Principal AI Architect, CTO

You’re joining a strategic initiative to help a major media and technology company build a new behavioral intelligence platform from the ground up. This is an embedded consulting role, not a traditional engagement. You’ll be shaping the technical foundation of a commercial unit that leverages large-scale behavioral data through AI and advanced data architecture. 

Your role is to serve as the technical authority — making platform decisions, representing them to client stakeholders, and guiding the team through the complexity of data architecture, privacy-preserving systems, and multi-tenant infrastructure design. You’ll report to Blend’s Chief Solutions Officer while working directly within the delivery team, with regular visibility to the client’s executive leadership. 

What You’ll Own 

Platform Architecture & Decisions 

• Define and validate the technical blueprint across cloud data warehouse, clean room infrastructure, embedding compute, and privacy controls 

• Own the data modeling strategy for large-scale behavioral signals across multiple data sources and device types 

• Design the embeddings architecture and feature store supporting advertising, commerce, and AI use cases 

• Guide clean room design and ensure compliance with applicable privacy frameworks 

Technical Leadership & Unblocking 

• Identify and resolve critical path blockers across infrastructure, integrations, and identity resolution 

• Pressure-test technical proposals against real-world scale and operational complexity 

• Bridge between Blend’s engineering and data science teams and the client’s senior technical stakeholders 

Executive Presence & GTM Alignment 

• Participate in regular leadership touchpoints with the client’s commercial and product leadership 

• Translate technical capabilities into commercially relevant differentiation 

• Ensure the technical roadmap aligns with go-to-market milestones 

• Serve as a credible technical voice in early client and partner conversations 

 

Who You Are: 

Technical Depth 

• Enterprise data platforms (Snowflake, AWS, or equivalent) 

• Real-time and batch data architecture 

• ML/AI systems and embeddings infrastructure 

• Data privacy frameworks and compliance-by-design approaches 

• Clean rooms, DSPs, and SSPs 

Executive Presence & Communication 

• You’ve worked directly with CTO-level stakeholders — not through layers 

• You move comfortably between technical depth and business context 

• You articulate architectural tradeoffs clearly and in terms of business impact 

• You’re comfortable in high-stakes client or investor settings 

Problem-Solving Orientation 

• You ask hard questions about scale, cost, compliance, and risk before committing to approaches 

• You hold opinions but update them when presented with better information 

• You see your role as unblocking the team, not bottlenecking it 

Collaborative Mindset 

• You’ve worked in embedded delivery or partner roles 

• You don’t need to own everything to drive impact 

• You value getting to the right answer over being the one with the answer 

 

Required 

• 10+ years in data or platform architecture, with at least 3 years on systems at significant scale 

• Deep experience with Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, or a comparable enterprise data platform 

• Demonstrated ability to lead technical strategy in high-stakes client or executive contexts 

• Experience designing for privacy, compliance, or security constraints 

• Background in consulting delivery or embedded partner roles 

Nice to Have 

• Clean room or federated data architecture experience 

• Embeddings or feature store work 

• Identity resolution or data monetization projects 

• AWS or cloud infrastructure design 

• DSP or SSP experience 

Less Important 

• Familiarity with every tool on the stack (you’ll learn what you need) 

• Specific certifications or credentials 

• Individual contributor “rock star” energy — we care about collaborative problem-solving 

The starting pay range for this role is $250,000 - $350,000. Actual compensation within the range will be dependent on several factors including but not limited to relevant experience, skills, certifications, training, and location. It is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range and determining factors for compensation are considered for each individual circumstance. BLEND360 offers a competitive benefits program designed to support the health and financial well-being of our team members and their families. Benefits vary by role and eligibility and may include medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) plan, paid time off, paid holidays, commuter benefits, flexible spending accounts, life and disability insurance, and employee assistance programs.