Sr Director Applied AI Architecture & Platform Infrastructure

At Guidewell, we are moving from AI experimentation to becoming a genuinely AI-led organization, and that shift requires more than isolated pilots or point solutions. It requires a foundational capability that can keep pace with the frontier of AI while building the platform, infrastructure, and architecture needed to run it safely and reliably at enterprise scale. This role is being created to build, from the ground up, an enterprise capability that can track and apply frontier AI (model evaluation, agentic AI, multimodal AI, human-AI interaction) while establishing the engineering foundation that lets those capabilities scale across a highly regulated healthcare environment.

This is a builder's mandate. You will not inherit a function, you will design it, staff it, and stand it up, reporting directly to the VP of Applied AI Engineering and Platform and working across four interconnected pillars: AI Research & Applied Intelligence, Infrastructure & Platform Engineering, Developer Platform, and Architecture, Strategy & Standards. The person who takes this role will shape how Guidewell builds AI for years to come.

Key Responsibilities:
* AI Research & Applied Intelligence Establish Guidewell's applied AI research function - continuously evaluating frontier developments in model capability, agentic AI, multimodal AI, and human-AI interaction, and translating them into a prioritized roadmap of applied use cases that create measurable value across the health ecosystem.
* Infrastructure & Platform Engineering Build the AI infrastructure and platform capability - compute, MLOps/LLMOps, model pipelines that allows Guidewell to move AI solutions from prototype into reliable, secure, production-grade operation at enterprise scale.
* Developer Platform Stand up a developer platform and toolchain that gives product and engineering teams self-service access to shared AI capabilities, reducing duplicated infrastructure and shortening the path from idea to production.
* Architecture, Strategy & Standards Define Guidewell's AI architecture and engineering standards that lets AI scale safely across a regulated healthcare environment without slowing delivery.
* Strategy & Executive Partnership Partner with the VP of Applied AI Engineering and Platform, and with senior stakeholders across Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure, Data, Security, Legal/Compliance, and the business, to shape and continuously evolve Guidewell's AI engineering and research strategy.

Key Requirements:
* Related Bachelor's degree or additional related equivalent work experience
* 7+ years' related work experience
* 5+ years' direct supervisory/management experience
* Significant experience leading AI/ML platform, infrastructure, or applied AI engineering organizations at enterprise scale with a track record that includes hands-on architecture work, not just oversight.
* Experience architecting and operating agentic AI platforms in production: orchestration/agent frameworks, tool-access and identity controls, evaluation gates, observability, and deployment pipelines at real scale.
* Deep expertise in a major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, GCP, or similar) and its infrastructure-as-code, container/serverless, CI/CD, and multi-region resilience practices, with a track record of making that infrastructure both secure and cost-efficient.
* Experience establishing evaluation-first LLMOps practices (regression testing, tracing, human-in-the-loop oversight) for systems that have to hold up under regulatory, clinical, or audit scrutiny.
* Demonstrated experience building and leading engineering organizations from the ground up, including across distributed or global delivery models.
* Strong executive communication and credibility to partner with senior technical and business stakeholders.

Preferred:
* Experience operating in a regulated or compliance-sensitive industry - healthcare, financial services, or similar and translating requirements like HIPAA or SOX into concrete engineering standards.
* Experience redesigning established business or clinical workflows as agent-driven processes, rather than simply automating individual tasks within them.
* Experience building reusable platform components that let product teams assemble AI capability from proven building blocks instead of starting from scratch each time.
* Experience setting technical direction on emerging agentic AI and orchestration techniques as they mature and converting what works into lasting platform standards.
* A background that spans deep hands-on technical architecture and organizational leadership comfortable operating at both altitudes.
* Direct exposure to health plans, providers, clinical operations, or government health care programs.

General Physical Demands
Sedentary work: Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally to move objects. Jobs are sedentary if traversing activities are required only occasionally.

Physical/Environmental Activities
Must be able to travel to multiple locations for work (i.e. travel to attend meetings, events, conferences). Occasionally

What We Offer:
As a Florida Blue employee, you will be at the heart of GuideWell's vision - to lead the nation in transforming health through compassionate, connected, and technology-enabled care that delivers personalized value and empowered living.

To support your wellbeing, comprehensive benefits are offered. As an employee, you will have access to:

• Medical, dental, vision, life and global travel health insurance;
• Income protection benefits: life insurance, short- and long-term disability programs;
• Leave programs to support personal circumstances;
• Retirement Savings Plan including employer match;
• Paid time off, volunteer time off, 10 holidays and 2 well-being days;
• Additional voluntary benefits available; and
• A comprehensive wellness program

Employee benefits are designed to align with federal and state employment laws. Benefits may vary based on the state in which work is performed. Benefits for intern, part-time and seasonal employees may differ.

To support your financial wellbeing, we offer competitive pay as well as opportunities for incentive or commission compensation. We also conduct regular annual reviews with pay for performance considerations for base pay increases.

Annualized Salary Range: $180,000 - $292,500

Typical Annualized Hiring Range: $180,000 - $225,000

Final pay will be determined with consideration of market competitiveness, internal equity, and the job-related knowledge, skills, training, and experience you bring.

We are an Equal Employment Opportunity employer committed to cultivating a work experience where everyone feels like they belong and can perform at their best in pursuit of our mission. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment.