Senior Director of Application Architecture & Intelligent Systems

REPORTS TO: Chief Technology Officer

LOCATION: Alpharetta

EXEMPT/NON-EXEMPT: Exempt

THIS POSITION INVOLVES PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: Yes

THIS POSITION INVOLVES MANAGERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES: Yes

Job Summary

The Director of Application Architecture & Intelligent Systems leads NAMB’s transition to an agentic-first technology architecture - the technical backbone of NAMB’s declared shift from legacy application development to AI-powered ministry tools. This role owns the design, implementation, and evolution of NAMB’s intelligent systems platform: the orchestration layer, agent framework, secure data access infrastructure, and the architectural standards that govern how agents are built across all ministry areas.

This is a strategic and hands-on technical leadership role skilled at whiteboarding architecture decisions with ministry stakeholders and writing code, reviewing infrastructure, and mentoring a application development team, both on and off prem. They serve as the conduit between NAMB’s mission needs and its emerging agentic technology stack.

Ministerial Qualifications

• All staff positions are considered ministerial in nature due to the purpose and mission of the North American Mission Board.
  
  
  

KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:

• Design, build, and maintain NAMB’s hub-and-spoke agentic platform, including the OneAgent orchestrator, connected agent spokes, and the secure data access layer (MCP Gateway, OBO token patterns, Entra ID integration) governing how agents access ministry data
• Architect and evolve the technical standards, development patterns, and governance frameworks for all agent work at NAMB, including model selection, tool design, and security posture
• Lead the structured migration from legacy applications (MAP, SRVM, MyPath) to agent-based interfaces, defining what remains a system of record and what becomes an agent layer
• Lead the implementation team (internal staff and vendor resources) on all agentic development, providing technical direction, code review, and architectural guidance
• Participate in discovery and design sessions with ministry stakeholders across Send Network, Send Relief, Chaplaincy, and Evangelism and Pastoral Relations to translate ministry needs into agent architecture and roadmap
• Evaluate AI tooling, models, and platform decisions in partnership with the CTO and represent IT architecture in AI Steering Committee (AISC) planning and governance discussions
• Own the Azure infrastructure supporting the agentic platform, including Container Apps, Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Foundry, Key Vault, and App Insights
• Maintain Terraform infrastructure-as-code and Azure Pipelines CI/CD configurations, ensuring security, observability, and performance standards are met across all agentic workloads
• Lead evaluation and adoption of Small Language Model (SLM) worker agent patterns for high-frequency internal processing tasks
• Stay current on the MCP (Model Context Protocol) ecosystem, Azure AI roadmap, and enterprise agent frameworks, and advise on Claude Cowork enterprise deployment and employee agent enablement in partnership with the CTO and AISC
• Other duties as assigned
  
  
  

Education And Experience

• Bachelor’s degree (B.A./B.S.) in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or related technical field required; Master’s degree preferred
• Seven or more years of software architecture and development experience
• At least three years designing and deploying cloud-native systems on Microsoft Azure
• Equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered
  
  
  

Specific Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

Technical Knowledge and Experience

• Deep expertise in Azure: AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI Service, Container Apps, Entra ID, Key Vault & App Insights
• Demonstrated experience designing and building agentic or LLM-powered systems, including: Function tools, Orchestrators, Prompt engineering & Retrieval-augmented generation
• Proficiency in Python and/or C#(.NET)
• Experience with FastAPI or similar API frameworks
• Strong security architecture background, including OAuth/OIDC, SAML, On-behalf-of (OBO) token patterns & JWT validation
• Experience with Semantic Kernel, LangChain, or similar agent orchestration frameworks (preferred)
• Familiarity with MCP (Model Context Protocol) server design and enterprise tool integration (preferred)
• Experience with: SQL Server, Azure Data Lake & Enterprise data platform integration (preferred)
• Exposure to: Workday API integrations, Enterprise HR/finance system connectivity (preferred), Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 / Power Platform ecosystem (preferred)
• Azure certifications in Solutions Architecture or AI Engineering (preferred)
  
  
  

Communication And Leadership Skills

• Proven ability to lead technical teams and manage vendor relationships
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical architecture for executive and ministry audiences
• Ability to read and interpret: Technical documentation, Architecture specifications, Vendor contracts, Strategic briefings
• Excellent written communication skills, including experience producing: Architecture documents, Technical specifications, Executive briefings, Vendor proposals
• Strong active listening skills required to translate ministry needs into technical solutions
• Ability to facilitate productive working sessions with diverse stakeholder groups
  
  
  

Mathematical And Analytical Skills

• Ability to work with financial data, compute cost projections, and interpret usage analytics
• Ability to assess: System performance metrics, Token consumption rates, Infrastructure cost models, Vendor rate structures
• Ability to compute ratios, percentages, and multi-year projections in support of budget planning and technology investment decisions
  
  
  

Reasoning and Problem-Solving Ability

• Ability to define complex technical problems, develop architectural solutions, and exercise sound independent judgment in rapidly evolving technology environments
• Ability to evaluate competing approaches, assess risk, and make sound recommendations under conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity
• Ability to apply strategic thinking to multi-year technology planning while maintaining tactical focus on near-term delivery
  
  
  

Office and Technical Competencies

• Microsoft Azure portal and CLI required
• Microsoft Office 365 required: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams
• Proficiency in development tools required: Visual Studio Code, GitHub or Azure DevOps
• Experience with Terraform or similar infrastructure-as-code tooling required
  
  
  

Other Skills, Abilities And Qualifications

• Knowledge of NAMB’s purpose, ministry strategy, and organizational structure
• Familiarity with: Southern Baptist Convention structure, Church planting mission, Baptist doctrine preferred
• Demonstrated commitment to responsible stewardship of ministry resources in technology investment and vendor management
• Alignment with NAMB’s mission and Southern Baptist faith commitments
  
  
  

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Follow organization’s policies and applicable laws.
• Interview, hire, and train employees.
• Assign and direct work for self and team as you are self-directed and motivated to start and complete assignments promptly.
• Appraise performance and manage rewards/discipline.
• Address complaints and resolve problems while maintaining confidentiality with sensitive data.
• Develop and implement strategy and tactics to meet expected results.
• Work as a team player, neither dominating nor hesitation Relating well to people of all levels, ages, races, denominational affiliations, and genders.
• Plan and run effective meetings, fostering team unity and common goals.
• Practice servant leadership, giving praise, encouragement, and recognition when merited.
• Manage multiple tasks/projects simultaneously and adapt to changing priorities and complex matrix organization demands.
• Adhere to budget limits and maintain high ethical standards of fiscal control.
  
  
  

CHRISTIAN WALK

• Evidence of a mature and growing Christian Walk characterized, by Paul, in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
• Personal wisdom and sufficiency are grounded in Christ and the word of God, with a life submitted to God’s authority in all things.
• Models a daily soul-winning lifestyle.
• Can effectively lead others in prayer.
• Gives regularly and generously to the work of the church.
• Readily applies scripture to personal and professional situations.
• Can articulate Baptist theological understandings on a range of issues.
• Conducts ministry in keeping with the principles and spirit of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.
  
  
  

PERSONAL QUALITIES

• Enjoys health, affirming relationships with spouse (if married), family, neighbors and friends.
• Exhibits integrity in professional and personal life.
• Modest in dress and deportment and makes a favorable first impression in both bearing and manner.
• Aware of personal strengths and shortcomings, potential, psychological needs, biases and prejudices, and actively solicits and benefits from constructive criticism.
• Personal finances are in order, with no oppressive burden of consumer debt.
• Is a member of a local Southern Baptist church and takes an active role as time permits.
• Demonstrates a high level of energy, with a bright, positive affect, warmth and genuine interest in people.