Secure AI Architect Senior Manager/Assoc Director

$122K - $338K New York, NY, US Senior AI Architect

Interested in this AI Architect role at Accenture?

Apply Now →

Skills & Technologies

AnthropicAzureClaudeOpenaiRag

About This Role

AI job market dashboard showing open roles by category

We Are

We are a global collective of innovators applying the New every day to improve the way the world works and lives. Help us show the world what’s possible as you partner with clients to unlock hidden value and deliver innovative solutions. Empowered with innovative tools, continuous learning, and a global community of diverse talent and perspectives, we drive success in a new business architecture that disrupts conventional practices. Our expertise spans 40\+ industries across 120\+ countries and impacts millions of lives every day. We turn ideas into reality.

We are Secure, Responsible AI \& Data Protection professionals who enable trust, resilience, and compliance across the AI lifecycle and data estate; including securing AI systems and agents against emerging threats like prompt injection, model manipulation, and unauthorized agent actions, applying AI to strengthen cyber defense through faster detection, triage, and response, and protecting sensitive data through classification, data loss prevention, and governed access, so that enterprises can adopt AI and agentic capabilities confidently while safeguarding data and meeting their regulatory obligations.

Accenture Cybersecurity helps organizations prepare, protect, detect, respond and recover along all points of the security lifecycle. Cybersecurity challenges are different for every business in every industry. Leveraging our global resources and advanced technologies, we create integrated, turnkey solutions tailored to our clients’ needs across their entire value chain. Whether we’re defending against known cyberattacks, detecting and responding to the unknown, or running an entire security operations center, we will help companies build cyber resilience to grow with confidence.

You Are:

You are the delivery and client leadership layer of the Secure AI practice. You own workstreams or full engagement programs, bring specialized depth in one or more Secure AI domains, and operate as trusted advisors to senior client stakeholders. Each Senior Manager is expected to engage credibly across adjacent AI areas and should be able to drive sales opportunities from RFP/RFI to proposals and Statements of Work / staffing plans. Experienced leading client\-facing engagements from scoping through delivery, develop and coach manager\-level teams, contribute to pursuit activity, and maintain frontier expertise that keeps Accenture's methods current and differentiated. They translate complex AI security concepts into clear, business\-relevant narratives for director and C\-suite audiences. Contribute to the offering development of Secure AI services and asset / accelerator development to differentiate Accenture Cyber Security.

The Work (Key Responsibilities):

  • Cybersecurity Secure AI solutions that transform clients’ Enterprise AI adoption and secure their AI\-enabled operations
  • Design, set\-up, and test prototype and production secure AI deployment solutions and ensure that all the pieces work together seamlessly
  • Work with the project team, team leaders, project delivery leads, and client stakeholders to create stand\-out \[AI Security and Governance] offerings powered by \[LLM platforms, frontier grade models, agentic frameworks, and AI/MCP gateways (Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI as representative examples]
  • Develop strong relationships with clients and gain the trust of key advisors
  • Make the business case for the \[most effective and appropriate secure AI] solution recommended to the client
  • Pitch in on Accenture sales efforts when needed
  • Continue to learn and develop your technical \[foundational AI, AI security, emerging technology] and related business expertise
  • Deliver services that meet Accenture Project quality specifications
  • Ability to take initiative to communicate, interact, and collaborate with others to ensure that all aspects of a task are addressed

Travel may be required for this role. The amount of travel will vary from 75% to 100% depending on business need and client requirements.

Here’s What You Need

  • Minimum 8 years of experience in Cybersecurity with domain expertise in at least one discipline (AppSec, SecOps, IAM, cloud, GRC, or offensive security)
  • Minimum 1 year of experience in at least one Secure AI domain: AI security architecture, adversarial AI, or cloud/infrastructure security for AI
  • Minimum 1 year of experience in Agentic coding fluency: Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or Codex — used in daily delivery practice
  • Minimum 1 year of experience in AI architecture: LLM deployment patterns, agentic/multi\-agent systems, RAG pipelines, MLOps, A2A, AI Gateways, MCP Gateways
  • Minimum 1 year of experience in AI\-specific security: OWASP LLM Top 10, prompt injection, model extraction, supply chain attacks
  • Minimum 1 year of experience with AI governance frameworks: EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, model risk management
  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent (minimum 12 years) work experience. (If Associate’s Degree, must have minimum 6 years work experience)

Bonus Points If You Have

  • Build strong client relationships and partner with organizations to reimagine their business through innovation
  • Collaborate across diverse communities—including domain experts, engineers, and designers
  • Proposal and SOW development, solution shaping, and client commercial engagement
  • Executive workshop facilitation and C\-suite / CISO\-level communication
  • Structured analytical thinking and hypothesis\-driven problem decomposition
  • Team leadership: developing and coaching managers and consultants through delivery

Compensation at Accenture varies depending on a wide array of factors, which may include but are not limited to the specific office location, role, skill set, and level of experience. As required by local law, Accenture provides a reasonable range of compensation for roles that may be hired as set forth below.

We anticipate this job posting will be posted until 08/21/2026\.

Accenture offers a market competitive suite of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, and long\-term disability coverage, a 401(k) plan, bonus opportunities, paid holidays, and paid time off. See more information on our benefits here:

U.S. Employee Benefits \| Accenture

Role Location Annual Salary Range

California $132,500 to $338,300

Cleveland $122,700 to $270,600

Colorado $132,500 to $292,200

District of Columbia $141,100 to $311,200

Illinois $122,700 to $292,200

Maine $112,900 to $249,000

Maryland $132,500 to $292,200

Massachusetts $132,500 to $311,200

Minnesota $132,500 to $292,200

New York $122,700 to $338,300

New Jersey $141,100 to $338,300

Virginia $122,700 to $311,200

Washington $141,100 to $311,200

Requesting an Accommodation

Accenture is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities or religious observances, including reasonable accommodation when needed. If you are hired by Accenture and require accommodation to perform the essential functions of your role, you will be asked to participate in our reasonable accommodation process. Accommodations made to facilitate the recruiting process are not a guarantee of future or continued accommodations once hired.

If you would like to be considered for employment opportunities with Accenture and have accommodation needs such as for a disability or religious observance, please call us toll free at 1 (877\) 889\-9009 or send us an email or speak with your recruiter.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law. Our rich diversity makes us more innovative, more competitive, and more creative, which helps us better serve our clients and our communities.

For details, view a copy of the Accenture Equal Opportunity Statement

Accenture is an EEO and Affirmative Action Employer of Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities.

Accenture is committed to providing veteran employment opportunities to our service men and women.

Other Employment Statements

Applicants for employment in the US must have work authorization that does not now or in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the United States.

Candidates who are currently employed by a client of Accenture or an affiliated Accenture business may not be eligible for consideration.

Job candidates will not be obligated to disclose sealed or expunged records of conviction or arrest as part of the hiring process. Further, at Accenture a criminal conviction history is not an absolute bar to employment.

The Company will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. Additionally, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the Company's legal duty to furnish information.

California requires additional notifications for applicants and employees. If you are a California resident, live in or plan to work from Los Angeles County upon being hired for this position, please click here for additional important information.

Please read Accenture’s Recruiting and Hiring Statement for more information on how we process your data during the Recruiting and Hiring process.

Salary Context

This $122K-$338K range is above the 75th percentile for AI Architect roles in our dataset (median: $197K across 33 roles with salary data).

Role Details

Company Accenture
Title Secure AI Architect Senior Manager/Assoc Director
Location New York, NY, US
Category AI Architect
Experience Senior
Salary $122K - $338K
Remote No

About This Role

This role sits at the intersection of AI and engineering, building systems that bring machine learning capabilities into production environments. The scope varies by company, but the common thread is applying AI technology to solve real business problems at scale. Most AI roles today require a combination of software engineering fundamentals and domain-specific ML knowledge, with the exact mix depending on the team's maturity and the product they're building.

The AI job market is evolving fast. New role categories emerge as companies figure out what they need to ship AI-powered products. What matters most is the ability to learn quickly, build working systems, and iterate based on real-world performance data. The specific title matters less than the skills you bring and the problems you can solve. Companies are past the experimentation phase and want engineers who can deliver production-quality systems that work reliably at scale.

Across the 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, AI Architect positions make up 1% of the market. At Accenture, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.

AI hiring keeps growing across industries. Companies in tech, finance, healthcare, and retail are all building AI teams. The strongest demand is for people who can bridge the gap between AI research and production engineering. The shift toward generative AI has created new role types (LLM Engineer, Prompt Engineer, AI Agent Developer) that didn't exist three years ago, while traditional roles (Data Scientist, ML Engineer) have evolved to incorporate LLM capabilities.

What the Work Looks Like

Day-to-day work involves a mix of building, debugging, and collaborating. You'll write code, review pull requests, participate in design discussions, and work with cross-functional teams (product, design, data) to define what AI features should do and how they should behave. Expect to spend time on both technical implementation and communication. Most AI teams operate in two-week sprint cycles, with regular demos and retrospectives. The ratio of heads-down coding to meetings and reviews varies by seniority, with senior roles spending more time on architecture decisions and mentorship.

AI hiring keeps growing across industries. Companies in tech, finance, healthcare, and retail are all building AI teams. The strongest demand is for people who can bridge the gap between AI research and production engineering. The shift toward generative AI has created new role types (LLM Engineer, Prompt Engineer, AI Agent Developer) that didn't exist three years ago, while traditional roles (Data Scientist, ML Engineer) have evolved to incorporate LLM capabilities.

Skills Required

Anthropic (6% of roles) Azure (24% of roles) Claude (13% of roles) Openai (11% of roles) Rag (23% of roles)

Python and cloud platform experience are common requirements. Specific skill needs vary by company and focus area, but familiarity with ML frameworks, data pipelines, and API design covers the basics for most roles. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), vector databases, and LLM API integration are increasingly standard requirements across role types.

Beyond the core stack, communication skills matter more than many technical candidates realize. The ability to explain AI capabilities and limitations to non-technical stakeholders is a differentiator at every level. Technical writing, documentation, and clear thinking about tradeoffs are underrated skills in AI roles. Experience with evaluation methodology (how to measure whether an AI system is working well) is becoming a core requirement, especially for roles that involve LLM integration.

Look for job postings that specify the problems you'll work on, the tech stack, and the team structure. Vague postings that list every AI buzzword are often a sign the company hasn't figured out what they need. Strong postings describe the product context, the team you'd join, and the specific challenges you'd tackle.

Compensation Benchmarks

AI Architect roles pay a median of $254,798 based on 67 positions with disclosed compensation. Director-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $272,150. This role's midpoint ($230K) sits 10% below the category median. Disclosed range: $122K to $338K.

Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.

Accenture AI Hiring

Accenture has 19 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, AI Architect. Positions span New York, NY, US, Columbus, OH, US, Morristown, NJ, US. Compensation range: $205K - $387K.

Location Context

AI roles in New York pay a median of $220,000 across 1,045 tracked positions.

Career Path

Common paths into AI Architect roles include Software Engineer, Data Scientist, Data Analyst.

From here, career progression typically leads toward Senior Engineer, AI Architect, Engineering Manager, Principal Engineer.

Focus on building things that work. A deployed project that solves a real problem is worth more than any certification. Contribute to open-source, build portfolio projects, and invest in fundamentals (software engineering, statistics, systems design) rather than chasing the latest framework. The AI field moves fast, but the engineers who succeed long-term are the ones with strong fundamentals who can adapt to new tools and paradigms as they emerge.

What to Expect in Interviews

AI interviews typically combine coding challenges (Python-focused), system design questions tailored to the role, and discussions about your experience with relevant tools and frameworks. Strong candidates demonstrate both technical depth and the ability to make pragmatic engineering tradeoffs. Prepare portfolio projects that demonstrate end-to-end capability rather than isolated skills.

When evaluating opportunities: Look for job postings that specify the problems you'll work on, the tech stack, and the team structure. Vague postings that list every AI buzzword are often a sign the company hasn't figured out what they need. Strong postings describe the product context, the team you'd join, and the specific challenges you'd tackle.

AI Hiring Overview

The AI job market has 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.

The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 roles).

AI hiring keeps growing across industries. Companies in tech, finance, healthcare, and retail are all building AI teams. The strongest demand is for people who can bridge the gap between AI research and production engineering. The shift toward generative AI has created new role types (LLM Engineer, Prompt Engineer, AI Agent Developer) that didn't exist three years ago, while traditional roles (Data Scientist, ML Engineer) have evolved to incorporate LLM capabilities.

The AI Job Market Today

The AI job market spans 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.

The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.

Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.

AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.

Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.

The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.

Frequently Asked Questions

Based on 67 roles with disclosed compensation, the median salary for AI Architect positions is $254,798. Actual compensation varies by seniority, location, and company stage.
Python and cloud platform experience are common requirements. Specific skill needs vary by company and focus area, but familiarity with ML frameworks, data pipelines, and API design covers the basics for most roles. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), vector databases, and LLM API integration are increasingly standard requirements across role types.
About 14% of the 3,708 AI roles we track offer remote work. Remote availability varies by company and seniority level, with senior and leadership roles more likely to offer location flexibility.
Accenture is among the companies actively hiring for AI and ML talent. Check our company profiles for detailed breakdowns of open roles, salary ranges, and hiring trends.
Common next steps from AI Architect positions include Senior Engineer, AI Architect, Engineering Manager, Principal Engineer. Progression depends on whether you lean toward technical depth, people management, or product strategy.

Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence

Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.