Enterprise Artificial Intelligence And Software Architect

Senior AI & Software Solutions Architect (Hands-on)

Organization: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Team: Enterprise Architecture, Technology & Data Assurance

Location: Washington, DC

Contract: Full-time International Consultant, 12 months, extendable subject to eligibility

Role Summary

We are seeking a hands-on AI and Software Solutions Architect with strong software engineering fundamentals, experience designing and building enterprise-grade applications, and practical expertise in applied AI technologies.

The ideal candidate has personally designed, developed, integrated, and helped scale complex software solutions in enterprise environments. They understand the full software delivery lifecycle, from architectural design and coding to deployment, security, observability, performance, and operational readiness.

This role combines enterprise software architecture, hands-on engineering, and applied AI. The consultant will develop working implementations, evaluate technologies, and translate engineering experience into reusable enterprise architecture patterns and standards.

We value candidates with strong enterprise software engineering backgrounds who have expanded into AI, even if they have not yet deployed large-scale agentic AI systems in production.

Core Responsibilities

* Design and develop secure, scalable, maintainable enterprise applications and cloud-native solutions.

* Build working prototypes, proof-of-concepts, and reference implementations using Python, C#, or comparable programming languages.

* Design and implement AI solutions using LLMs, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), AI agents, semantic search, and orchestration frameworks.

* Evaluate AI platforms such as Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, and AWS Bedrock.

* Design enterprise integrations using REST APIs, microservices, asynchronous messaging, and event-driven architectures.

* Apply engineering practices for CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, automated testing, containerization, and observability.

* Evaluate scalability, performance, reliability, security, cost, and operational readiness.

* Define reusable architecture patterns, technical standards, architecture decision records, and implementation guidance.

* Collaborate with Product Teams, Software Engineers, Security, Data Governance, Cloud Engineering, and Solution Architects.

* Participate in technical design reviews, technology accreditation, and architecture governance.

Required Qualifications

* Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Business Analytics, or a related field.

* At least 5 years of relevant professional experience.

* Demonstrated hands-on software engineering experience, including writing production-quality code.

* Experience designing enterprise software systems with multiple components, integrations, and nonfunctional requirements.

* Practical experience with Azure cloud services and applied AI technologies.

* Experience with modern application architectures, APIs, distributed systems, and cloud-native engineering.

* Working knowledge of LLMs, RAG, AI agents, or related AI implementation patterns.

* Ability to evaluate architectural trade-offs and translate technical findings into reusable solutions.

* Proficiency in English and at least one additional IDB official language: Spanish, French, or Portuguese.

Preferred Qualifications

* Production deployment and operation of complex enterprise applications.

* Experience with Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, or equivalent AI platforms.

* Hands-on experience with AI agents, orchestration frameworks, and Model Context Protocol (MCP).

* Experience with OAuth2, OIDC, Microsoft Entra ID, and API security.

* Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, or equivalent technologies.

* Experience evaluating AI solutions for quality, reliability, security, and cost.

* Familiarity with enterprise architecture practices, technical governance, and Architecture Review Boards.

Ideal Candidate Profile

A software engineer or solutions architect who has evolved into AI architecture and engineering.

This person can write code, design distributed systems, explain architectural trade-offs, and understand what it takes to move software from experimentation to reliable enterprise operation.

They are technically curious, pragmatic, comfortable learning emerging technologies, and capable of translating hands-on engineering knowledge into reusable enterprise capabilities.

This is not a documentation-only, strategy-only, or governance-only architecture role. Practical engineering experience is essential.