AI Solution Architect (Contract)

Our client, a leading British airline, is building an AI Factory to scale AI safely across its brands. They need an AI Solution Architect to design the solutions that run on it.

Location: Heathrow [on-site/hybrid]

The role
You''ll design secure, scalable AI and agentic solutions that fit enterprise architecture and reuse the AI Factory''s shared capabilities. You''ll connect business requirements and product intent to detailed engineering design, with a credible path from prototype to production.

What you''ll do

• Design end-to-end architectures for agent and workflow automation
• Choose models, orchestration patterns, data sources, and integration approaches
• Define the boundaries between deterministic software, probabilistic AI, and human decision-making
• Build in identity, data protection, resilience, observability, and cost from day one
• Design evaluation, fallback, escalation, and human-in-the-loop mechanisms
• Produce architecture decisions, patterns, and reusable reference designs
• Review implementations and guide engineering teams through major technical decisions

What you''ll bring

• Hands-on solution architecture experience with strong cloud, integration, and distributed-systems skills
• Practical knowledge of LLMs, agents, retrieval, and evaluation
• The judgement to keep solutions appropriately simple, with explicit trade-offs

Ideal candidates from strategy consulting backgrounds
If you''ve worked for MBB consulting, or a comparable firm and moved into hands-on technology architecture, for example through QuantumBlack, BCG X, or Bain''s digital and AI practices, this role is for you. You''ll bring structured problem-solving, comfort with senior stakeholders, and the ability to turn an ambiguous business problem into a clear recommendation. You''ll also need real architecture depth, because this is a design-and-review role, not a slideware one.

Guidant, Carbon60, Lorien & SRG - The Vertage Group Portfolio are acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.