Senior AI Architect

The Sr. AI Architect will serve as both a strategic leader and hands-on architect, driving the design, development, and deployment of AI solutions across Angel Oak’s enterprise. This role blends technical execution with strategic oversight, ensuring that AI initiatives are scalable, secure, and aligned with business objectives. Under the direction of the VP of IT and Technology Leadership Committee (“TLC”), the Architect will lead the evolution of the Angel Oak Intelligence Suite, while actively engineering and implementing AI systems that enhance operational lending, servicing, compliance, and marketing.

PLEASE NOTE: This position is located in Atlanta, Georgia. For candidates outside of Atlanta, you would be required to travel monthly to the corporate office.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic & Architectural Leadership

• Architect and evolve the Angel Oak Intelligence Suite, integrating AI across business functions.
• Translate business needs into scalable AI architectures and technical roadmaps.
• Lead vendor evaluations and integrations (e.g., Softchoice, Prudent AI, Kizen, AWS, Google Cloud).
• As applicable, represent Angel Oak at industry forums and lead internal AI working groups.

Technical Execution & Delivery

• Design and implement AI/ML pipelines/ workflows including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), multimodal models, and LLMOps.
• Develop and help deploy AI tools such as CoPilot, Kastle AI, Angel Assist, and Prudent AI for underwriting, document intelligence, and lead qualification.
• Build and maintain cloud-native AI infrastructure (Azure, GCP) in collaboration with IT and data teams.
• Own the end-to-end lifecycle of AI projects—from proof-of-concept to production deployment.
• Help develop APIs and microservices to integrate AI capabilities into existing systems (e.g., Loan Origination System “LOS”, Encompass).

Governance & Risk

• Maintain and enforce the AI Risk Management Policy in compliance with TRID, HMDA, ECOA, and other regulations.
• Participate in annual NIST assessments and penetration testing in coordination with designated vendors.
• Actively monitor data governance measures used to examine suitability of data sources, possible biases and appropriate mitigation.
• Monitor and mitigate risks associated with unsanctioned AI tools and ensure cybersecurity best practices.

Performance & Impact

• Define and track KPIs for AI adoption, ROI, and operational efficiency.
• Report monthly performance metrics to appropriate risk committees
• Drive continuous improvement through agile feedback loops and stakeholder engagement.
• 7 years in AI architecture, data science, or enterprise technology leadership.
• Proven experience designing and deploying AI/ML systems in production environments.
• Highly skilled in Gen AI, LLMs, IDP platforms (e.g., Docsumo, Rossum), and cloud-native architecture.
• Strong understanding of mortgage tech and regulatory frameworks.
• Exceptional cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Experience

• Hands-on experience with Encompass APIs, and open-source frameworks for building communications applications (VOIP).
• Proficiency in AI governance, prompt engineering, and model safety.
• Contributions to open-source AI projects or industry thought leadership.