What are the responsibilities and job description for the Principal Software Architect, Generative AI & Platform Engineering position at risepoint?
Risepoint is an education technology company that provides world-class support and trusted expertise to more than 100 universities and colleges. We primarily work with regional universities, helping them develop and grow their high-ROI, workforce-focused online degree programs in critical areas such as nursing, teaching, business, and public service. Risepoint is dedicated to increasing access to affordable education so that more students, especially working adults, can improve their careers and meet employer and community needs. At Risepoint, we are on a mission to redefine higher education for the modern world. We empower learners and partners by delivering transformative, scalable, and student-centric solutions. As we grow and evolve in becoming a tech-enabled higher education service company, we are committed to delivering an outstanding digital student journey grounded in care, simplicity, and real outcomes. We operate at speed, guided by our core values—Reliable, Empowered, Adaptable, Customer-Centric, and Heart (R.E.A.C.H)—and united by a belief in the power of impact-driven, collaborative leadership. Role Overview We are looking for a Principal Software Architect who operates at the intersection of generative AI and scalable platform design. This is not a theoretical role. You will set architectural direction, make build-vs-buy decisions, and get hands-on when it matters. You will sit within Product & Technology and work across engineering, product, and data to define how AI capabilities are built, integrated, and scaled across Risepoint's platform. You will have org-wide influence from day one and a greenfield opportunity to shape how GenAI scales at Risepoint. What You Will Do AI Architecture & Platform Engineering Define and own the architectural patterns for GenAI-powered features across the product portfolio Design the AI platform layer including model orchestration, prompt management, evaluation pipelines, and responsible AI guardrails Build and standardize experimentation frameworks for AI including prompt variants, model comparisons, and retrieval strategy testing so teams can run controlled experiments with confidence Define how the org evaluates AI output quality including evaluation frameworks, quality thresholds, and feedback loops that ensure models and prompts improve over time rather than drift Drive build-vs-buy decisions on AI tooling, frameworks, and infrastructure Stay current on the GenAI landscape and bring relevant capabilities into Risepoint's roadmap Cross-Functional Leadership Partner with product and engineering teams to translate business problems into sound technical solutions Lead architectural reviews and set standards that other engineers build against Work with data and analytics teams to ensure AI systems are grounded in reliable, governed data Communicate architectural decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders Architecture Governance & Design Own and run the Architecture Review Board (ARB), setting the cadence, criteria, and culture for how architectural decisions get made across the org Review system and solution designs across teams, ensuring consistency, scalability, and alignment with Risepoint's technical strategy Define and maintain architecture standards, design patterns, and best practices that teams can build against with confidence Create and steward architecture decision records (ADRs) to capture context, trade-offs, and rationale behind key decisions Identify architectural risk early and work with engineering leads to resolve it before it compounds Engineering Excellence Mentor senior engineers and elevate technical capability across the org Identify and address technical debt that limits the speed or reliability of AI systems Contribute to hiring and building out the architecture practice at Risepoint Qualifications 10 years of software engineering experience with at least 3 years in a principal or staff architect role Hands-on experience building and deploying LLM-based applications in production environments Strong command of AI/ML infrastructure including vector databases, embedding pipelines, RAG patterns, and model evaluation frameworks Experience with cloud-native architecture on AWS, GCP, or Azure and modern data platform design Familiarity with data governance, consent management, and responsible AI principles Proven track record of influencing technical direction across multiple teams without direct authority Preferred Experience in EdTech, consumer-facing platforms, or multi-tenant SaaS at scale Familiarity with Databricks, Optimizely, or similar modern data and experimentation platforms Background in building internal developer platforms or AI tooling for engineering teams Why This Role Org-wide architectural influence from day one with a clear mandate to set direction Work where AI meets real student outcomes, not just product metrics Greenfield opportunity to define how generative AI scales across a growing platform Collaborative, mission-driven team that moves fast and values technical rigor Competitive compensation, remote-friendly, and a leadership team that invests in the craft Risepoint is an equal-opportunity employer and supports a diverse and inclusive workforce. Reliable. Empowered. Adaptable. Customer-centric. Heart. These are some of the words that describe Risepoint employees. We have spent the past nearly 20 years helping universities grow by expanding access to affordable, life-changing education for working adults. As an education technology company that provides trusted partnership and expertise to more than 125 universities and colleges, we primarily work with regional universities, helping them create online programs in critical areas such as nursing, teaching, business, and public service. We are dedicated to increasing access to affordable education so that more students can improve their careers and their communities.