AI Solution Architect

The Opportunity:

Reporting to the Director of the AI Office, the AI Solution Architect is a founding member of the AI Office and its senior technical role. This position owns the end-to-end technical architecture for AI across the Government of Saskatchewan – from platform selection and cloud infrastructure through to MLOps pipelines, data integration, security architecture, and production deployment standards.

The AI Solution Architect operates at the intersection of strategy and engineering. While the Director sets strategic direction and manages stakeholder relationships, this role translates that strategy into technical reality – designing architecture blueprints, evaluating vendor platforms, building proof-of-technology environments, and defining the standards that govern how AI is built, deployed, monitored, and retired across the province. The role requires deep hands-on technical expertise combined with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical executive audiences.

This is a technical leadership role rather than a supervisory one. The AI Solution Architect provides enterprise technical direction through architecture review, standards-setting, and matrix relationships with ministry teams, and serves as the final technical authority on platform decisions, security architecture, and production readiness for AI use cases. As the AI Office scales, the role may take on formal leadership of technical staff.

Enterprise AI Platform & Cloud Architecture

• Lead evaluation and design of the enterprise AI/ML platform and cloud architecture, including compute provisioning, data integration, MLOps pipelines, API management, and high availability/disaster recovery, ensuring compliance with Canadian data residency requirements.

• Define and enforce AI security architecture (network segmentation, encryption, identity and access management, and defence against AI specific threats) and establish cloud cost governance practices.

MLOps, Data Engineering & Production Standards

• Define MLOps standards and CI/CD pipelines for AI models, including versioning, model registry, automated retraining, and drift monitoring.

• Establish data engineering standards for AI workloads and define production readiness criteria (performance, security, bias, explainability, rollback, monitoring) required before any model goes live in a ministry environment.

AI Governance Platform & Responsible AI Tooling

• Lead evaluation and integration of an enterprise AI governance platform (model inventory, bias detection, explainability, Algorithmic Impact Assessments) with the AI/ML platform and existing IT infrastructure.

• Translate the AI Governance Framework into automated platform guardrails, sensitivity classification, audit logging, and reporting.

Copilot M365 Technical Architecture

• Validate the existing technical architecture for Microsoft 365 Copilot (or successor enterprise generative AI/chat tools) across ministries, including tenant configuration, DLP rules, sensitivity labeling, information barriers, and SharePoint permissions, and lead remediation where gaps are identified.
• Conduct technical testing of Copilot security configurations, partnering with security and privacy specialists on DLP effectiveness assessments to identify and close data leakage vectors specific to generative AI interactions.
• Assess and refine Copilot usage analytics and adoption dashboards, ensuring they accurately track usage patterns, productivity metrics, and security incidents to inform ongoing rollout decisions.

Technical Leadership & Innovation

• Conduct architecture reviews for ministry AI use cases, assessing feasibility, integration complexity, security, and alignment with the enterprise platform.
• Establish coding, architecture, and deployment standards for AI work, mentor technical staff, and stay current on emerging AI technologies and industry working groups.

Job Capabilities

As a public servant, we are seeking someone who:

• Is accountable, takes ownership of their work by contributing to organizational outcomes and demonstrates the corporate values in our Commitment to Excellence.
• Is innovative and seeks out ways for improvement by thinking creatively, identifying new ideas and taking responsible risks.
• Works collaboratively with others to understand, engage and have meaningful dialogue to achieve work outcomes.
• Is inclusive, identifies and is aware of personal bias, and readily seeks out and appreciates diverse perspectives.
• Is adaptable, continuously learns from experience and applies those learnings to new situations.
• Focuses on achieving public service excellence.

Knowledge

• Knowledge of the AI/ML model lifecycle, MLOps practices, and data engineering at scale (data lakes, ETL/ELT, streaming architectures).
• Knowledge of generative AI architectures (LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, fine-tuning, vector databases) and AI governance tooling (model inventory, bias detection, explainability).
• Knowledge of government compliance frameworks (FOIP, HIPA, NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001) and emerging federal and provincial AI legislation.

Technical Skills

• Hands-on experience evaluating and architecting solutions across multiple cloud AI/ML platforms, including enterprise security design (network segmentation, encryption, identity and access management).
• Skilled in writing technical specifications for RFPs and designing objective vendor evaluation frameworks, in compliance with public sector procurement standards.
• Ability to translate complex technical architecture into clear documentation (diagrams, decision matrices, risk assessments) for non-technical executive audiences.
• Experience mentoring technical staff and collaborating with ministry IT teams and vendors through solution design, evaluation, and architecture reviews.
• Builds AI systems that are fair, transparent, explainable, and accountable, respecting Indigenous data sovereignty, Treaty rights, and cultural protocols, and ensuring equitable outcomes across diverse populations.
• Maintains integrity in vendor relationships, prioritizing government interests and avoiding conflicts of interest.

Commitment to Responsible AI

• Builds AI systems that are fair, transparent, explainable, and accountable, respecting Indigenous data sovereignty, Treaty rights, and cultural protocols, and ensuring equitable outcomes across diverse populations.
• Maintains integrity in vendor relationships, prioritizing government interests and avoiding conflicts of interest.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, AI/Machine Learning, or a related technical field. Equivalent combinations of education and demonstrated technical expertise will be considered.
• Cloud AI, cloud architecture, container orchestration, and AI governance certifications are assets.
• Typically 8+ years of progressive experience in AI/ML engineering, data science, or cloud architecture, with at least 3+ years designing enterprise-scale AI platforms or leading technical AI work. Public-sector experience, or experience in regulated industries such as healthcare or financial services, is strongly preferred.
• We recognize applicants may use AI tools to help prepare their application. If you do, we ask that you tell us how — briefly, in your cover letter. Your application must accurately reflect your own experience and qualifications.

Job Skills:

• Communication (Level C)
• Critical Thinking (Level C)
• Digital Skills (Level C)
• Interacting with Others (Level C)
• Navigating Ambiguity (Level C)
• Managing Self (Level C)
• Health, Safety and Wellness (Level A)
• Data Literacy (Level C)
• Influence (Level C)
• Political and Organizational Awareness (Level C)

Learn more about the Government of Saskatchewan’s Capability and Skills Framework here.

What We Offer:

• Dynamic and challenging work
• Competitive salary
• Comprehensive benefits package including pension
• Vacation, scheduled days off, and other types of leave
• Inclusive work environments
• Career growth, development, and advancement opportunities
• Flexible work arrangements
• In addition to the base salary, there is an 8% salary supplement for this position.

The Ministry of SaskBuilds and Procurement coordinates and delivers property management, information technology, procurement, project management, transportation, and other support services for government ministries and agencies. The Government of Saskatchewan provides the services, programs and supports the people of Saskatchewan need. We deliver on the Saskatchewan Plan for Growth to build a strong economy, strong communities and strong families, ultimately building a stronger Saskatchewan. Dedicated to service excellence, we demonstrate innovation, collaboration and transparency, practice effective and accountable use of resources and promote engagement and leadership at all levels.