ROLE SUMMARY
The Senior AI Architect will lead the technical direction of the Arab Bank's AI initiatives. The role is responsible for reviewing business requirements, assessing their feasibility, value, and risk, and recommending the most suitable solution. The incumbent will design secure, compliant, and production-ready AI systems and serve as the primary technical advisor to Business, IT, Risk, and Compliance on all AI-related matters.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Business Requirements Review & Advisory
• Review business requirements and use cases for AI initiatives and identify gaps, ambiguities, risks, and dependencies.
• Determine the most appropriate approach (Generative AI, Machine Learning, rules-based automation, or conventional solutions).
• Provide formal recommendations covering the proposed approach, alternatives, risks, effort, cost, and expected business value.
• Support the prioritization of AI use cases based on business impact, feasibility, and regulatory risk.
• Escalate issues proactively and present clear options and trade-offs to stakeholders and management.
2. Solution Architecture & Design
• Design end-to-end AI solutions, including LLM applications, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), AI agents, document intelligence, and predictive models.
• Define reference architectures, design standards, and reusable components for the Bank's AI platform.
• Select appropriate models and platforms based on accuracy, performance, cost, data residency, and security requirements.
• Design integrations with core banking, CRM, document management, data platforms, and enterprise APIs.
• Produce architecture documentation (HLD/LLD) and present solutions to the Architecture Review Board.
3. Governance, Risk & Compliance
• Ensure all AI solutions comply with Central Bank regulations, data protection laws, and internal policies, aligned with recognized frameworks (e.g., NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001).
• Partner with Risk, Compliance, Information Security, and Legal on AI risk assessments, model risk management, explainability, and bias testing.
• Define Generative AI guardrails, including PII protection, prompt-injection prevention, hallucination controls, and human-in-the-loop review.
4. Delivery & Technical Leadership
• Provide technical leadership to engineering, data science, and vendor teams from proof of concept through production.
• Review designs and solution quality to ensure security, scalability, and performance.
• Establish MLOps/LLMOps practices, including deployment pipelines, model versioning, evaluation, monitoring, and rollback.
• Evaluate vendors and technologies and support RFPs and technical due diligence.
5. Strategy & Innovation
• Contribute to the Bank's AI strategy and roadmap.
• Monitor emerging AI technologies and assess their relevance to the banking sector.
• Mentor team members and promote AI best practices across the organization.
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE
Required:
• Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in software or solution architecture, including at least 4 years delivering AI/ML solutions in production.
• Proven hands-on experience with Generative AI (LLMs, RAG, vector databases, AI agents, evaluation frameworks).
• Strong knowledge of Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing.
• Experience with at least one major cloud AI platform (Azure, AWS, or GCP) as well as on-premises/open-source models.
• Solid understanding of enterprise architecture, APIs, microservices, Kubernetes, and security architecture.
• Experience in regulated industries, preferably banking or financial services.
Preferred:
• Experience with banking use cases such as KYC/AML, fraud detection, credit scoring, customer service automation, and document processing.
• Knowledge of model risk management and AI governance frameworks.
• Experience in Arabic NLP and bilingual (Arabic/English) AI solutions.
CORE COMPETENCIES
• Strong advisory mindset with the ability to give clear, well-reasoned recommendations.
• Excellent communication skills with both technical and executive audiences.
• High risk awareness, balancing innovation with security and compliance.
• Strong ownership and accountability from concept to delivery.
• Effective collaboration across business, technology, risk, and vendor teams.
