Sr. AI Lead Architect

Sr. AI Lead Architect

Waterloo, ONT, Canada

and 1 more

Definity is the parent company to some of Canada’s most long-standing and innovative insurance brands, including Economical Insurance, Sonnet Insurance, Family Insurance Solutions, and Petline Insurance. Our ambition is to be one of Canada’s leading and most innovative property and casualty insurers. We can’t do that without our people, so we embrace and encourage a culture that’s collaborative, ambitious, rewarding, and empowering.

We offer a flexible, hybrid work experience where employees work from the office and virtually depending on the type of work they are doing and who they are working with. Bring your true self and be a part of our journey. It’s better here.

The Opportunity

The AI Platform Architect is responsible for defining, evolving, and governing the enterprise AI platform. This role provides architectural leadership and deep technical expertise to enable scalable, secure, and operationally ready AI capabilities across the organization.

Working closely with technology, data, security, and business partners, the AI Platform Architect translates business requirements into reusable AI platform components, standards, and patterns. The role ensures GenAI capabilities are designed and operated in alignment with enterprise architecture, governance, risk management, and responsible AI principles, enabling multiple delivery teams to build AI solutions consistently and safely.

What to expect

Arhitect & Platform Strategy

• Define and maintain the enterprise reference architecture for GenAI platforms, including LLM integration, orchestration, deployment, and evaluation patterns.
• Establish AI architectural standards, design patterns, and decision frameworks to enable consistent GenAI solution delivery.
• Partner with business, data, security, and engineering leaders to translate business needs into scalable, reusable AI platform capabilities.

Gen ai Systems & Design Patterns

• Design and guide implementation of GenAI systems combining non‑deterministic LLM inference with deterministic software, data, and workflow orchestration.
• Standardize and evolve enterprise patterns for:
  • Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG)
  • Prompt lifecycle management
  • Agentic workflows and tool orchestration
  • Model routing, fallback strategies, and cost optimization
• Evaluate and recommend GenAI frameworks and tooling (e.g., LangChain, MCP, A2A, or equivalent).

AI Quality, Evaluation & Observability

• Define evaluation strategies and frameworks to measure GenAI quality across accuracy, relevance, safety, latency, and cost.
• Embed continuous evaluation, feedback loops, and monitoring into production AI workflows.
• Provide visibility into model performance through dashboards, metrics, and executive‑ready reporting.

Mlops, Llmops & Production Operations

• Architect and evolve MLOps and LLMOps capabilities, including:
  • CI/CD pipelines for AI workloads
  • Prompt and model versioning
  • Continuous evaluation and monitoring
  • Production observability (logs, traces, metrics, token usage, and cost)
• Ensure AI systems meet enterprise standards for reliability, scalability, and operational support.

Security, Privacy & Responsible ai

• Integrate security, privacy, and compliance requirements into AI platform design.
• Apply responsible AI principles including guardrails, access controls, auditability, and risk mitigation.
• Ensure appropriate handling of personal and sensitive data across training, inference, and evaluation workflows.

Technical Leadership & Advisory

• Build strong stakeholder relationships and lead executive‑level discussions on AI strategy and roadmap decisions.
• Translate AI platform strategy into well‑architected, end‑to‑end GenAI solutions aligned to business outcomes.
• Provide advisory support to delivery teams to accelerate adoption while maintaining architectural integrity.

Level of Problem Solving

Operational:

• Support design reviews, production guidance, and platform troubleshooting for AI systems.

Tactical:

• Evaluate architectural trade‑offs across security, cost, scalability, and regulatory constraints.
• Adapt patterns and frameworks as GenAI technologies and business needs evolve.

Strategic

• Design path‑finding AI platform solutions where precedent may be limited and outcomes are probabilistic.
• Shape enterprise AI platform direction and enable long‑term GenAI capability maturity.

What you bring

• Hands‑on experience architecting and operating AI or ML platforms at enterprise scale.
• Strong expertise with cloud‑native architectures, APIs, containerization, and scalable backend systems.
• Experience with at least one major cloud provider (GCP or AWS), with strong preference for cloud‑native AI platforms.
• Deep understanding of:
  • Model and artifact lifecycle management
  • Continuous training, evaluation, and monitoring of AI systems
  • Data access patterns, SDLC, MLOps/LLMOps guardrails, and operating models
• Familiarity with GenAI tooling, orchestration frameworks, and LLM integration patterns.
• Strong technical communication and documentation skills.
• Pragmatic decision‑making with a strong risk‑awareness and ownership mindset.
• Collaborative team player capable of influencing across technology and business domains.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Technology, or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of combined experience in software engineering, data engineering, and AI/ML.
• Demonstrated experience architecting and operating production AI platforms at enterprise scale.
• Experience defining AI operating models, governance frameworks, and platform strategies.
• Certifications: Cloud certifications preferred; hands‑on expertise with GCP or AWS required.

Salary Range: $130,000 - $180,000

Actual salary for the role may vary depending on work location of the successful candidate and other factors including but not limited to, skills, education, experience, working conditions and the local labour market.

This position is being posted to fill an existing vacancy.

Interested in this role, but don’t meet every requirement? We encourage you to apply! We know from experience that a candidate doesn’t need 100% of the qualifications listed to bring incredible value to our team. We’re actively seeking diverse backgrounds and perspectives to help us make insurance better. At Definity, inclusion, diversity, and equity aren’t just “nice to have” — they’re essential to our success.

What’s in it for you?

• Hybrid work schedule for most roles
• Company share ownership program
• Incentive Program - Eligible employees may participate in various incentive plans which are paid out at the discretion of the company and subject to individual and company performance.
• Pension and savings programs, with company-matched RRSP contributions
• Paid volunteer days and company matching on charitable donations
• Educational resources, tuition assistance, and paid time off to study for exams
• Focus on inclusion with employee groups, support for gender affirmation surgery, access to BIPOC counsellors, access to programs for working parents
• Wellness and recognition programs
• Discounts on products and services

Go ahead and expect a lot — you deserve it.

It’s better here — but don’t take our word for it. Definity was named by Great Place to Work® as one of the Best Workplaces™ in Canada for women, for youth, and for inclusion.

Our inclusive work environment welcomes diversity and supports accessibility. If you require accommodation at any time during the recruitment process, please let us know by contacting accessibility@economical.com.

As part of Definity’s commitment to reconciliation, we acknowledge that our work, meetings, and travel take place on the lands now known as Canada, and recognize the enduring presence, wisdom, and stewardship of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples who have long cared for these lands.

Background checks

This role requires successful clearance of background checks (including criminal checks and leadership references).