Executive Director, AI Architecture

Das ist der Job

HARMAN’s engineers and designers are creative, purposeful and agile.

Darum lohnt es sich

As part of this team, you’ll combine your technical expertise with innovative ideas to help drive cutting-edge solutions in the car, enterprise and connected ecosystem. Innovation, inclusivity and teamwork are a part of our DNA. You will be in close contact with the divisional AI teams and business leaders.

This role requires deep technical expertise in distributed systems and applied AI, combined with the ability to guide teams through complex technical trade-offs in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.

Your Team This pivotal role, reporting directly to the Vice President of Digital Enterprise, Cloud, and Security starts without direct reports initially. However, a team of internals and external consultants will be built over time as the demand grows.

Establish architectural guardrails that allow teams to move fast without compromising long-term maintainability. Partner with engineering and business teams to translate process automation goals into robust technical architecture. Identify architectural risks early and lead resolution of complex, cross-team technical issues.

Enable teams across the organization to adopt new AI tools, skills, and architectural patterns through technical leadership and influence Develop and implement a comprehensive AI Service strategy based on key business challenges. Responsible for innovation & implementing new methods/tools to manage and modernize AI Services.

Keep abreast of emerging technologies and trends in AI services to recommend and implement innovations that can benefit the organization.

Collaborate and provide strategic guidance with enterprise-wide senior business leaders in understanding business priorities, with the divisional AI teams, building Digital strategies to meet such priorities, communication and influencing execution plans to meet business requirements and timelines.

Proactively engage with external stakeholders through networking, industry conferences, customer visits to build & evolve knowledge and influence positive outcomes for HARMAN Promote a “continuously learning” and innovation mindset to the team.

Evaluate and manage the performance of team members, providing feedback and facilitating professional development. Experience serving as a technical lead or architect for platforms used by multiple teams. What Makes You Eligible Be willing to travel up to 10% domestic or international travel .

Every day, you will push the boundaries of creative design, and HARMAN is committed to providing you with the opportunities, innovative technologies and resources to build a successful career. A Career at HARMAN As a technology leader that is rapidly on the move, HARMAN is filled with people who are focused on making life better.

When you add that to the challenges we take on and solve together, you’ll discover that at HARMAN you can grow, make a difference and be proud of the work you do everyday. About the Role HARMAN is building an enterprise AI platform that enables agentic AI systems to automate and augment internal business processes at scale.

These systems are designed to create operational leverage across business functions such as Customer Service, HR, Finance, Engineering, and Supply Chain. As the leader of the Enterprise AI Platform Architecture, you will define and own the long-term technical architecture for these systems.

You will be responsible for architectural decisions that affect multiple organizations, long-lived platforms, and a combination of custom-built and third-party AI solutions. You will be responsible for the required data flows and process changes to make such a system work for the divisions and functions.

What You Will Do Define and own AI platform architecture supporting agentic AI workloads and internal process automation. Make high-impact architectural decisions that balance operational leverage, reliability, security, cost, and speed.

Drive convergence across AI systems to enable reuse while supporting both custom-built capabilities and external AI platforms. Review and approve architectures for AI solutions with broad organizational impact. Guide the redesign of enterprise processes and data flows to make them AI- and automation-friendly.

Ensure the platform evolves as AI models, tools, and best practices change over time. Practice financial strategy and rigor within the key functions of responsibility through careful budget planning/analysis, supplier cost negations and resource planning in support of HARMAN’s key business objectives.

Manage relationships with AI third-party vendors and service providers. Participate in contract negotiations and vendor selection processes. Ensure that AI services and support activities comply with relevant regulations and industry standards.

What You Need Masters’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience. 10+ years of experience designing large-scale distributed systems or enterprise platforms. Experience designing or operating AI- or data-intensive platforms, including agentic or workflow-driven systems.

Experience integrating third-party platforms into large enterprise architectures. Experience with systems focused on process automation, enterprise productivity, or operational leverage. Demonstrated ability to influence architecture across organizational boundaries through technical leadership.

Dedicated experience managing complex, global projects that impact business performance. Required skills include strong leadership, and the ability to prioritize several competing needs. Strong experience in leading change management. Solid oral and written communication and presentation skills at all levels.

Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure, time-sensitive environment. Strong oral and written communication skills. What is Nice to Have History of thriving in a globally diverse environment. Strong project management experience or PMP certification.

Aspiration to create and maintain measurable and sustainable processes. Be willing to work in an office located in Garching, Karlsbad, or Boblingen Germany (hybrid) HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.