[Hiring] Sr. Architect, AI & Automation @Foot Locker

Role Description

Foot Locker is seeking an experienced and innovative Sr. Architect, AI & Automation to design and lead the enterprise architecture vision for Generative AI, Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Automation, and AI-powered digital transformation initiatives. This role is responsible for designing scalable AI platforms, reusable frameworks, reference architectures, and enterprise standards that enable rapid adoption of AI capabilities across various domains.

• Define the enterprise AI, GenAI, Agentic AI, and Automation architecture and roadmap aligned with business and technology strategy.
• Architect scalable solutions using LLMs, RAG, AI agents, workflow automation, APIs, and event-driven architectures.
• Define the architecture and integration of agents, skills, workflow orchestration, MCP services, development tools, and reusable libraries.
• Establish patterns for AI agents and multi-agent workflows, including orchestration, graph and state design, conditional routing, tool and API calling, memory, checkpointing, guardrails, human-in-the-loop processes, and observability.
• Design enterprise RAG architectures integrating structured and unstructured data, vector databases, embeddings, semantic search, ontology and knowledge graph models, and enterprise knowledge repositories.
• Integrate AI capabilities with enterprise data platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, Azure, Power BI, and operational applications.
• Define best practices for LLMOps, lifecycle management, prompt and version management, testing, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, observability, and cost optimization.
• Partner with business and technology leaders to translate strategic goals into scalable AI and automation solutions.
• Define standards for Responsible AI, security, privacy, RBAC, PII protection, data governance, model governance, and regulatory compliance.
• Evaluate AI technologies, foundation models, frameworks, and vendors and provide architecture recommendations based on business requirements.
• Design reusable AI services, APIs, connectors, accelerators, and reference architectures to enable adoption across multiple teams.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to architects, data engineers, software engineers, and analytics teams.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, ML/AI engineering, automation, or related areas, with hands-on experience delivering AI solutions.
• Strong hands-on understanding of Generative AI, LLMs, Agentic AI, RAG, embeddings, vector search, prompt engineering, and AI orchestration.
• Experience with AI frameworks/platforms such as Azure OpenAI/OpenAI APIs, LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, or equivalent technologies.
• Strong cloud architecture experience, preferably Microsoft Azure, including identity, networking, security, APIs, containers, serverless services, and integration patterns.
• Strong experience with modern data platforms such as Snowflake and/or Databricks.
• Knowledge of Python, SQL, REST APIs, JSON, microservices, event-driven architecture, and integration patterns.
• Experience with LLMOps, CI/CD, GitHub/Azure DevOps, infrastructure-as-code, automated testing, monitoring, and observability.
• Strong understanding of enterprise data governance, AI governance, security, privacy, RBAC, and responsible AI.
• Experience integrating AI solutions with enterprise applications, data platforms, BI platforms, APIs, and workflow systems.
• Ability to translate complex AI technologies into business capabilities, architecture roadmaps, and measurable outcomes.
• Strong communication and presentation skills with the ability to influence engineering teams, business stakeholders, directors, and executive leadership.
• Experience in Retail, Digital Commerce, Supply Chain, or Customer Analytics domains preferred.
• Experience working in Agile product delivery environments preferred.
• Azure AI Engineer, Azure Solutions Architect, or equivalent certifications preferred.

Requirements

• Experience with Snowflake Cortex AI, Databricks, the Microsoft Copilot ecosystem, vector databases, AI gateways, Model Context Protocol (MCP), agent-to-agent integration, and enterprise knowledge management, or equivalent technologies.
• Retail, supply chain, merchandising, inventory, customer analytics, or other large-scale enterprise domain experience is also preferred.

Benefits

• Employee Discount
• Paid Time Off
• Medical | Dental | Vision Coverage
• 401(k) | Roth 401(k)
• Life Insurance
• Flexible Spending Account
• Opportunities for Advancement
• Tuition Reimbursement for Qualified Courses
• Strong Company Culture
• Employee Resource Groups