Agentic AI Architect

Role Summary

Design, build, and scale agentic AI systems that plan, reason, and act across complex enterprise workflows. You’ll own the reference architecture, enforce safety and governance, and lead cross-functional delivery to measurable business outcomes. (Microsoft-first environment; multi-cloud familiarity welcome.)

Key Responsibilities

• Architecture & Roadmap: Define end-to-end agentic AI reference architecture (planning, tools, memory, orchestration, evaluation, observability, security).
• Use-Case Delivery: Lead discovery → design → production for high-impact workflows (service ops, field ops, finance, claims).
• Agent Orchestration: Implement single/multi-agent patterns with tool use (APIs, RPA), long/short-term memory, and human-in-the-loop.
• Knowledge & Retrieval: Stand up retrieval layers (Azure AI Search/Vector Search, Fabric, pgvector/Pinecone) and optimize grounding.
• Safety & Guardrails: Operationalize policies for PHI/PII, prompt-injection/jailbreak defense, content filtering, red-teaming, and approvals.
• LLMOps/MLOps: Establish eval harnesses, CI/CD, online/offline metrics, rollout strategies, cost/latency/error budgets, drift monitoring.
• Platform Integration: Integrate with Power Platform (Power Automate/Apps/Copilot Studio), ServiceNow, SAP, queues/events/APIs.
• Migration & Modernization: Convert legacy RPA (e.g., UiPath) to agents or durable cloud workflows where appropriate.
• Standards & Reuse: Publish patterns, accelerators, templates; mentor squads; run design reviews and ensure Definition of Done.
• Stakeholder Leadership: Partner with Security, Legal, Compliance, Data, and business owners; present architecture and results to execs.

Core Skills & Experience

• Agentic Stack (Microsoft-first): Azure OpenAI; Azure AI Foundry Agent Service / AI Studio; Copilot Studio; Semantic Kernel/LangChain; Durable Functions/Logic Apps; Event Grid/Service Bus.
• Retrieval & Data: RAG best practices, embeddings, chunking & grounding, vector DBs, knowledge graphs, lineage.
• Engineering: API design, Python/TypeScript, async/event-driven systems, containers, IaC (Bicep/Terraform).
• Security & Governance: Entra ID, secrets management, network isolation, data/model governance, auditability.
• Safety & Guardrails: Threat modeling; prompt-injection/jailbreak defenses; content/PII filters; policy-as-code (e.g., Azure AI Content Safety); red-teaming playbooks; regulated-data handling (HIPAA/PCI/GDPR).
• Agent Evaluations: Offline/online eval design; task-success & tool-use accuracy; function-call correctness; hallucination/harms tracking; golden sets & synthetic tests; judge-model workflows; HITL review; A/B testing.
• Evaluation & Observability: Prompt/test suites, telemetry & tracing, QoS/latency/error budgets, drift/quality monitoring, rollback plans.
• Cost Estimation & FinOps: Token-level cost models, per-run unit economics, SLO-aware budgeting, routing/model-selection trade-offs, prompt compression/caching, batch vs. real-time serving, TCO across clouds, alerts & spend guardrails.
• Delivery: Agile leadership, estimation, vendor selection, change management, enablement.

Qualifications

• 7–12+ years in solution/enterprise/AI architecture, incl. 2–4+ years hands-on with LLMs/agent systems.
• Proven track record taking AI from POC → pilot → scaled production in large or regulated enterprises.
• BS/MS in CS/EE or equivalent experience.
• Preferred certs: UiPath Maestro, Azure Solutions Architect / AI Engineer, Power Platform Solution Architect; security/data certs a plus.

Cognizant will only consider applicants for this position who are legally authorized to work in the United States without requiring company sponsorship now or at any time in the future.

The Cognizant community:
We are a high caliber team who appreciate and support one another. Our people uphold an energetic, collaborative and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive.

• Cognizant is a global community with more than 300,000 associates around the world.
• We don’t just dream of a better way – we make it happen.
• We take care of our people, clients, company, communities and climate by doing what’s right.
• We foster an innovative environment where you can build the career path that’s right for you.

About us:
Cognizant is one of the world's leading professional services companies, transforming clients' business, operating, and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build, and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant (a member of the NASDAQ-100 and one of Forbes World’s Best Employers 2025) is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world. Learn how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at www.cognizant.com

Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. Your application and candidacy will not be considered based on race, color, sex, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

If you have a disability that requires reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening or submit an application, please email CareersNA2@cognizant.com with your request and contact information.

Disclaimer:
Compensation information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.

Applicants may be required to attend interviews in person or by video conference. In addition, candidates may be required to present their current state or government issued ID during each interview.