Director, AI Architecture B2C at Bank of Montreal in Chicago, IL

Director, AI Architecture B2C
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Application Deadline:
11/26/2026
Address:
320 S Canal Street
Job Family Group:
Technology
BMO is investing heavily in AI-powered customer experiences, personalization, digital banking, employee copilots, and intelligent decisioning. The B2C space allows you to influence how customers discover products, receive advice, interact with digital channels, and manage their finances. As an AI Architecture leader, your work isn't an experimental lab project. It directly affects customer acquisition, engagement, servicing, and retention. Unlike many organizations that are still piloting AI, BMO has established enterprise-wide AI capabilities and recently created the BMO Institute for Applied Artificial Intelligence & Quantum to accelerate innovation while maintaining governance.
This role offers the chance to:
Define AI reference architectures
Build reusable AI platforms
Drive GenAI adoption across business units
Influence long-term technology strategy
AI has become a board-level and CEO-level priority across banking. BMO has publicly highlighted AI as a strategic differentiator and has invested significantly in AI talent and innovation.
A Director AI Architecture role provides visibility with:
Technology executives
Business executives
Risk and compliance leaders
Enterprise architecture leadership
KEY Job Responsibilities:
Designs and architects AI IT Systems that integrate business processes, customer experiences, applications, data, machine learning models, generative AI capabilities, and technology platforms, ensuring alignment with business objectives, responsible AI principles, regulatory requirements, and enterprise technology standards.
Leads the planning, evaluation, and optimization of AI-enabled capabilities, including Generative AI, Agentic AI, and intelligent automation.
Ensures an integrated AI architecture across interdependent technology systems, data platforms, cloud and on-premises environments, and customer-facing digital channels.
Creates and manages key AI architecture assets - blueprints, standards, reference architecture, governance frameworks etc. for the designated portfolio and business scope.
Creates technical design recommendations aligned to standards for development and integration of AI (machine learning, generative AI, intelligent automation, AI platform capabilities (connectors/MCP etc.)) into new or existing products, services, and applications.
Identifies risks or issues with AI solutions, model performance, ethical AI considerations, security vulnerabilities, compliance requirements, and solution design that may impact realization of project benefits; guides and supports stakeholders to make decisions that proactively resolve or mitigate potential project risks/delays.
Stays abreast of industry technical and business trends through participation in professional associations, practice communities, and individual learning, with emphasis on AI, cloud technologies, analytics, and regulatory developments.
Establishes and promotes Responsible AI practices including fairness, transparency, explainability, privacy, security, guardrails, observability, Evals, model governance, and regulatory compliance.
Attracts, retains, and enables the career development of top talent in AI architecture.
Improves team performance, recognizes and rewards performance, coaches employees, supports their development, and manages poor performance. Directs the delivery of AI architecture and transformation strategies across multiple business units.
KEY Skills and Experience:
Expertise with AI Security Skills:
LLM security
Prompt injection mitigation
Data privacy
Responsible AI controls
RBAC implementation
Compliance frameworks (SOC, HIPAA, GDPR)
Expertise with Cloud architecture:
AWS AI Services:
Amazon SageMaker
Amazon Bedrock Agent Core
Amazon Lex
Amazon Transcribe
Amazon Translate
Kendra Knowledge Search
Azure AI Services:
Azure AI Foundry
Azure OpenAI Service
Azure AI Search
Azure AI Vision
Azure AI Document Intelligence
Azure AI Language
Azure AI Speech
Azure Machine Learning
Azure Bot Service
Expertise with Security architecture :
AWS:
IAM
KMS
Secrets Manager
Azure:
Microsoft Entra ID
Key Vault
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Purview
Azure Policy
Expertise with Technical architecture:
LLM architecture and deployment
Prompt engineering
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
Vector databases
AI orchestration frameworks
Agentic AI design patterns
Multi-agent architecture
Fine-tuning and model customization
Evals
Expertise with Infrastructure development
AWS:
CloudFormation
AWS CDK
Terraform
Azure:
ARM Templates
Bicep
Terraform
Experience with managing teams/people.
Additional Information related to the duties and skills of the role:
Performs planning, problem-solving, and advising technical teams to optimize AI-enabled solutions that are strategic, operational, secure and economical
Participates in the system specification review process to ensure system requirements can be translated into valid AI, data, and software architecture designs that are scalable, explainable, secure, and operationally sustainable.
Identifies and researches relevant technologies, performs proofs of concept / prototypes, and recommends the applications of such technologies for future AI and digital product architecture, including foundation models, LLM platforms, AI agents, AI tools and LLMOps/AIFinOps capabilities.
Delivers innovative AI-powered solutions tailored to the specific needs of the organization, driving customer experience, personalization, engagement, and operational efficiency.
Provides input into the preparation of business case by providing key architectural insights on feasibility, risks, and alignment with enterprise strategy, including AI value realization, guardrails, Evals and Observability requirements, scalability considerations, and responsible AI implications.
Leads enterprise-wide initiatives that integrate data, analytics, AI platforms, machine learning capabilities, and customer-facing technologies and support long-term business objectives.
Balances high-level strategy with execution, ensuring AI architectural coherence organization wide.
Fosters a culture aligned to BMO purpose, values and strategy and role models BMO values and behaviors in all that they do.
Ensures alignment between values and behavior that fosters diversity and inclusion.
Regularly connects work to BMO’s purpose, sets inspirational goals, defines clear expected outcomes, and ensures clear accountability for follow-through.
Builds interdependent teams that collaborate across functional and operating groups to create the highest value for all stakeholders, including product management, AI engineering, risk, compliance, legal, and customer experience teams.
Operates at a group/enterprise-wide level and serves as a senior AI architect, and strategic advisor across BMO.
Influences how teams/groups work together to accelerate adoption of trusted, scalable AI capabilities
Applies expertise and think creatively to address unique or ambiguous situations and to find solutions to multiple, interdependent, complex problems involving AI, data, analytics, customer experience, and enterprise technology transformation.
Communicates complex AI concepts, business value, technical trade-offs, model risks, and governance requirements in simple terms.
Fosters strong internal and external networks and works with and across multiple teams to achieve business objectives, including partnerships with AI vendors and cloud providers.
Anticipates trends and responds by implementing appropriate changes, leveraging emerging AI technologies and evolving customer expectations to drive innovation and competitive advantage.
Broader work or accountabilities may be assigned as needed.
Take measured risks while protecting the bank by applying our Risk Management Framework in the execution of your role, in line with our Risk Culture and within our approved Risk Appetite, making sound and risk informed decisions that align to business strategy, protect assets, and adhere to applicable policy documents, laws and regulations, including AI governance standards, model risk management requirements, privacy regulations, cybersecurity controls, and Responsible AI principles.
Qualifications:
Advanced level of proficiency:
Adaptability
Banking operations
Expert level of proficiency:
Critical thinking
Building and managing relationships
Risk assessment
Regulatory compliance management
Cloud architectures
Security architecture design
Technical architecture
Infrastructure development
Information technology strategies
Typically 9+ years of relevant experience and post-secondary degree in related field of study or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Seasoned expert with extensive industry knowledge.
Technical leader viewed as a thought leader for innovation.
Salary:
$130,000.00 - $270,000.00
Pay Type:
Salaried
The above represents BMO Financial Group’s pay range and type.
Salaries will vary based on factors such as location, skills, experience, education, and qualifications for the role, and may include a commission structure. Salaries for part-time roles will be pro-rated based on number of hours regularly worked. For commission roles, the salary listed above represents BMO Financial Group’s expected target for the first year in this position.
BMO Financial Group’s total compensation package will vary based on the pay type of the position and may include performance-based incentives, discretionary bonuses, as well as other perks and rewards. BMO also offers health insurance, tuition reimbursement, accident and life insurance, and retirement savings plans. To view more details of our benefits, please visit: https://jobs.bmo.com/global/en/Total-Rewards
About Us
At BMO we are driven by a shared Purpose: Boldly Grow the Good in business and life. It calls on us to create lasting, positive change for our customers, our communities and our people. By working together, innovating and pushing boundaries, we transform lives and businesses, and power economic growth around the world.
As a member of the BMO team you are valued, respected and heard, and you have more ways to grow and make an impact.  We strive to help you make an impact from day one – for yourself and our customers.  We’ll support you with the tools and resources you need to reach new milestones, as you help our customers reach theirs. From in-depth training and coaching, to manager support and network-building opportunities, we’ll help you gain valuable experience, and broaden your skillset.
To find out more visit us at http://jobs.bmo.com/us/en
BMO is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer. We evaluate applicants without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or any other legally protected characteristics. We also consider applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.
BMO is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please send an e-mail to BMOCareers.Support@bmo.com and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.
Note to Recruiters: BMO does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from a candidate. Any unsolicited resumes sent to BMO, directly or indirectly, will be considered BMO property. BMO will not pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. A recruiting agency must first have a valid, written and fully executed agency agreement contract for service to submit resumes.