Job Description

What if the work you did every day could impact the lives of people you know? Or all of humanity?

At Illumina, we are expanding access to genomic technology to realize health equity for billions of people around the world. Our efforts enable life-changing discoveries that are transforming human health through the early detection and diagnosis of diseases and new treatment options for patients.

Working at Illumina means being part of something bigger than yourself. Every person, in every role, has the opportunity to make a difference. Surrounded by extraordinary people, inspiring leaders, and world changing projects, you will do more and become more than you ever thought possible.

Location

San Diego, CA.

2+ days/week in office. This is not a remote position.

Position Summary

At Illumina, we are applying AI to meaningful problems that can improve human health at global scale. As our Lead AI Solutions Architect, you will design, prototype, and help scale AI solutions that drive measurable business impact across the enterprise. You will partner closely with business, product, engineering, and architecture leaders to translate high-value opportunities into practical GenAI and agentic AI solutions.

This role is ideal for a hands-on AI leader who combines strong technical judgment with a builder mindset, learns quickly in a fast-moving space, and can influence direction in a complex enterprise environment. You will help shape scalable patterns, accelerate adoption, and ensure the solutions we build are both innovative and enterprise-ready.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate & Innovate: Partner with business, product, engineering, and architecture teams to identify high-value opportunities, define practical use cases, and co-create GenAI and agentic AI solutions that solve real enterprise needs.

• Lead with Vision: shape Illumina’s approach to GenAI and agentic AI by translating emerging capabilities into clear architectural direction, scalable patterns, and practical guidance for teams across the enterprise.

• Advise & Align: Partner with senior stakeholders to connect AI opportunities to business priorities, guide decision-making with sound technical judgment, and ensure solutions are designed for both near-term value and long-term scalability.

• Prototype Rapidly: Apply an AI-first experimentation mindset—build proof points in days, iterate on feedback, and drive quick wins for our internal and external customers.

• Architect End-to-End: Design and communicate scalable AI-enabled applications, services, and workflows, using Illumina’s existing technology stack while identifying where new capabilities can accelerate impact.

• Bridge to Solution: Capture field-proven use cases and funnel them back to Solution Engineering, fueling the Agentic roadmap.

• Operate at Speed: Thrive in a constantly evolving, start-up-like environment, own delivery sprints, tackle challenges on-site/remotely, and adapt to evolving AI trends.

• Train & Elevate: Document your playbooks, prompts, and patterns in our internal knowledge base, helping the whole organization move faster.

• Influence & Elevate: Document playbooks, prompts, patterns, and lessons learned to help teams adopt best practices, move faster, and build more consistently across the enterprise.

Experience

• Typically requires 8+ years of relevant experience in software, architecture, AI, or solution design, with a track record of delivering scalable solutions in production environments.

• Applied Architecture Depth: recent hands on experience designing and delivering production-grade applications, services, or workflows, with the ability to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions. Experience with modern application development across frontend, backend, APIs, or microservices is highly valued.

• GenAI & Agentic AI Experience: Hands-on experience with modern AI technologies such as LLM-based applications, RAG, prompt design, agentic workflows, vector search, model orchestration, or multimodal AI. You know how to turn emerging capabilities into practical, usable solutions.

• Cloud & Delivery Foundations: Experience working in cloud-native environments and collaborating on scalable deployment approaches, including modern infrastructure, CI/CD, observability, and production readiness.

• AI Tinkerer: AI-native tinkerer who embeds AI in your day-to-day workflows and spends your free time inventing and tinkering with the possibilities of AI. You keep ahead of market trends across third-party models, GPUs, and new AI applications.

• Business Partnership: You work backward from business needs, balance technical possibilities with practical outcomes, and build strong partnerships across functions to deliver value.

• Strong communicator: You translate complex AI concepts for both architects and executives and guide customers through technical decisions aligned to business objectives.

• Enterprise Scale Leadership: You know how to take successful patterns beyond a single prototype or team, helping define repeatable approaches, scalable architecture decisions, and practical best practices that can be adopted across the enterprise.

• Startup DNA: Thrives in fast-paced, ambiguous environments—relentlessly seeking better, faster, more innovative ways to solve customer objectives and challenges.

• Typically requires a minimum of 15 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 12 years and a Master’s degree, or equivalent experience.

• Up to 30% travel

#LI-HYBRID

The estimated base salary range for the Enterprise AI Architect role based in the United States of America is: $155,600 - $233,400. Should the level or location of the role change during the hiring process, the applicable base pay range may be updated accordingly. The range reflects long‑term growth in the role. Most candidates are hired between the minimum and middle of the range. Placement depends on experience, skills, location, and internal equity. Additionally, all employees are eligible for one of our variable cash programs (bonus or commission) and eligible roles may receive equity as part of the compensation package. We offer a wide range of benefits as innovative as our work, including access to genomics sequencing, family planning, health/dental/vision, retirement benefits, and paid time off.

We are a company deeply rooted in belonging, promoting an inclusive environment where employees feel valued and empowered to contribute to our mission. Built on a strong foundation, Illumina has always prioritized openness, collaboration, and seeking alternative perspectives to propel innovation in genomics. We are proud to confirm a zero-net gap in pay, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or race. We also have several Employee Resource Groups (ERG) that deliver career development experiences, increase cultural awareness, and offer opportunities to engage in social responsibility. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to providing employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, creed, color, gender, religion, marital status, domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, pregnancy, military or veteran status, citizenship status, and genetic information. Illumina conducts background checks on applicants for whom a conditional offer of employment has been made. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws. Background check results may potentially result in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment. The background check process and any decisions made as a result shall be made in accordance with all applicable local, state, and federal laws. Illumina prohibits the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the application and interview process. If you require accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact [email protected]. To learn more, visit: https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf. The position will be posted until a final candidate is selected or the requisition has a sufficient number of qualified applicants. This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.