AI Foundation Architect

Why Keyrus, Why Now!

Keyrus is an international group of 2,800 consultants and experts across 28 countries, built on a single conviction: AI does not transform businesses. Architected intelligence does.

For more than 30 years, we have been building the data foundations that make intelligent systems work — designing the Operating System of the intelligent enterprise, where intelligence is embedded into the core of business processes to create sustainable value: we operationalise intelligence.

AI does not replace humans. It repositions us to a place no system can follow: understanding, deciding, designing, and creating.

At Keyrus, you will not just develop skills — you will develop judgment. Your expertise sharpens with every system you architect, every client challenge you solve, and every deployment that compounds on the last.

Over time, you grow into one of the rarest professionals of the intelligence era: someone who bridges data, AI, and human decision-making at scale, across industries and geographies. This is not a role you fill. It is a discipline you master and a story you help write to become a Keyrus Architect of Intelligence.

Technology amplifies. Keyrus culture differentiates. Industrial discipline connects the two.

Role Details

📍 Job location: Canary Wharf, London – UK (Hybrid 2–3 days per week in the office)
🕒 Contract type: Employee
🗓 Target start date: ASAP
⏰ Working hours: Full-time
💵 Compensation: £90,000–£115,000 gross annual base salary (Lead) or £115,000–£138,000 (Principal), depending on experience and scope

📋 What You'll Architect

At Keyrus, we help organisations transform complexity into measurable outcomes by combining technology, data, intelligence and human decision-making. We bring together deep technical expertise and business understanding to turn AI experimentation into reliable, scalable operational intelligence.

As an AI Foundation Architect , you'll shape the technical foundations that allow enterprise AI solutions to operate securely, reliably and cost-effectively at scale. You'll bring data, AI, cloud architecture, security and governance together into a coherent design that can be reused and evolved across client engagements.

You'll work closely with clients and a multidisciplinary delivery squad from initial discovery through architectural design, implementation and validation. Your role is to establish the right foundations, challenge technical assumptions and defend architectural decisions with clarity and evidence.

What You'll Do:

- Own architectural decisions: Design and guide production-grade data and AI architectures, ensuring that components work together as a secure, scalable and maintainable whole.
- Build on reusable foundations: Start from Keyrus' reusable assets and patterns, adapting them to client needs and contributing improvements back to the shared knowledge base.
- Production design: Establish architectural standards, design principles, security requirements and cost constraints before solutions move towards implementation and go-live.
- Make informed technology choices: Evaluate cloud platforms, AI models and architectural alternatives, explaining the trade-offs between performance, security, reliability, complexity and cost.
- Integrate AI, data and security: Ensure that identity and access management, data platforms, integration, observability and FinOps considerations are built into the architecture.
- Review and challenge designs: Review proposed solutions before go-live, identify architectural risks and ensure that agreed standards are met.
- Work directly with clients: Explain complex technical decisions to senior stakeholders, challenge assumptions constructively and build confidence in the proposed approach.
- Strengthen our collective expertise: Document reusable patterns, reference architectures and lessons learned so that future teams can deliver more effectively.

👤 Who You Are

- You are curious, analytical, and motivated by solving meaningful business challenges.
- You enjoy turning complexity into clarity and action.
- You balance technical thinking with business understanding.
- You are comfortable working in collaborative and international environments.
- You take ownership of your work and follow through on commitments.
- You value continuous learning and are motivated by long-term professional growth.
- You communicate clearly and effectively with a variety of stakeholders.

🛠️ What You Bring

Qualifications & Experience

- Typically 8+ years of experience designing complex production architectures , with evidence of cross-system technical decision-making.
- Recent experience designing and delivering production GenAI, LLM-based or agentic AI architectures within the last 2 years.
- Deep expertise in at least one major cloud and AI ecosystem : Azure and Azure AI, AWS and Amazon Bedrock, or Google Cloud and Vertex AI.
- Experience designing systems that operate reliably beyond an initial proof of concept, with clear ownership of architectural choices and their consequences.
- Professional fluency in English

Technical & Professional Skills

- Strong architectural understanding across cloud platforms, data platforms, AI services and enterprise integration.
- Knowledge of GenAI and LLM deployment patterns, including multi-model architectures, model routing, access controls and production safeguards.
- Experience addressing identity and access management, security, observability, reliability and cost optimisation in enterprise environments.
- Ability to evaluate alternatives using practical evidence, including measurable performance, operational complexity and cost trade-offs.
- Strong communication, stakeholder management and technical decision-making skills.
- A collaborative approach to working with engineers, data specialists, AI specialists and client teams without taking ownership away from the people responsible for implementation.

Nice to Have

- Experience delivering solutions in financial services, banking or insurance.
- Experience working across more than one major cloud ecosystem.
- Experience creating reference architectures, reusable technical patterns, engineering standards or shared architectural assets.
- Experience in consulting or other client-facing environments where architectural decisions must be explained to different audiences.

⭐ What Makes You Successful

- You focus on outcomes rather than activity.
- You approach challenges with curiosity and pragmatism.
- You communicate complex concepts in a clear and accessible way.
- You are comfortable navigating ambiguity and finding practical solutions.
- You contribute to collective intelligence by sharing knowledge and supporting others.
- You combine autonomy with collaboration.
- You continuously look for opportunities to improve systems, processes, and results.

🎁 What We Offer at Keyrus UK

- Competitive holiday allowance
- Private Medical & Dental Insurance (Bupa)
- Group Life Insurance
- Gym & fitness discounts via Pluxee (Sodexo)
- On-site gym access at our London office
- Access to lifestyle discounts (travel, retail, entertainment & more) via Pluxee (Sodexo)
- Auto-enrolment pension scheme with Aegon .
- Training & Development via KLX (Keyrus Learning Experience)
- Strong focus on career development and internal mobility .
- Electric & hybrid car scheme via Tusker
- Annual discretionary bonus , based on individual and company performance
- Referral bonus for introducing new colleagues.

💰 How Our Salary Ranges Work

At Keyrus, salary ranges reflect different levels of mastery and impact within the same role — not different job titles.

- Bottom of the range
You meet the core requirements and will need ramp-up time and support.
- Middle of the range
You are fully autonomous from Day 1 and deliver consistently.
- Top of the range
You are a reference for the role, mentor others, and raise the bar for the team.

Final offers are based on experience, autonomy, scope, and market context , and are discussed transparently during the process.

🔒 Responsible AI & Recruitment

At Keyrus, all stages of our recruitment process are conducted and evaluated by human recruiters and interviewers.
To support accuracy and efficiency, AI may occasionally be used internally by our team exclusively for note-taking purposes during interviews . AI is never used to make decisions.

To ensure fairness, authenticity, and the protection of confidential and proprietary information , the use of AI tools by candidates during the recruitment process is strictly prohibited .

Our commitment to responsible AI practices ensures that hiring decisions are based solely on each candidate’s own skills, experience, judgment, and expertise.

⚠️ Any use of AI assistance during the interview process may result in immediate disqualification from the recruitment process.

♿ Equal Opportunity Statement

We are committed to building an inclusive workplace and encourage applications from all backgrounds, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic.