AI Principal Architect
Job Summary
At Anaplan we are a team of innovators focused on optimizing business decision-making through our leading AI-infused scenario planning and analysis platform so our customers can outpace their competition and the market.
What unites Anaplanners across teams and geographies is our collective commitment to our customers success and to our Winning Culture.
Our customers rank among the whos who in the Fortune 50. Coca-Cola LinkedIn Adobe LVMH and Bayer are just a few of the 2400 global companies who rely on our best-in-class platform.
Our Winning Culture is the engine that drives our teams of innovators. We champion diversity of thought and ideas we behave like leaders regardless of title we are committed to achieving ambitious goals and we love celebrating our wins big and small.
Supported by operating principles of being strategy-led values-based and disciplined in execution youll be inspired connected developed and rewarded here. Everything that makes you unique is welcome; join us and lets build whats next - together!
ABOUT THE ROLE
This role sits within Anaplans IT Customer Experience organization and is focused on transforming how Anaplanemployeeswork. You will design build and scale AI tools agents and capabilities that drive productivity smarter decision-making and operational efficiency across our global workforce.
Anaplan is building its Enterprise AI Center of Excellence (COE) a one-stop shop for all internal AI at Anaplan and is looking for an AI Principal Architect to lead it from a technical standpoint. This is a senior newly created role at the intersection of hands-on enterprise AI engineering internal system architecture technical leadership and workforce enablement.
The AI Principal Architect will own the technical vision for Anaplans internal AI designing the reference architecture for LLMs agentic AI and Gemini Enterprise; setting engineering standards; evaluating emerging platforms; and ensuring every employee-facing initiative is built with rigor scalability and responsible design.
This role carries a hybrid profile: deep individual technical contribution combined with team leadership influence. You will mentor engineers guide architectural decisions serve as the primary technical escalation point and contribute a forward-looking perspective to the 23 yearAI technology roadmap without necessarily holding formal management authority over all contributors.
You will report directly to the Director IT Customer Experience who co-leads the Enterprise AI COE alongside the Financial Flexibility Lead and a GTM Champion as a 3-in-a-box. You will collaborate closely with Technical/Engineering teams (dotted-line foragent development and delivery) and the Transformation & Financial Flexibility team (toidentifyAI-driven cost-saving opportunities).
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Reference Architecture & Enterprise AI Engineering
- Own and publish the reference architecture for Anaplans internal AI covering LLMs agentic AI frameworks Gemini Enterprise integrations and data pipelines.
- Architect end-to-end internal enterprise AI solutions designed for the scale security and reliability requirements of a global workforce.
- Set and enforce AI engineering standards coding practices code review processes and technical guardrails across all internal AI projects.
- Lead hands-on technical design reviews and guide implementation decisions from intake through production deployment.
- Evaluate select and onboard new enterprise AI platforms and tools providing technical recommendations grounded in internal workforce needs.
- Design the LLM abstraction layer and multi-model strategy tooptimizecost performance and flexibility.
- Own technical debt management system observability and scalability planning for Anaplans internal AI systems.
AI Platform Governance & Enablement
- Define andmaintaintechnical evaluation criteria for the AI intake process assessing feasibilitybuildcomplexity security risk and integration requirements for employee-facing tools.
- Ensure all internal AI initiativespassengineering security compliance and responsible AI review before development begins.
- Maintain enterprise AI technical policies engineering standards and responsible AI guardrails in partnership with Security and Compliance.
- Translate approved internal use cases into clear technical specifications and hand off to engineering teams with full architectural context.
- Define enterprise AI data layer and integration architecture across core systems (Salesforce ServiceNow Gainsight Workday).
- Integrate with ServiceNow AI Control Tower to track all AI use cases agents and realized business value.
- Implement human-in-the-loop explainability and auditability frameworks for all decision-impacting AI systems.
- Partner with Finance to define and measure AI-driven ROI ensuring alignment with enterprise value targets.
- Establish full lifecycle management for AI agents including monitoring feedback loops and continuous improvement.
Technical Team Leadership
- Provide technical direction coaching and mentorship to engineers across the AI Governance & Enablement and AI Operations & Insights teams.
- Serve as the primary technical escalation point for complex internal AI delivery challenges and architecture decisions.
- Partner with Technical/Engineering teams (dotted-line) on agent architecture build quality and delivery timelines.
- Help define the technical bar for AI team hiring and contribute to onboarding and skills development programs.
- Foster a culture of engineering rigor experimentation and continuous improvement across the internal AI function.
AI Operations & Workforce Adoption
- Oversee the technical deployment and operationalization of AI agents and solutions ensuring production readiness and stability for Anaplan employees.
- Drive Gemini Enterprise adoption and lead AI Friday sessions with genuine technical depth.
- Build andmaintainengineering dashboards tracking internal AI system performance adoption rates and ROI metrics.
- Translate engineering decisions into executive-ready business value narratives for the Director CIO and Finance audiences.
Innovation R&D & Emerging Technology
- Research and prototype emerging AI/ML techniques large language models agent frameworks and enterprise tooling toidentifyinternal productivity and cost-saving opportunities.
- Design and lead proof-of-concept pilots thatvalidatenovel internal use cases beforecommitting tofull engineering investment.
- Build andmaintainthe AI innovation pipeline a living backlog of high-potential experiments.
- Contribute the technical perspective on where internal AI capabilities should be invested over the next 23 years collaborating with the Director on the roadmap.
Cross-Functional Technical Partnership
- Work hand in hand with the Transformation & Financial Flexibility team toidentifyand technicallyvalidateAI-driven cost-saving opportunities in Anaplans internal operations.
- Act as technical advisor and AI subject matter expert to business unitsidentifyinginternal AI use cases.
- Support the 3-in-a-box COE co-leadership (IT Finance GTM) with technical analysis architecture reviews and feasibility assessments.
- Build trusted technical relationships across Engineering Security Compliance Legal and HR.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- 7 years of software or AI/ML engineering experience with at least 3 years in a technical lead staff engineer or principal-level role ideally with exposure to enterprise IT or internal tooling environments.
- Deep hands-onexpertiseacross the AI/ML stack: LLMs retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) agent frameworks orMLOpspipelines with experience in enterprise or workforce deployment contexts.
- Proven experience architecting and deploying enterprise-scale internal AI systems from design through production including reliability observability and performance engineering.
- Proficiencyin Python and enterprise cloud AI platforms (GCP Vertex AI Azure AI or AWS SageMaker) and AI orchestration tooling.
- Hands-on experience with Google Workspace AI and Gemini Enterprise or equivalent enterprise AI platforms (e.g. Microsoft Copilot OpenAI Enterprise).
- Demonstrated ability toprovidetechnical leadership mentorship and architectural guidance to engineering teams without formal management authority.
- Ability to manage competing priorities dependencies and delivery timelines across multiple workstreams.
- Strong business acumen and communication skills able to translate complex enterprise AI/ML concepts into business value narratives for C-level audiences.
- Experience in enterprise SaaS environments with complex stakeholder landscapes security requirements and compliance obligations.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience with AI governance frameworks responsible AI principles or enterprise AI policy and risk management for internal deployments.
- Familiarity with ServiceNow or similar ITSM platforms and integration patterns.
- Background in enterprise change management internal AI enablement or large-scale digital transformation programs.
- Experience working with cross-functional finance or business transformation teams on AI-driven cost optimization.
- Prior experience in an internal IT or enterprise technology function at a high-growth SaaS company.
- Enterprise technology function at a high-growth SaaS company.
Our Commitment to Diversity Equity Inclusionand Belonging (DEIB)
We believe attracting and retaining the best talent and fostering an inclusive culture strengthens our business. DEIB improves our workforce enhances trust with our partners and customers and drives business success. Build your career in a place where diversity equity inclusion and belonging arent just words on paper this is what drives our innovation its how we connect and it contributes to what makes us a market leader. We believe in a hiring and working environment where all people are respected and valued regardless of gender identity or expression sexual orientation religion ethnicity age neurodiversity disability status citizenship or any other aspect which makes people unique. We hire you for who you are and we want you to bring your authentic self to work every day!
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process perform essential job functions and receive equitable benefits and all privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.
Fraud Recruitment Disclaimer
It has come to our attention that fraudulent and fictitious job opportunities are being circulated on the Internet. Prospective candidates are being contacted by certain individuals mainly through telephone calls emails and correspondence claiming they are representatives of Anaplan. The main purpose of these correspondences and announcements is to obtain privileged information from individuals.
Anaplan does not:
- Extend offers to candidates without an extensive interview process with a member of our recruitment team and a hiring manager via video or in person.
- Send job offers via email. All offers are first extended verbally by a member of our internal recruitment team whenever possible and then followed up via written communication.
All emails from Anaplan would come from an @ email address. Should you have any doubts about the authenticity of an email letter or telephone communication purportedly from for or on behalf of Anaplan please send an email to before taking any further action in relation to the correspondence.
Required Experience:
Staff IC
About Company
See, plan and lead on finance, supply chain, and sales strategies that drive business performance using the Anaplan connected planning platform.