear about role expectations.
What you must have to be considered
- 10+ years in software engineering, data engineering, or solution architecture, including at least 3–5 years focused specifically on applied AI/ML or generative AI, with proven hands-on architecture experience with frontier large language models and multi-modal models — including prompt engineering, fine-tuning, RAG, and agentic/multi-agent system design
- Strong grounding in LLMOps/MLOps: evaluation frameworks, observability, cost and latency optimisation, guardrails, and safe deployment at enterprise scale
- Direct experience with major frontier model providers (Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, Google Gemini, or equivalent) and cloud AI ecosystems (Azure AI/OpenAI Service, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI), plus solid understanding of AI governance, responsible AI, and emerging regulatory frameworks (e.g. EU AI Act, UK AI regulatory principles, NIST AI RMF)
- Demonstrated technical leadership — leading architecture teams, chairing design/technical governance authorities, and mentoring senior engineers — combined with client-facing consulting experience: solutioning, pre-sales support, and stakeholder management at senior client level
- Strong software engineering fundamentals (API design, cloud-native architecture, microservices, and data pipeline/data engineering experience) and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience
These will help you succeed
- Experience with agent orchestration frameworks (e.g. LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI) and emerging tool-integration protocols (e.g. Model Context Protocol)
- Public sector or other regulated-industry delivery experience (financial services, healthcare, government)
- Relevant certifications (e.g. Azure AI Engineer Associate, AWS Certified Machine Learning, Google Professional ML Engineer)
- Experience building or scaling an AI Centre of Excellence or comparable practice capability within a consulting organisation
- Published thought leadership, patents, or conference speaking in AI/ML; advanced degree is a plus
We're excited to meet people who share our mission and can make an impact in a variety of ways. Don't hesitate to apply, even if you only meet the minimum requirements listed. Think about your transferable experiences and unique skills that make you stand out as someone who can bring new and exciting things to this role.
コグニザントについて
コグニザント（NASDAQ: CTSH）は、AI Builderおよびテクノロジーサービスプロバイダーとして、お客様にフルスタックのAIソリューションを構築することで、AI投資と企業価値を結ぶ架け橋となっています。業界、ビジネスプロセス、エンジニアリングに関する当社の深い専門知識を活かし、組織固有のビジネス環境をテクノロジー・システムに組み込みます。これにより、人間の可能性を最大限に引き出し、確かな成果を実現するとともに、急速に変化する世界においてグローバル企業が常に一歩先を行くための支援を行っています。 詳細については、cognizant.ai をご覧ください。
雇用に関する追加情報
本募集に記載されている報酬情報は、掲載日時点で正確なものです。Cognizantは、適用される法令に従い、いつでも本情報を変更する権利を留保します。
応募者は、対面またはビデオ会議による面接への参加を求められる場合があります。また、各面接の際に、現在有効な州政府または政府発行の身分証明書の提示を求められる場合があります。
Cognizantは機会均等雇用主です。応募および選考において、人種、肌の色、性別、宗教、信条、性的指向、性自認、国籍、障がい、遺伝情報、妊娠、退役軍人の地位、その他連邦法・州法・地方自治体の法律により保護されるいかなる特性に基づく差別も行いません。
