Architect - Emerging Technologies Engineer (Python, AI)
Scope:
As an Emerging Technologies and Innovation Engineer, you will be the hands-on builder driving the engineering execution of proof-of-concepts (POCs) and innovation initiatives across the enterprise – with a primary focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative AI, and Agentic AI. Operating within the Enterprise Architecture function and partnering closely with the Enterprise Architect for Emerging Technologies & Innovation, you will take ideas from concept to working prototype using the Microsoft AI stack (Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Copilot Studio, Copilot Cowork) and the Anthropic Claude ecosystem (Claude, Claude API, Claude Code), while maintaining the breadth to experiment with other leading AI platforms as they emerge. You will rapidly prototype, integrate, and demonstrate new capabilities; build reference implementations that inform enterprise patterns; and prepare promising POCs for handover to engineering teams for production. This is a deeply hands-on role for an engineer who thrives on experimentation, learning quickly, and turning ambiguous ideas into working software.
What You’ll Do:
- Build, iterate on, and demonstrate POCs for AI, Generative AI, and Agentic AI use cases – hands-on coding, prototyping, integration, and evaluation.
- Develop custom Copilots, declarative and custom agents, skills, plugins, and connectors using Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Copilot Cowork.
- Implement Claude-based solutions via the Anthropic API and Claude Code, including tool and data integrations using the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
- Develop reference implementations, demos, and integration patterns that the architecture team can use to define enterprise standards and accelerate downstream productionization.
- Set up and manage development environments, sandboxes, and tenants needed to safely experiment with emerging technologies.
- Conduct hands-on benchmarking and evaluation of foundation models, vector databases, retrieval strategies, and agent frameworks; produce clear, evidence-based recommendations.
- Implement integrations with enterprise data sources, identity providers (e.g., Entra ID), and APIs to make POCs production-relevant.
- Collaborate with the Enterprise Architect and business stakeholders to translate concepts into clear, demonstrable working prototypes with measurable outcomes.
- Document POC design, results, lessons learned, and recommendations for productionization; create reusable assets for engineering teams.
- Apply responsible AI practices – prompt safety, data handling, evaluation, and guardrails – in everything built.
- Engage with vendor roadmaps, open-source communities, and industry research to stay current on the rapidly evolving AI and emerging-technology landscape.
- Support knowledge sharing through internal demos, brown bags, hackathons, and enablement sessions for engineering and architecture teams.
What We’re Looking For:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
- At least 5+ years of experience in software engineering or a similar hands-on technical role.
- At least 2+ years of hands-on experience building AI/ML or Generative AI solutions.
- Demonstrated hands-on experience with the Microsoft AI stack (Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Copilot Studio, Copilot Cowork) and/or the Anthropic Claude ecosystem, with the breadth to apply that experience to other AI platforms and emerging technologies as they evolve.
- Proven ability to take ambiguous ideas and rapidly turn them into working prototypes that can be demonstrated to technical and business audiences.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to demo and explain technical work to non-technical stakeholders
Technical Skills:
- Primary – Microsoft AI Stack: Hands-on experience building with Microsoft 365 Copilot extensibility, Copilot Studio (declarative agents, custom agents, skills, plugins, connectors), Copilot Cowork (Frontier program skill and workflow development), and GitHub Copilot for engineering productivity. Familiarity with Work IQ, Microsoft Graph, Power Platform, and Entra ID for secure integrations.
- Primary – Anthropic Claude Ecosystem: Hands-on experience building with Claude via the Anthropic API and AWS Bedrock; comfort with Claude Code for engineering workflows; practical experience with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for tool and data integration.
- Programming: Strong Python skills, including modern libraries for AI/ML and agent development. Comfort with TypeScript and/or .NET for Copilot extensibility work. Solid Git/GitHub workflows and familiarity with CI/CD.
- Broader AI/ML Foundations: Practical understanding of LLMs, embeddings, vector databases (e.g., Azure AI Search, Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), prompt engineering, evaluation techniques, and fine-tuning.
- Comparative Platform Knowledge: Ability to experiment with and evaluate Microsoft and Anthropic offerings against other platforms – OpenAI, Google Vertex AI / Gemini, AWS Bedrock, Hugging Face, and leading open-source models.
- Agentic AI and Tooling: Hands-on experience with agentic frameworks (e.g., Copilot Studio agents, LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen, Semantic Kernel) and developer tooling for prompt management, tracing, and evaluation (e.g., LangSmith, Azure ML).
- Cloud: Working experience with Microsoft Azure (preferred); familiarity with AWS and/or GCP and the AI services they expose.
Our Values
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All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.
Software pay context
Based on 7,686 disclosed Software salaries on RoleSuite, the role pays a median of $158K/year, with most offers between $123K and $199K (10th–90th percentile: $101K–$236K).
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