AI Architect

AI Architect – Public Sector – Outside IR35 – Edinburgh (Hybrid)

Day Rate – Market Rates

Duration – 12 months

Harvey Nash\’s Public Sector Client are looking to bring in a contract AI Architect, you will be responsible for the development and ongoing maintenance of the enterprise-wide AI technology approach alongside the delivery of the AI strategic roadmap.

Key Responsibilities

• Define the enterprise-wide approach to AI delivery, ensuring alignment with organisational strategy, architecture principles, compliance requirements – driving innovation and informing strategic decisions.
• Evaluate and integrate diverse AI technologies and platforms (cloud, on-premises, hybrid, open-source, and vendor solutions) to meet different business needs.
• Collaborate with enterprise, data, principle and solution architects to ensure AI capabilities are seamlessly embedded within the broader technology ecosystem.
• Architect, design, and implement scalable AI solutions using Azure AI Services, including:
  • Azure AI Document Intelligence
  • Azure AI Speech (speech-to-text, text-to-speech, speaker recognition)
  • Azure AI Translator
  • Azure AI Search
• Lead technical PoCs in areas such as:
  • Multilingual speech transcription and translation
  • Intelligent document parsing and metadata extraction
  • Cognitive search across structured and unstructured documents

Technical Requirements

Essential:

• Demonstrable experience of shaping AI capabilities to ensure they are designed, implemented, and integrated in alignment with business objectives, technology strategy, and architecture principles
• Proven track record designing AI/ML solutions with Azure Cognitive Services
• Strong hands‑on experience in:
  • Python (data workflows, Azure SDKs)
  • C#/.NET (integration with enterprise systems)
  • React (frontend POC/demo apps)
• Deep understanding of:
  • RESTful API design & consumption
  • Azure AI service orchestration & pipelines
  • Cognitive Search (keyword, semantic & hybrid modes)
  • OCR, key‑value pair extraction, and document layout analysis
• Experience building or deploying:
  • Speech transcription pipelines
  • Document intelligence models
  • Multilingual translation solutions

Desirable:

• Familiarity with:
  • Azure OpenAI Service
  • Azure Content Safety and governance policies
  • Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines
• Knowledge of court or legal systems (highly advantageous but not essential)

Please note that you must be eligible for BPSS clearance.