AI Governance Architect

AI Governance Architect Remote | Contract We are seeking a senior AI Governance Architect to support a high-visibility AI governance program within the agriculture / life sciences sector. This is the bridge role between governance and technology. This role does not build AI models, agents, or retrieval systems. Instead, it designs the catalog, lineage, classification, inventory, logging, and integration patterns that make AI activity observable, auditable, and governable through the same systems already used for data. The work is primarily design and direction, with hands-on involvement limited to validating that an integration pattern works before it is scaled. Key Responsibilities • Translate the client's AI governance program, including decision rights, oversight requirements, and policy, into a target-state technical architecture. • Own the integration design between the governance, catalog, and lineage stack and the enterprise AI/ML environment, so AI activity is observable and auditable through the systems already used for data. • Define how model and agent inputs, outputs, prompts, metadata, and lineage should be captured and traced. • Extend the enterprise catalog, lineage, classification, and metadata stack to cover AI artifacts such as model cards, training datasets, prompt templates, and agent registrations. • Define governance and control requirements for data flowing through AI systems, including sensitive-data handling, so data is governed and traceable as it feeds AI. • Produce reference architecture and decision records the build team can implement, validating integration patterns before they are scaled. • Own the outcome that governance is enforceable in the technical environment, with the build team accountable to this role for implementation. Required Qualifications • 8 to 12 years of progressive experience as a data architect, governance architect, or solution architect, with scope spanning both data and AI/ML environments. • Demonstrated experience designing how governance, catalog, and lineage capabilities integrate with an enterprise AI/ML environment. • Strong foundation in data architecture, metadata management, lineage, and classification on a major cloud platform. • Working understanding of at least one major cloud AI platform (Google Vertex AI / Gemini, Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, or AWS Bedrock) sufficient to design integration and oversight, not to build models. • Hands-on familiarity with enterprise catalog and metadata platforms such as Collibra, Alation, Atlan, Microsoft Purview, or Informatica. Preferred Qualifications • Experience in regulated industries such as agriculture, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, financial services, or healthcare. • Familiarity with agentic AI and retrieval patterns from a governance, observability, and control standpoint. • Familiarity with MLOps and model-governance tooling and how it integrates with enterprise metadata and lineage. • Relevant certifications such as CDMP, Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer, or a major cloud architecture certification; consulting experience with large, complex, multi-platform clients is a plus. Eight Eleven Group provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, citizenship, disability, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, amnesty or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.