Principal AI/ML Architect

Stratus, deriving from the Latin term meaning 'layer', offers an advanced set of MEP specific solutions that seamlessly layer across a contractor's entire workflow from design to fabrication to installation. Our team of seasoned industry experts, skilled technology leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs understands that fabrication does not occur in isolation, and increasingly, it may not happen within your own fabrication shop. Through close relationships with our customers—who include some of the most innovative and largest MEP contractors—we have developed a suite of Stratus tools to digitize, automate, and optimize piping, plumbing, sheet metal, and electrical contracting. Stratus provides the software layer an MEP Contractor needs to optimize profits with true "Data Driven Contracting."

General Description

The Principal AI/ML Architect owns architectural direction for the Intelligence and Agentic Workflows pillars of the Stratus Intelligence Platform. This role sets the technical direction every AI/ML and agentic project builds against, and is accountable for the long-term coherence, scalability, and trustworthiness of the AI-enabled platform.

This is a player-coach role. Most time is spent hands-on: designing solutions, prototyping, leveraging AI tools, writing reference implementations, and reviewing critical PRs. The organizing principle is Compounding Intelligence: every AI and agentic project deepens the domain substrate that makes the platform defensible.

This role works closely with the Senior Data Architect on the canonical data layer, with the AI/ML Engineering Lead on capability execution, and with the Fabricate pillar architects on cross-pillar coherence.

The Three Load-bearing Priorities In Year One

• AI/ML Platform evolution. Architect the Intelligence layer (data, training, learning, reasoning) and the Agentic layer (workflow automation, agentic UX). Stand up agent-friendly platform surfaces (MCP, Agent, or what fits at the time). Architect agentic UX and enable just-in-time interfaces where the platform generates tailored views.
• AI leverage in how we build and ship. Partner with product to make AI a structural part of how Stratus delivers value, so humans and agents move the roadmap faster together.
• Foundational stability. Drive reliability and the architectural foundation customers can trust for production AI workloads.
  
  

Key Responsibilities

• Own the architectural vision and technical roadmap for Intelligence (data, learning, reasoning) and Agentic interfaces, workflows.
• Design and evolve agent-based workflows, enabling reasoning-capable, adaptive, multi-step systems with strong trust patterns (grounding, evals, confidence scoring).
• Develop and drive evaluation frameworks measuring model quality, agent reliability, drift, and platform effectiveness. Make AI workloads observable to engineering and product.
• Architect for simplify the core, customize at the edge. AI/ML capabilities are opinionated at the center, with foundations for marketplace or platform-exchange patterns at the edge.
• Architect agentic UX and enable just-in-time interfaces. The platform generates tailored views; we do not over-invest in heavy custom UI work.
• Build evaluation frameworks: model quality, agent reliability, drift detection, eval harnesses, observability for AI workloads.

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• Set engineering standards through working reference implementations, in-repo templates, and patterns AI/ML teams can copy.
• Lead the polyglot AI stack: vector search, embeddings pipelines, RAG architectures, agent frameworks, model lifecycle, MLOps.
• Drive AI-augmented engineering practice. Personally set the bar.
• Engage directly with customer-facing teams and customers to ground AI architectural decisions in real workflows.
• Mentor engineers; raise the technical bar through code review, design review, and technical coaching.
  
  

Qualifications

• 10+ years software engineering experience, with 5+ years in Principal, Staff+, or Architect roles at a B2B SaaS or AI/ML platform company.
• Demonstrated track record of leading AI/ML and agentic architecture across multiple teams or product lines.
• Experience designing systems where AI agents are first-class consumers: MCP servers, agent-facing APIs, retrieval-grounded interfaces.
• Deep proficiency in Python and the modern AI/ML stack (LangChain, LangGraph, PyTorch, sklearn, vector stores, embedding pipelines).
• Proficiency in C# / .NET and Azure for integration with Stratus's existing platform.
• Hands-on experience with RAG, fine-tuning, prompt engineering, model training and eval harness design.
• Hands-on experience with agent frameworks (LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI, Semantic Kernel, or equivalent) in production.
• Experience driving reliability and operational excellence for AI workloads in collaboration with a platform team.
• Comfortable contributing to and reviewing code across the stack.

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• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Track record of mentoring senior engineers and elevating the technical bar.
  
  

NICE TO HAVE

• Background in security architecture and threat modeling for AI systems (prompt injection, data exfiltration, agent abuse) and B2B SaaS.
• Experience with MEP, BIM, construction tech, or other CAD/engineering domains
• Experience modernizing legacy ASP.NET MVC applications
• Experience with Autodesk products (AutoCAD, Revit, Fabrication, BIM 360 Docs, Forge) or other MEP/AEC/CAD software.
• Domain knowledge of MEP, BIM, or construction technology workflows.
• Prior experience in a Series B / growth-stage company navigating the transition from product-market fit to scale.
  
  

Benefits

• Comprehensive and competitive health benefits plan
• Matching 401k contributions
• 20 days annual PTO
• Primarily remote work with occasional annual team onsites.
  
  

This is a remote role, but candidates must be based in the U.S.