VP, AI Solutions Architect

Job Description:

The Role

We are seeking a highly technical and innovative Vice President, AI Solutions Architect to join our Office of the CTO. You will be a founding member of a new AI Solutions team, with direct influence on how the practice, its platform, and its standards take shape. This role blends hands-on technical architecture, strategic platform development, and client-facing leadership. As VP of AI Solutions Architecture, you will be the technical authority who translates cutting-edge AI capabilities into enterprise-ready solutions that deliver measurable business value.

Reporting to the SVP, AI Solutions, you will lead the design and implementation of complex AI and agentic architectures, drive our platform integration strategy, and serve as the senior technical voice on our most strategic client engagements. The role demands deep technical expertise combined with the ability to orchestrate multi-faceted solutions that draw on our portfolio of AI technologies, cloud partnerships, and emerging capabilities. You will work with a globally distributed team of AI specialists to build prototypes, lead technical hackathons, and pioneer solutions that position Merkle at the forefront of enterprise AI adoption.

This is an opportunity to shape how Fortune 500 companies implement AI at scale, while directly influencing Merkle’s AI platform evolution and technical strategy.

What You’ll Do

Architecture & Solution Design

• Design end-to-end AI and agentic solutions that meet enterprise requirements for scalability, security, reliability, and performance.

• Create reference architectures, patterns, and blueprints for common use cases (e.g., customer service, marketing personalization, analytics automation).

• Define integration approaches, APIs, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) connectivity between AI services and platforms such as Salesforce, Adobe, Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud, Databricks, and Snowflake.

• Apply a range of AI techniques, including large language models (LLMs), multi-agent systems, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), computer vision, and predictive analytics, to solve real business problems.

• Embed governance, privacy, and responsible AI requirements into solution designs from the outset.

Platform Strategy & Reuse

• Guide the evolution of Merkle’s AI platform, emphasizing modularity, reusability, observability, and security.

• Integrate third-party and partner technologies where appropriate; build reusable components, accelerators, and templates to reduce delivery time.

• Establish standards for agent orchestration, evaluation and quality gates, data pipelines, monitoring, and responsible AI.

Innovation & Technical Leadership

• Lead hands-on prototyping, proofs of concept, and technical hackathons with clients and internal teams.

• Conduct architectural reviews and deep dives for complex programs; mentor solution architects and AI engineers.

• Translate emerging research and platform roadmaps into practical enterprise applications.

Client Engagement & Delivery

• Advise clients on technology selection, architecture decisions, and implementation strategies.

• Run technical discovery to assess current state, identify AI opportunities, and de-risk delivery.

• Communicate clearly with both executive and technical audiences; support critical deployment phases.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Technology Strategy, Data Science, Security, Cloud, and Practice teams to align AI solutions with enterprise roadmaps and governance.

• Support Sales with technical solutioning, demos, and estimates.

What You’ll Bring

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive experience in solution architecture, enterprise architecture, software engineering, or technical consulting, including at least 3 years designing and delivering production generative AI/LLM systems.

• Hands-on experience building agentic systems with modern orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangGraph, Microsoft Agent Framework, OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK, CrewAI).

• Working knowledge of LLM evaluation and observability practices and tooling (e.g., LangSmith, Arize, Braintrust), plus RAG and vector search patterns.

• Strong background in cloud-native architectures and modern engineering practices (e.g., containers, microservices, CI/CD, DevOps).

• Ability to translate business goals into scalable, secure architectures and to communicate trade-offs to diverse stakeholders.

• Proficiency in one or more programming languages (e.g., Python, Java, C#, TypeScript/JavaScript).

• Understanding of API design, event-driven integration, MCP, and production monitoring/observability.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with managed cloud AI and agent platforms (e.g., Microsoft Foundry (formerly Azure AI Foundry), AWS Bedrock and AgentCore, Google Gemini Enterprise/Vertex AI).

• Platform expertise with Adobe Experience Cloud (AEM, AEP, GenStudio, AEP Agent Orchestrator), Salesforce (Agentforce, Data Cloud), Braze, Shopify, Marketplacer, or similar.

• Classical ML depth (e.g., PyTorch, predictive modeling, MLOps) alongside generative AI experience.

• Experience building technical practices and communities of practice and mentoring senior technical talent.

• Record of thought leadership (publishing, speaking, open-source contributions).

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• Relevant certifications in AI/ML, cloud, or enterprise architecture are a plus.

Location

This is a full-time position based in the United States with flexible work arrangements.

Hybrid Options (3 days in office):

• New York, NY

• Chicago, IL

• Detroit, MI

Remote: US-based remote candidates welcome to apply

Travel: 30-40% travel to client sites and Merkle offices required

Additional Information

The annual base salary range for this position is $163,000 - $263,062. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factors permitted by law. Additionally, this position is eligible for discretionary incentive compensation.

Benefits available with this position include:

• Medical, vision, and dental insurance

• Life insurance

• Short-term and long-term disability insurance

• 401k

• Flexible paid time off

• At least 15 paid holidays per year

• Paid sick and safe leave

• Paid parental leave

Dentsu also complies with applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, in accordance with its plans and policies. For further details regarding Dentsu benefits, please visit www.dentsubenefitsplus.com.

To begin the application process, please click on the “Apply” button at the top of this job post. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and qualified candidates will be contacted for next steps.

At dentsu, we believe great work happens when we’re connected. Our way of working combines flexibility with in-person collaboration to spark ideas and strengthen our teams. Employees who live within a commutable distance of one of our hub offices, currently located in Chicago, metro Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City, are required and expected to work from the office three days per week (two days per week for employees based in Los Angeles). Dentsu may designate other Hub offices at any time. Those who live outside a commutable range may be designated as remote, depending on the role and business needs. Regardless of your work location, we expect our employees to be flexible to meet the needs of our Company and clients, which may include attendance in an office.

Location: New York

Brand: Merkle

Time Type: Full time

Contract Type: Permanent

Dentsu is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees. We do this without regard to race, color, national origin, sex , sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, ancestry, physical or mental disability, marital status, political affiliation, religious practices and observances, citizenship status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.

Dentsu is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to, among others, individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you need an accommodation because of a disability to search and apply for a career opportunity with us, please send an e-mail to ApplicantAccommodations@dentsu.com by clicking on the link to let us know the nature of your accommodation request and your contact information. We are here to support you.