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Location: Dubai, UAE
Work Model: Full-time, on-site as required
Contract: Minimum 6 months
Company: PYGIO, on behalf of our client
PYGIO is seeking a highly experienced AI Architect to lead enterprise AI architecture for a major transformation initiative in Dubai.
Our client is advancing its enterprise Data & AI capabilities, with a focus on scalable AI platforms, secure data foundations, and production-ready generative and agentic AI solutions.
This is a senior, hands-on architecture role requiring deep Databricks expertise, strong Azure AI capabilities, and the ability to establish enterprise-wide architecture standards. You will act as a trusted technical authority, advising senior stakeholders and guiding internal teams, vendors, and implementation partners from architectural design through production delivery.
Define target-state and reference architectures for enterprise Data & AI platforms across multiple business units.
Establish architecture principles, reusable design patterns, standards, and architecture decision records.
Evaluate and select technology solutions across Databricks, Azure, and third-party platforms based on business and technical requirements.
Act as a design authority, reviewing internal, partner, and vendor solutions and ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture standards.
Advise senior technology executives on architecture decisions, trade-offs, risks, and long-term platform strategy.
Design and govern Databricks architectures, including Unity Catalog, Mosaic AI, MLflow, Delta Sharing, and Asset Bundles.
Provide architectural direction for Spark, Delta Lake, Lakeflow, medallion pipelines, feature engineering, and document ingestion.
Ensure data platforms are secure, scalable, reliable, and suitable for enterprise AI workloads.
Architect production-grade GenAI and agentic AI solutions using Databricks Mosaic AI and Azure AI services.
Design agent workflows, tool calling, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), memory patterns, guardrails, and evaluation frameworks.
Guide the use of Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry and Foundry Agents, Azure AI Search, Cosmos DB, and related services.
Ensure AI solutions move beyond proof of concept into reliable, observable, production environments.
Design secure Azure architectures, including networking, private endpoints, identity management, and enterprise security controls.
Establish CI/CD practices for AI, model lifecycle management, infrastructure as code, and LLMOps.
Define AI governance, auditability, model risk controls, and responsible AI practices.
Consider UAE data protection requirements and enterprise compliance obligations.
Support observability, performance optimisation, and cost management across AI workloads.
Provide hands-on Python prototyping and review code delivered by engineering teams and vendors.
Mentor engineers and architects, establish technical ways of working, and help build internal AI capabilities.
Collaborate with data, infrastructure, security, and business stakeholders to ensure architecture decisions support real business outcomes.
10+ years of experience in data and AI architecture.
3+ years of hands-on Databricks architecture experience, including production AI or ML workloads.
Deep expertise in Databricks, particularly Unity Catalog, Mosaic AI, MLflow, and the broader Databricks ecosystem.
Demonstrated experience delivering production agentic AI or GenAI systems beyond proof of concept.
Strong enterprise solution architecture experience, including complex integrations and Azure-based environments.
Experience in a formal architecture review or design authority role, such as a Technical Design Authority or Architecture Review Board.
Strong understanding of data engineering, Spark, Delta Lake, Python, and modern data platform design.
Experience with Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry, AI Search, and enterprise cloud security.
Knowledge of AI governance, guardrails, evaluation, tracing, and production lifecycle management.
Excellent communication skills and the ability to advise CTO-level or senior executive stakeholders.
Proven experience working with large enterprises, multiple business units, and technology vendors.
Previous client-facing consulting experience.
Lakebase and Copilot Studio.
AWS ML services, including SageMaker and Glue.
Enterprise-scale classical machine learning.
Cross-platform AI observability.
FinOps for AI, including model serving, vector search, and token consumption.
Databricks and Azure AI certifications.
Experience working in the UAE or wider GCC region.
Dubai, UAE, with on-site presence required as needed.
Full-time engagement aligned with the UAE public holiday calendar.
Initial contract term of at least six months.
Key selection criteria: Deep Databricks expertise, proven production agentic AI delivery, and formal architecture design authority experience are non-negotiable.
We are looking for a senior technical leader who can combine deep engineering knowledge with enterprise-level architectural judgement, influence, and accountability.