Principal AI Systems Architect

Job overview

The Principal AI Systems Architect role is listed in Chicago, IL, and the posting does not specify a work arrangement. Base salary is $204,000–$216,000 per year, plus early-stage equity. The role owns architecture across Sapience AI’s MINERVA platform and COGENT architecture. This senior individual-contributor role keeps the platform’s knowledge graph, models, serving layer, and product experience coherent as the system and team grow. It sets cross-cutting technical direction, makes architecture-level decisions, and helps engineering teams build a scalable, reliable, and trustworthy production platform.

What you'll do

• Own coherence across the KO graph, COGENT, models, serving, and product surface
• set cross-cutting architecture and technical standards
• make architecture-level build, buy, and investment decisions
• design for scale, reliability, security, governance, and trust
• align teams around shared architecture and interfaces
• evaluate and integrate relevant AI advances
• mentor senior engineers
• partner across engineering teams and with the CTO on technical strategy
• remain hands-on enough to prototype and validate difficult areas.

What we're looking for

Skills & competencies

principal ai systems architect

full-time

chicago il

artificial intelligence

machine learning platforms

distributed systems

knowledge graphs

llm systems

cloud platforms

platform architecture

security and reliability

technical leadership

$204,000–$216,000/year

early-stage equity

Work arrangement

• Weekend coverage required

Benefits & perks

• Generous health and wellness benefits
• early-stage equity.

Why this role

The posting describes this as the most senior individual-contributor architecture role, not a people-management or research role. It spans Neuro-Symbolic AI, Applied AI, ML Infrastructure, Data and Knowledge, and Security.

About the employer

Sapience AI Corporation is hiring for this role. Industry: Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services. Sector: 51.