Lead Enterprise AI Architect

What if the work you did every day could impact the lives of people you know? Or all of humanity?

At Illumina, we are expanding access to genomic technology to realize health equity for billions of people around the world. Our efforts enable life-changing discoveries that are transforming human health through the early detection and diagnosis of diseases and new treatment options for patients.

Working at Illumina means being part of something bigger than yourself. Every person, in every role, has the opportunity to make a difference. Surrounded by extraordinary people, inspiring leaders, and world changing projects, you will do more and become more than you ever thought possible.

Location

San Diego, CA.

2+ days/week in office. This is not a remote position.

Position Summary

As our lead Enterprise AI Architect, you will lead multi-solution implementations for our strategic business partners where you will drive professional services process improvements and efficiency while holding our high standards of delivery quality. You will also help develop a culture of innovation and technology excellence here at Illumina and within the larger enterprise architectural field and serve as a strong champion for change!

The role of an Enterprise Architect within Illumina's Automation & AI Business Services team is to be the technology leader across our enterprise AI program.  This role will be the lead AI Architect driving the technical strategy whilst collaborating deeply with our business stakeholders and leaders.  The Architect’s technical leadership, experience, and strategy will guide cross-functional project teams through definition, deployment, and optimization stages of Illumina Enterprise engagements to ensure customer success.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate & Innovate: Partner with Enterprise Architects, Engagement Managers and Product teams to define customer requirements/use cases, facilitate technical workshops, and co-create specific GenAI and Agentic solutions.

• Lead with Vision - Shape the enterprise narrative on GenAI and Agentic—translate complex architectures into clear strategies, evangelize best practices, and influence both internal and external communities through workshops, whitepapers, and thought capital.

• Advise & Align - Serve as a trusted advisor to senior customer stakeholders—guide enterprise customers through the GenAI and Agentic landscape, connect innovation to business outcomes, and ensure solutions align with strategic priorities and long-term value.

• Prototype Rapidly: Apply an AI-first experimentation mindset—build proof points in days, iterate on feedback, and drive quick wins for our internal and external customers.

• Architect End-to-End: Design, architecture and communicate full-stack applications and microservices—leveraging Illumina’s existing full stack technology while identifying areas of opportunity to introduce new capabilities.

• Bridge to Solution: Capture field-proven use cases and funnel them back to Solution Engineering—fueling the Agentic roadmap.

• Operate at Speed: Thrive in a constantly evolving, start-up-like environment—own delivery sprints, tackle challenges on-site/remotely, and adapt to evolving AI trends.

• Train & Elevate: Document your playbooks, prompts, and patterns in our internal knowledge base—helping the whole organization move faster.

Experience

• Typically requires a minimum of 15 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 12 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 8 years experience; or equivalent experience.

• Full-Stack Expertise: 8+ years as a full-stack developer or technical consultant building and launching production software (React.js/Next.js/Angular; Node.js/Java Spring Boot; REST/GraphQL, HTML, JavaScript, Java, XML).

• GenAI Mastery: Extensive hands-on experience with modern AI technologies, including: Large Language Models (LLMs) – OpenAI GPT, Anthropic Claude, Meta Llama, Mistral, etc || Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS), and semantic search || Fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and model optimization || AI agent frameworks (AutoGen, LangChain, LlamaIndex) || Multimodal AI (text, image, video, audio processing)

• Cloud & DevOps Expertise: Proficient with core services (EC2, S3, Lambda, IAM, CloudFormation) and AI/ML tools (DataBricks, Bedrock) || Azure: Experience with compute (VMs, Functions), storage (Blob), and AI services (Azure OpenAI, Cognitive Services) || Containerization & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, and serverless deployments || CI/CD & IaC: GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Terraform, or equivalent || Monitoring & Logging: CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Grafana

• AI Tinkerer: AI-native tinkerer who embeds AI in your day-to-day workflows and spends your free time inventing and tinkering with the possibilities of AI. You keep ahead of market trends across third-party models, GPUs, and new AI applications.

• Customer-Centricity: Always prioritizing the customer and their needs and expectations first in everything you do. You are outstanding at contributing to a culture of customer-centricity among your team and your extended ecosystem.

• Strong communicator: You translate complex AI concepts for both architects and executives and guide customers through technical decisions aligned to business objectives.

• Leadership: Establish standards, patterns and technology best practices that will be adopted across the Illumina enterprise

• Startup DNA: Thrives in fast-paced, ambiguous environments—relentlessly seeking better, faster, more innovative ways to solve customer objectives and challenges.

• Up to 30% travel

#LI-HYBRID

The estimated base salary range for the Lead Enterprise AI Architect role based in the United States of America is: $155,600 - $233,400. Should the level or location of the role change during the hiring process, the applicable base pay range may be updated accordingly. Compensation decisions are dependent on several factors including, but not limited to, an individual’s qualifications, location where the role is to be performed, internal equity, and alignment with market data. Additionally, all employees are eligible for one of our variable cash programs (bonus or commission) and eligible roles may receive equity as part of the compensation package. We offer a wide range of benefits as innovative as our work, including access to genomics sequencing, family planning, health/dental/vision, retirement benefits, and paid time off.

We are a company deeply rooted in belonging, promoting an inclusive environment where employees feel valued and empowered to contribute to our mission. Built on a strong foundation, Illumina has always prioritized openness, collaboration, and seeking alternative perspectives to propel innovation in genomics. We are proud to confirm a zero-net gap in pay, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or race. We also have several Employee Resource Groups (ERG) that deliver career development experiences, increase cultural awareness, and offer opportunities to engage in social responsibility. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to providing employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, creed, color, gender, religion, marital status, domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, pregnancy, military or veteran status, citizenship status, and genetic information. Illumina conducts background checks on applicants for whom a conditional offer of employment has been made. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws. Background check results may potentially result in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment. The background check process and any decisions made as a result shall be made in accordance with all applicable local, state, and federal laws. Illumina prohibits the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the application and interview process. If you require accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact accommodations@illumina.com. To learn more, visit: https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf. The position will be posted until a final candidate is selected or the requisition has a sufficient number of qualified applicants. This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.