AI Principal Architect, Anaplan

• 7+ years of software or AI/ML engineering experience, with at least 3 years in a technical lead, staff engineer, or principal-level role — ideally with exposure to enterprise IT or internal tooling environments
• Deep hands-on expertise across the AI/ML stack: LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agent frameworks, or MLOps pipelines — with experience in enterprise or workforce deployment contexts
• Proven experience architecting and deploying enterprise-scale internal AI systems from design through production, including reliability, observability, and performance engineering
• Proficiency in Python and enterprise cloud AI platforms (GCP Vertex AI, Azure AI, or AWS SageMaker) and AI orchestration tooling
• Hands-on experience with Google Workspace AI and Gemini Enterprise, or equivalent enterprise AI platforms (e.g., Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI Enterprise)
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership, mentorship, and architectural guidance to engineering teams without formal management authority
• Ability to manage competing priorities, dependencies, and delivery timelines across multiple workstreams
• Strong business acumen and communication skills — able to translate complex enterprise AI/ML concepts into business value narratives for C-level audiences
• Experience in enterprise SaaS environments with complex stakeholder landscapes, security requirements, and compliance obligations

Desirable

• This role sits within Anaplan's IT Customer Experience organization and is focused on transforming how Anaplan employees work
• You will design, build, and scale AI tools, agents, and capabilities that drive productivity, smarter decision-making, and operational efficiency across our global workforce
• Anaplan is building its Enterprise AI Center of Excellence (COE) — a one-stop shop for all internal AI at Anaplan — and is looking for an AI Principal Architect to lead it from a technical standpoint
• This is a senior, newly created role at the intersection of hands-on enterprise AI engineering, internal system architecture, technical leadership, and workforce enablement
• The AI Principal Architect will own the technical vision for Anaplan's internal AI — designing the reference architecture for LLMs, agentic AI, and Gemini Enterprise; setting engineering standards; evaluating emerging platforms; and ensuring every employee-facing initiative is built with rigor, scalability, and responsible design
• This role carries a hybrid profile: deep individual technical contribution combined with team leadership influence
• You will mentor engineers, guide architectural decisions, serve as the primary technical escalation point, and contribute a forward-looking perspective to the 2–3 year AI technology roadmap — without necessarily holding formal management authority over all contributors
• You will report directly to the Director, IT Customer Experience, who co-leads the Enterprise AI COE alongside the Financial Flexibility Lead and a GTM Champion as a 3-in-a-box
• You will collaborate closely with Technical/Engineering teams (dotted-line, for agent development and delivery) and the Transformation & Financial Flexibility team (to identify AI-driven cost-saving opportunities)
• Reference Architecture & Enterprise AI Engineering:
• Own and publish the reference architecture for Anaplan's internal AI — covering LLMs, agentic AI frameworks, Gemini Enterprise integrations, and data pipelines
• Architect end-to-end internal enterprise AI solutions designed for the scale, security, and reliability requirements of a global workforce
• Set and enforce AI engineering standards, coding practices, code review processes, and technical guardrails across all internal AI projects
• Lead hands-on technical design reviews and guide implementation decisions from intake through production deployment
• Evaluate, select, and onboard new enterprise AI platforms and tools — providing technical recommendations grounded in internal workforce needs
• Design the LLM abstraction layer and multi-model strategy to optimize cost, performance, and flexibility
• Own technical debt management, system observability, and scalability planning for Anaplan's internal AI systems
• AI Platform Governance & Enablement:
• Define and maintain technical evaluation criteria for the AI intake process — assessing feasibility, build complexity, security risk, and integration requirements for employee-facing tools
• Ensure all internal AI initiatives pass engineering, security, compliance, and responsible AI review before development begins
• Maintain enterprise AI technical policies, engineering standards, and responsible AI guardrails in partnership with Security and Compliance
• Translate approved internal use cases into clear technical specifications and hand off to engineering teams with full architectural context
• Define enterprise AI data layer and integration architecture across core systems (Salesforce, ServiceNow, Gainsight, Workday)
• Integrate with ServiceNow AI Control Tower to track all AI use cases, agents, and realized business value
• Implement human-in-the-loop, explainability, and auditability frameworks for all decision-impacting AI systems
• Partner with Finance to define and measure AI-driven ROI, ensuring alignment with enterprise value targets
• Establish full lifecycle management for AI agents, including monitoring, feedback loops, and continuous improvement
• Technical Team Leadership:
• Provide technical direction, coaching, and mentorship to engineers across the AI Governance & Enablement and AI Operations & Insights teams
• Serve as the primary technical escalation point for complex internal AI delivery challenges and architecture decisions
• Partner with Technical/Engineering teams (dotted-line) on agent architecture, build quality, and delivery timelines
• Help define the technical bar for AI team hiring and contribute to onboarding and skills development programs
• Foster a culture of engineering rigor, experimentation, and continuous improvement across the internal AI function
• AI Operations & Workforce Adoption:
• Oversee the technical deployment and operationalization of AI agents and solutions, ensuring production readiness and stability for Anaplan employees
• Drive Gemini Enterprise adoption and lead AI Friday sessions with genuine technical depth
• Build and maintain engineering dashboards tracking internal AI system performance, adoption rates, and ROI metrics
• Translate engineering decisions into executive-ready business value narratives for the Director, CIO, and Finance audiences
• Innovation, R&D & Emerging Technology:
• Research and prototype emerging AI/ML techniques, large language models, agent frameworks, and enterprise tooling to identify internal productivity and cost-saving opportunities
• Design and lead proof-of-concept pilots that validate novel internal use cases before committing to full engineering investment
• Build and maintain the AI innovation pipeline — a living backlog of high-potential experiments
• Contribute the technical perspective on where internal AI capabilities should be invested over the next 2–3 years, collaborating with the Director on the roadmap
• Cross-Functional Technical Partnership:
• Work hand in hand with the Transformation & Financial Flexibility team to identify and technically validate AI-driven cost-saving opportunities in Anaplan's internal operations
• Act as technical advisor and AI subject matter expert to business units identifying internal AI use cases
• Support the 3-in-a-box COE co-leadership (IT, Finance, GTM) with technical analysis, architecture reviews, and feasibility assessments
• Build trusted technical relationships across Engineering, Security, Compliance, Legal, and HR