Solutions Architect (Data / AI)

• Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• Employment type: Full time, permanent
• Experience: Seven years or more in data or software engineering, with at least two leading delivery teams on client sites.
• Reports to: Chief Technology Officer

Job Summary

As the Solutions Architect (Data / AI) at SentraAI you will own the technical design across data platforms, agent architecture, integrations and governance for client engagements. You will be accountable for decisions that balance speed, cost and maintainability, and for defending the design to client architects.

You will lead a small onsite delivery team, run client governance forums, translate loose scope into defined deliverables and acceptance criteria, protect engagements from scope drift, and own knowledge transfer and handover to the client. You will also support pre sales on scoping and estimation for engagements you may lead.

About SentraAI

SentraAI is a specialist enterprise AI firm, focused on helping large, regulated organisations move AI and data platforms from experimentation into production safely and sustainably.

We work inside enterprise run-states, where governance, operational risk, change control, and long-term ownership are integral to delivery. Our teams are trusted to design and deliver systems, platforms, and operating models that can be run, audited, and evolved, not just launched.

We prioritise engineering discipline, architectural clarity, and delivery quality over speed theatre or hype.

Key Responsibilities

Solution ownership

• Own end to end solution design across data platform, LLM/agent architecture, integrations and governance
• Make and document trade-off decisions between speed, cost and maintainability
• Ensure security, data residency and audit requirements are designed in

Delivery leadership and governance

• Lead and allocate work across a team of two to four onsite engineers and hold the quality line on deliverables
• Run client governance forums from daily stand ups to quarterly reviews and keep status honest
• Protect the engagement from scope drift and raise commercial change through SentraAI leadership early

Handover, knowledge transfer and pre sales

• Own knowledge transfer from week one including documentation, runbooks, training and shadowing
• Convert loose scope into defined deliverables, acceptance criteria and a plan with real dependencies
• Support pre sales on scoping and estimation for engagements you would lead

Also in the role

• Own the solution design across data platform, agent architecture, integration and governance, and defend it to client architects
• Lead a team of two to four engineers onsite, allocating work and holding the quality line on what we deliver
• Run the client governance forums, from daily stand ups to the quarterly review, and keep the status honest
• Own knowledge transfer as a deliverable from week one, documentation, runbooks, training, shadowing
• Support pre sales on scoping and estimation for engagements you would go on to lead

Required Qualifications

Essential

• Seven years or more in data or software engineering
• At least two examples leading delivery teams on client sites
• Track record of taking an enterprise system from design to production and handing it over successfully
• Able to hold a room of senior client stakeholders, including when the news is bad
• Experience in regulated environments where security, data residency and audit are design inputs

Technical competence

• Deep experience in modern data platforms or production LLM and agent systems
• Databricks experience preferred
• Working competence in the complementary area (data platform or LLM/agent systems)
• Hands on enough to review the team’s work and unblock it

Also required

• Convert loose scope into defined deliverables, acceptance criteria and a plan with real dependencies in it
• Make the calls on trade offs between speed, cost and maintainability, and record why
• Seven years or more in data or software engineering, with at least two leading delivery teams on client sites
• Deep experience in either modern data platforms, Databricks preferred, or production LLM and agent systems, and working competence in the other
• Experience in regulated environments, with security, data residency and audit treated as design inputs
• Hands on enough to review the team's work properly and unblock it

Advantageous but Not Mandatory

• Databricks certifications or demonstrable Databricks project experience
• Direct production experience with LLMs, agents or orchestration systems
• Experience of working in regulated sectors such as finance, healthcare or government

Why Work for SentraAI

Enterprise AI, done properly. We exist to take AI and data out of experimentation and into production environments that are regulated, scrutinised, and expected to work every day.

Quality is not optional. SentraAI is built on the belief that engineering discipline, governance by design, and delivery rigour are competitive advantages, not overhead.

Clear ownership and accountability. You will be trusted with real responsibility, clear mandates, and meaningful outcomes, not diluted roles or performative activity.

Work that survives contact with reality. We design systems, operating models, and decisions that still stand up months and years after go-live, not just at demo time.

Run-state matters as much as build-state. We optimise for operability, auditability, and change control from day one, because that is where enterprise value is won or lost.

Substance over hype. We deliberately avoid delivery theatre, buzzwords, and novelty for novelty sake. Credibility is earned through execution.

Learn from experienced practitioners. You will work alongside people who have built, broken, fixed, and run enterprise systems, and who care deeply about doing the work properly.

A firm with a point of view. SentraAI is opinionated by design. We stand for doing fewer things better, and we expect our people to take pride in that standard.