Technical / AI Architect

Company Description

At Syngenta, our goal is to build the most collaborative and trustworthy team in agriculture, providing top-quality seeds and innovative crop protection solutions that improve farmers' success. To support this mission, Syngenta’s IT & Digital team is seeking a Engineering Lead - Data & Analytics in Pune. This role will support the delivery for leading data and engineering teams within our Data Mesh platform, oversee product delivery, and spearhead the modernization of our AI, BI, and agentic analytics solutions.

Job Description

About the Role

We are looking for a seasoned Technical/AI Architect to lead the design and evolution of our technology landscape at Syngenta. You will be the bridge between business needs and technical execution — working across our Legal, M&A, VC, and Global Communications teams. You will guide a team of enthusiastic young developers, define the modernization roadmap for our existing application portfolio, and drive our expanding AI/ML and Gen AI agenda.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture & Design

• Own end-to-end solution architecture across all business verticals (Legal, M&A, VC, Global Comms)
• Design scalable, cloud-native solutions on AWS — leveraging services across compute, storage, data, and AI/ML
• Define the modernization roadmap for existing applications, transitioning them toward robust, maintainable, and scalable technology stacks
• Evaluate and recommend emerging technologies, frameworks, and platforms aligned with business goals
• Define and enforce architectural standards, patterns, and best practices across the team

AI & Innovation

• Lead the architecture of Gen AI, ML, and AI-powered use cases — from ideation through to production
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to identify, prioritize, and architect AI opportunities in legal and financial workflows (contract analysis, M&A due diligence, document intelligence, compliance automation, etc.)
• Design AI pipelines covering data ingestion, model serving, RAG architectures, and evaluation frameworks
• Ensure responsible AI practices — model governance, explainability, auditability, and data privacy

Application Modernization

• Architect the migration path for existing applications toward modern, API-first, cloud-native alternatives
• Introduce scalable backend architectures, microservices patterns, and integration layers
• Establish integration standards across internal systems and third-party platforms
• Guide the team in adopting modern development practices without disrupting existing operations

Team Enablement

• Mentor and upskill a team of junior/mid-level developers — acting as a technical guide and thought leader
• Conduct architecture reviews, design sessions, and technical spikes
• Create reusable frameworks, reference architectures, and documentation to accelerate delivery

Stakeholder Engagement

• Translate complex technical concepts for non-technical legal and business stakeholders
• Partner with Legal, M&A, VC, and Global Comms teams to gather requirements and shape solutions
• Present architecture proposals and technology roadmaps to leadership

Qualifications

Must-Have Skills

• 8–12 years of experience in software, solution, or technical architecture roles
• Deep expertise in AWS — architecture across services such as Lambda, ECS/EKS, API Gateway, S3, RDS, Glue, SageMaker, and Bedrock
• Strong background in modern application architecture — microservices, event-driven systems, API-first design, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes)
• Solid understanding of AI/ML fundamentals — model lifecycle, MLOps, data pipelines, and model deployment
• Practical exposure to Gen AI technologies — LLMs, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), prompt engineering, and AI orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex)
• Strong grasp of data architecture — structured/unstructured data, data lakes, document stores, vector databases
• Experience with security, compliance, and access control in enterprise environments — critical given the legal and financial context
• Proficiency in at least one modern programming language (Python, Node.js, Java, etc.)

Good to Have

• Experience working with or for legal, financial services, or professional services firms
• Familiarity with legal tech platforms (contract lifecycle management, eDiscovery, document automation)
• Experience with vector databases and semantic search (e.g., Pinecone, OpenSearch, pgvector)
• Background in DevOps/MLOps — CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code (Terraform, CDK)
• Multi-cloud awareness (Azure, GCP) in addition to primary AWS expertise
• Knowledge of Microsoft 365 integrations (SharePoint, Teams, Copilot)

Soft Skills That Matter

• Strong communicator who can engage both developers and C-suite stakeholders with equal confidence
• Comfortable with ambiguity — able to bring structure to loosely defined problems
• Collaborative and empowering leader who elevates those around them
• Pragmatic problem-solver who balances architectural ideals with delivery realities

Additional Information

What Makes This Role Exciting

• Architect AI solutions for high-stakes legal and financial workflows — complex, meaningful problems with real business impact
• Full ownership of the technology direction — strategy, not just execution
• A young, energetic team eager to learn and grow under your guidance
• Greenfield opportunity to modernize an application portfolio while building net-new AI capabilities

Syngenta is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or any other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. 

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