Principal, Software Development Engineer

Life at F5 is never dull. We are constantlyidentifyingindustry trends and disruptions then innovating to get ahead of future customer needscreating application services that help the worlds leading organizations deliver their critical business apps faster and with the highest levels of flexibility security performance and support.

But our successisntdriven solely by what we do. We also care deeply about how we do it. At F5 our culture is how weliveevery single day. Andits producingextraordinary resultsnot only for our customers but also for our employees. We understand that your life is about more than just work sowerecommitted to a culture that supports your whole life.

Position Summary

We areseekinga highly experienced and strategic AI Architect to lead the design governance and integration of enterprise-scale Artificial Intelligence (AI) Generative AI (GenAI) and Intelligent Automation solutions within the Digital Organization of F5.

This role is focused on defining how AI is securely responsibly and cost-effectively adopted across the enterprisenot solely model development. The AI Architect willestablisharchitectural standards define enterprise AI patterns govern technology decisions and guide delivery teams in building scalable AI-enabled business capabilities.

The ideal candidate combines deep technicalexpertisein AI/ML architecture with enterprise architecture leadership governance platform strategy and business alignment.

Primary Responsibilities

AI Strategy Solution Architecture & Governance (70% of time)

• Define and own the enterprise AI architecture roadmap aligned with businessobjectivesand measurable KPIs such as cost optimization productivity improvement operational efficiency and revenue growth.

• Drive enterprise AI strategy across Generative AI (GenAI) Agentic AI / Multi-Agent Systems Predictive AI and Intelligent Automation / Hyper-automation.

• Establish reusable AI architectural patterns standards and decision frameworks.

• Lead enterprise AI platform strategy including cloud hybrid andon-premisedeployment models.

• Evaluate build-vs-buy and open-source-vs-commercial AI platform decisions.

• Architect scalable secure and production-ready AI solutions including LLMs RAG AI Agents and Multi-Agent Orchestration NLP and Conversational AI Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) and Predictive Analytics.

• Define enterprise integration patterns with ERP CRM ITSM BPM data platforms APIs and legacy systems.

• Create architecture blueprints reference models reusable frameworks and governance standards.

• Establish enterprise AI governance frameworks covering model explainability bias detection and mitigation hallucination monitoring Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) mechanisms and AI lifecycle governance.

• Ensure compliance with data privacy security regulatory and ethical AI standards including GDPR CCPA and applicable industry regulations.

• Partner with Security and Risk teams toestablishAI security standards including prompt injection defense and model access governance.

Technology LeadershipMLOps& Stakeholder Partnership

• Define enterpriseMLOpsandLLMOpsstandards including feature stores model registries automated retraining pipelines drift detection and evaluation/observability frameworks.

• Establish CI/CD/CT (Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery / Continuous Training) standards for AI systems.

• Design cost-optimized AI architectures and define ROI measurement frameworks for enterprise AI investments.

• Evaluate and approve AI technologies vendors LLM platforms vector databases orchestration frameworks and tooling ecosystems.

• Lead enterprise AI architecture review boards and design governance processes.

• Mentor AI engineers ML engineers architects automation developers and platform teams.

• Translate business problems into scalable AI solution architectures with measurable business outcomes.

• Present architectural trade-offs and strategic recommendations to executive leadership.

• Collaborate closely with Data Engineering Security Infrastructure Product Management Legal & Compliance

KnowledgeSkillsand Abilities

• Demonstratedexpertisein designing enterprise-scale AI/ML architectures and governing AI adoption across business units.

• Deep understanding of Generative AI LLMs RAG architectures Agentic AI workflows andMLOps/LLMOpspractices.

• Ability to partner with different development business and executive teams across geographies.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills; ability to present complex architectural decisions to executive stakeholders.

• Strong time management and organizational skills.

• Ability to provide exceptional support to both internal and external customers.

• Ability to prioritize and multi-task in a fast-paced changing environment.

• Excellent analytical critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

• Strong knowledge of AI governance responsible AI principles cost architecture (AI FinOps) and regulatory compliance (GDPR CCPA).

Qualifications

• Bachelors orMasters degree in Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Data Science Information Technology or a related field; PhD is a plus.

• 12 years of experience in enterprise technology architecture software engineering digital transformation or platform engineering.

• 5 years specifically focused on AI/ML solution architecture and enterprise AI implementations.

• Proven experienceestablishingor leading AI and/or Automation Centers of Excellence (CoE).

• Demonstrated success delivering production-grade GenAI or LLM-based solutions at enterprise scale.

• Hands-onexperience with multi-agent orchestration frameworks and AI tooling includingLangChainLlamaIndexAutoGen Model Context Protocol (MCP) OpenAI / Azure OpenAI Anthropic and open-source LLMs (Llama Mistral etc.); with applied expertise in prompt engineering RAG pipeline design LLM evaluation (LangSmith) AI workflow automation and skills development using Gemini Enterprise and Claude Code.

• Experience withSalesforce Flows Apex & CPQ automation

• Experience withsecretsmanagement and platform security using Vault CI/CD pipeline implementation via GitHubActions anddata analysis impact measurement and ROI tracking.

• Experience with cloud AI platforms: AWS (SageMaker Bedrock) Azure AI Foundry and Google Vertex AI.

• Knowledge of vector databases (Pinecone MilvusWeaviatepgvector) data lakes/lakehouses and real-time streaming platforms (Kafka Kinesis).

• Experience withMLOpsplatforms:MLflow Kubeflow Weights & Biases and AI monitoring tools

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions Jenkins GitLab CI).

• Strong understanding ofmicroservicesarchitecture event-driven systems API gateways REST/GraphQL/gRPCintegration patterns and identity/access management (OAuth JWT IAM Azure AD).

Physical Demands and Work Environment

• Duties are performed in a normal office environment while sitting at a desk or computer table.

• Duties require the ability toutilizea computer communicate over the telephone and read printed material.

• Duties may require being on call periodically and working outside normal working hours (evenings and weekends).

• Duties require the ability to travel up to 80% via automobile andairplane andmay require being on call periodically and working outside normal working hours (evenings and weekends).

• Duties may require the ability to travel via automobile or airplane approximately5% of the time spent traveling.

• Jobmay be performed on-site at a customer facility or data center or in an office environment sitting at a desk or computer table.
  

We offerwork/life integration programslike Freedom to Flex dynamic employee inclusion groups paid maternity/paternity leave tuitionassistancefor professional development a comprehensive mentoring program rewards/recognition and so much more. At F5 we truly do help each otherthriveand it shows: F5 has been named one of the Worlds Most Admired Companies by Fortune magazine for the past two years.

And this commitment to living our culturedoesntjust exist within our offices; it extends into our communities throughGlobal Good initiativessuch as employee matching volunteer opportunities and the F5 Foundation. Our employees are passionate about making a difference in the world.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become part of a companythatson the leading edge of transformation. And because we know that a more diverse F5 is a more powerful F5werelooking for smart talented determined individuals to join us. If you make thoughtful decisions quickly obsess over your customers needs take ownership of your work (the mistakes as well as the successes) and embrace different perspectives by putting the human first then we want to talk to you.

Thejobdescription is intended to be a general representation of the responsibilities and requirements of the job. However the description may not be all-inclusive and responsibilities and requirements are subject to change.

Phishing Alert

Please note that F5 only contacts candidates through F5 email address (ending with @) or auto email notification from Yello/Workday (ending with or @).

Equal Employment Opportunity

It is the policy of F5 to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants without regard to unlawful considerations of race religion color national origin sex sexual orientation gender identity or expression age sensory physical or mental disability marital status veteran or military status genetic information or any other classification protected by applicable local state or federal laws.This policy applies to all aspects of employment including but not limited to hiring job assignment compensation promotion benefits training discipline and termination. Reasonable accommodation is available for qualified individuals withdisabilitiesupon request.