Zencore

Cloud consulting for Google Cloud transformations

Principal Architect - AI/ML

Applied Machine LearningConfirmed live in the last 24 hours

Full-timeRemote in USANo salary listed

About the Job

Requirements

A master's degree in Computer Science, natural sciences, mathematics, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience designing and delivering high-scale artificial intelligence and machine learning systems.
Extensive experience in a senior or principal architect role and a proven track record designing and delivering complex, production-grade machine learning systems that created measurable business value.
Deep, hands-on architectural experience with at least one major cloud platform: Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, or Microsoft Azure.
Expertise in large language model optimization, including quantization, pruning, efficient fine-tuning such as Low-Rank Adaptation, and high-performance serving such as vLLM or TensorRT-LLM.
Hands-on experience with high-performance machine learning frameworks such as JAX or PyTorch/XLA for training or fine-tuning large-scale models.
Expertise designing and deploying agentic workflows using code-centric paradigms such as LangGraph, LangChain, or Google ADK, and low-code paradigms such as Vertex AI Agent Builder or LangSmith Agent Builder.
A strong understanding of architectural patterns for building secure, private, and data-sovereign artificial intelligence solutions.
Experience with large language model observability and evaluation frameworks such as LangSmith, LangFuse, or Vertex AI Evaluation.
Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to explain complex technical concepts and their business value to technical and non-technical audiences.
A passion for mentoring and commitment to continuous learning in the evolving artificial intelligence landscape.

Responsibilities

Serve as the senior-most technical authority on practical applications of advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Partner with sales and business development in a pre-sales capacity to scope opportunities, design proposal solutions, and serve as the senior technical voice in client pitches.
Lead architecture and design of sophisticated, secure, and scalable artificial intelligence solutions for clients, moving beyond standard application programming interface integrations to create competitive advantages.
Collaborate with Cloud and Data Architects to ensure comprehensive client solutions are designed and deployed.
Design systems addressing private, data-sovereign artificial intelligence needs and strict General Data Protection Regulation and data privacy requirements; promote model explainability and bias mitigation and ensure adherence to ethical standards and safety guardrails.
Architect solutions for hosting, fine-tuning, and optimizing proprietary models such as Gemini and Claude and open-source models such as Llama and Mistral on hyperscaler platforms.
Guide clients in selecting optimal cloud-native technologies, prioritizing Google Cloud solutions for deploying and scaling production-grade agentic systems.
Guide and mentor customer and engineering teams on high-performance training using PyTorch, JAX, and TPUs; efficient model serving using vLLM; and complex agentic systems using LangGraph, LangChain, and Google ADK.
Develop the financial architecture of artificial intelligence solutions by performing return-on-investment analysis and implementing cost-optimization strategies for sustainable large-scale deployments.
Contribute to the company’s technical thought leadership through blog posts, conference presentations, and community engagement.
Provide hands-on technical leadership as a player-coach and foster a culture of technical excellence in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Desired Qualifications

Direct, hands-on experience with Google Cloud, including Vertex AI, Google Kubernetes Engine, and Tensor Processing Units.

Zencore is a fast-growing company founded by former Google Cloud leaders, architects, and engineers. We are seeking candidates with significant experience in Google Cloud to join our team. Our engagements aim to eliminate obstacles, reduce risk, and accelerate timelines for customers transitioning to Google and seeking assistance with data and application modernization. We embed within customer teams to provide strategic guidance, facilitate technology decisions, and execute projects in a collaborative, co-development style.

As a member of our Cloud Engineering team, you will be working with fast-paced innovative companies, leveraging AI as the key driver of their transformation. Our clients will look to you as their trusted advisor, someone they can rely on and who will be there to help them along their AI journey. You will be expected to cover a large spectrum of technology topics like model optimization, high-performance training on specialized hardware (TPUs), efficient model serving (vLLM), MLOps, and complex agentic systems.

At Zencore, a Principal Architect is a key technical leader in our engineering organization and acts as an ambassador of our technical and cloud engineering expertise. Principal Architects at Zencore are able to navigate a broad technical range but are specialized in one or more domains. They are responsible for the technical oversight and end-to-end delivery of projects within our professional services business.

Whilst this is remote role, we are only considering US based candidates and do not offer visa sponsorship.

What you will do...

Serve as Zencore’s senior-most technical authority on the practical application of advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Partner with the sales and business development teams in a pre-sales capacity to scope opportunities, design solutions for proposals, and act as the senior technical voice in client pitches.

Lead the architecture and design of sophisticated, secure, and scalable AI solutions for our clients, moving beyond standard API integrations to create genuine competitive advantages.

Collaborate closely with Cloud & Data Architects to guarantee the design and deployment of comprehensive client solutions.

Address the growing demand for private, data-sovereign AI by designing systems that meet strict GDPR and data privacy requirements. Strive for model explainability and bias mitigation, ensuring solutions adhere to ethical standards and safety guardrails.

Architect solutions for hosting, fine-tuning, and optimizing both proprietary (e.g., Gemini, Claude) and open-source (e.g., Llama, Mistral) models on hyperscaler platforms.

Lead clients in selecting optimal cloud-native technologies, prioritizing Google Cloud solutions for deploying and scaling production-grade agentic systems.

Guide and mentor customers and Zencore's engineering teams on advanced topics, establishing best practices for high-performance training (PyTorch, JAX, TPUs), efficient model serving (vLLM), and complex agentic systems (LangGraph, Langchain, Google ADK).

Devise the financial architecture of AI solutions by performing ROI analysis and implementing cost-optimization strategies to ensure large-scale deployments remain economically sustainable for customers.

Act as an external thought leader, contributing to the Zencore brand through blog posts, conference presentations, and community engagement.

Act as a "player-coach," providing hands-on leadership and fostering a culture of deep technical excellence in AI/ML.

Who we need...

Master’s degree in Computer Science, natural sciences, mathematics, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience in designing and delivering high-scale AI/ML systems.

Extensive experience in a senior or principal architect role with a proven track record of designing and delivering complex, production-grade machine learning systems that have created measurable business value.

Deep, hands-on architectural experience with at least one major cloud platform (GCP, AWS, or Azure) is required.

Direct, hands-on experience with Google Cloud (Vertex AI, GKE, TPUs) is a significant plus.

Proven expertise in LLM optimization, including techniques for quantization, pruning, efficient fine-tuning (e.g., LoRA), and high-performance serving (e.g., vLLM, TensorRT-LLM).

Hands-on experience with high-performance ML frameworks (e.g., JAX, PyTorch/XLA) for training or fine-tuning large-scale models.

Expertise in designing and deploying agentic workflows using both code-centric (e.g., LangGraph, LangChain, Google ADK) and low-code (e.g., Vertex AI Agent Builder, LangSmith Agent Builder) paradigms.

A strong understanding of the architectural patterns required for building secure, private, and data-sovereign AI solutions.

Experience with LLM observability and evaluation frameworks (e.g., LangSmith, LangFuse, Vertex AI Evaluation).

Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts and their business value to both technical and non-technical audiences.

A passion for mentoring and a drive for continuous learning in the fast-evolving AI landscape.

We are a fully remote company and offer competitive compensation and benefits.

Zencore is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Zencore is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status.

About the Company

Zencore

Cloud consulting for Google Cloud transformations

Zencore is a cloud consulting firm that helps enterprises move to and optimize on Google Cloud. It provides services for cloud migration, application modernization, and data analytics, applying AI and ML to improve operations and security. Zencore’s offerings work through tailored, hands-on consulting: they assess client needs, design cloud architectures, migrate workloads, unwind complex systems, and implement data solutions on Google Cloud, delivering practical outcomes rather than vendor-driven choices. What sets Zencore apart is its exclusive focus on Google Cloud and its commitment to unbiased recommendations, which helps clients avoid vendor lock-in and choose the best-fit solutions. The company is goal-oriented: to accelerate business outcomes by optimizing total cost of ownership, enhancing security, and driving innovation through Google Cloud transformations.

Company size: 51-200
Company stage: Not listed
Total funding: Not listed
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
Founded: 2021

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