The E.W. Scripps Company is seeking a Lead AI Architect to design and implement enterprise-scale AI solutions with a strong engineering foundation, bringing deep technical expertise in agentic systems, developer tooling, and AI platform integration. Contribute to the architectural strategy for AI-powered applications - including agent frameworks, tool ecosystems, and model provider integrations - and translate business requirements into production-grade systems built to last.
WHAT YOU'LL DO:- Define and own AI solution architectures spanning agentic workflows, MCP server infrastructure, and multi-model orchestration.
- Lead the design and deployment of complex RAG architectures and vector database strategies to support enterprise data retrieval.
- Architect and implement MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers and tool integrations, emphasizing advanced function calling and structured output schemas.
- Drive integration with major model providers (AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) and define standards for model selection, routing, and fallback.
- Establish engineering patterns for AI observability, prompt engineering, and rigorous AI evaluation frameworks to ensure reliability.
- Collaborate with engineering, product, and platform teams to deliver integrated AI solutions within existing software ecosystems.
- Ensure scalability, security, and maintainability through sound software architecture principles.
- Guide prototyping and proof-of-concept efforts; define technical evaluation criteria for emerging AI tools and frameworks.
- Present technical solutions and recommendations to senior stakeholders in a clear and compelling way.
- Mentor peers and establish best practices in AI engineering, agent design, and tooling.
- Uphold and define security, compliance, and responsible AI standards, specifically addressing OWASP LLM Top 10 risks, prompt injection, and PII leakage.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:- BS/BA in Computer in related discipline or equivalent years of experience preferred
- Generally, 8+ years of experience in related field preferred
- Experience in AI/agent development strongly preferred
- Relevant certifications (AWS, Azure, cloud AI services) a plus
- Experience in the Media and Broadcast domain is a plus
WHAT YOU'LL BRING:- Advanced experience building and deploying production AI applications with a software engineering mindset.
- Hands-on expertise designing and deploying AI agents using frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, or similar.
- Deep understanding of RAG implementation patterns and vector database optimization.
- Proficiency setting up and managing MCP servers and defining tool schemas for LLM tool-use integrations.
- Strong experience integrating with cloud-hosted model providers - particularly AWS Bedrock and Azure AI Service.
- Proficiency in at least one backend programming language (Python, TypeScript/Node.js, Java, etc.) for building production AI systems.
- Familiarity with REST/GraphQL APIs, event-driven architectures, and containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes).
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and developer tooling in cloud environments.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical concepts to diverse audiences.
- Understanding of AI safety, prompt security, and responsible AI practices.
- Awareness or experience with LLM fine-tuning is a plus.
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