Applied AI Architect, Government

Details

The AI Architect team partners with public sector organizations to turn OpenAI's models into real-world impact. The team works with government agencies, public institutions, and government-serving partners to identify AI opportunities, design secure and scalable solutions, and support production adoption. It collaborates with Sales, Product, Engineering, Research, Security, Global Affairs, and specialist delivery teams.

As the senior technical owner for a named customer portfolio, this role serves as the primary technical counterpart to customer leadership. The role shapes AI strategy and guides customers from pre-sales discovery and solution evaluation through deployment, adoption, and measurable mission impact. It owns the technical account plan across ChatGPT Enterprise, the OpenAI API, Codex, and other agentic AI solutions, while partnering with Account Directors on account strategy.

This role is based in Washington, D.C., follows a hybrid model with three days in the office per week, and offers relocation assistance to new employees.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary technical advisor and long-term technical relationship owner for a portfolio of public sector customers and pre-sales prospects.
• Partner with Account Directors on account strategy while owning technical account plans, milestones, adoption priorities, and expansion opportunities.
• Lead discovery with agency leaders, mission owners, executives, and technical teams to identify and prioritize use cases tied to mission and operational outcomes.
• Develop applied AI architectures spanning models, applications, data, integration, identity, security, privacy, governance, evaluation, and deployment.
• Guide customers through technical evaluations, demonstrations, workshops, prototypes, and proofs of value.
• Help customers navigate public-sector security, compliance, governance, and deployment requirements.
• Maintain use-case portfolios with decision criteria, ownership, blockers, success measures, delivery needs, and adoption plans.
• Build relationships and technical champions across CIOs, CTOs, CISOs, Chief Data and AI Officers, program leaders, engineering teams, and other stakeholders.
• Coordinate support from deployment engineering, implementation, training and enablement, security, product, domain specialists, partners, and other delivery teams.
• Remain accountable for technical progress and customer outcomes while ensuring delivery teams own implementation execution once engaged.
• Track adoption, usage, account health, production readiness, and measurable mission impact.
• Apply public-sector and mission expertise to identify repeatable patterns, sharpen customer priorities, and identify expansion opportunities.
• Share customer insights with Product, Engineering, and Research to improve products, architecture guidance, and reusable practices.

Requirements

• Significant experience in customer-facing technical roles such as solutions architecture, solutions engineering, technical account leadership, AI deployment, or technical customer success.
• Experience guiding complex organizations from technical evaluation through production adoption and measurable impact.
• Experience working with government agencies, public institutions, or government contractors, with an understanding of mission priorities, security, compliance, governance, and procurement considerations.
• Ability to build credibility with senior technical and government leaders and communicate with engineers and program teams.
• Strong software and cloud architecture foundations, including APIs, distributed systems, data integration, identity, security, and privacy.
• Understanding of modern AI systems, frontier models, agentic applications, model evaluation, retrieval, and enterprise AI workflows.
• Ability to prototype, explain technical tradeoffs, and work with APIs, SDKs, and languages such as Python or JavaScript.
• Sound judgment about when to work independently, involve specialists, and establish clear handoffs and ownership.
• Experience developing technical account plans, prioritizing complex customer portfolios, and connecting adoption to measurable outcomes.
• Meaningful expertise in a relevant public-sector mission or customer segment.
• Clear communication skills and the ability to turn ambiguity into a practical technical narrative, executive decision, or action plan.
• Collaborative approach and commitment to helping public-sector organizations deploy advanced AI safely and responsibly.

A security clearance is not required, though candidates with an existing clearance may have additional opportunities to engage.

Benefits

• Base salary of $234,000–$335,000 per year, plus equity.
• Performance-related bonuses for eligible employees.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax Flexible Spending Accounts and commuter benefits.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental, medical, and caregiver leave.
• Paid time off, company holidays, and paid office closures.
• Mental health and wellness support.
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage.
• Annual learning and development stipend.
• Daily office meals and eligible meal delivery credits.
• Relocation support for eligible employees.
• Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends.