AI Architect - Public Sector - Outside IR35 - Edinburgh (Hybrid)

Day Rate - Market Rates

Duration - 12 months

Harvey Nash's Public Sector Client are looking to bring in a contract AI Architect, you will be responsible for the development and ongoing maintenance of the enterprise-wide AI technology approach alongside the delivery of the AI strategic roadmap.

Key Responsibilities

  • Define the enterprise-wide approach to AI delivery, ensuring alignment with organisational strategy, architecture principles, compliance requirements - driving innovation and informing strategic decisions.
  • Evaluate and integrate diverse AI technologies and platforms (cloud, on-premises, hybrid, open-source, and vendor solutions) to meet different business needs.
  • Collaborate with enterprise, data, principle and solution architects to ensure AI capabilities are seamlessly embedded within the broader technology ecosystem.
  • Architect, design, and implement scalable AI solutions using Azure AI Services, including:
    • Azure AI Document Intelligence
    • Azure AI Speech (speech-to-text, text-to-speech, speaker recognition)
    • Azure AI Translator
    • Azure AI Search
  • Lead technical PoCs in areas such as:
    • Multilingual speech transcription and translation
    • Intelligent document parsing and metadata extraction
    • Cognitive search across structured and unstructured documents

Technical Requirements

Essential:

  • Demonstrable experience of shaping AI capabilities to ensure they are designed, implemented, and integrated in alignment with business objectives, technology strategy, and architecture principles
  • Proven track record designing AI/ML solutions with Azure Cognitive Services
  • Strong hands-on experience in:
    • Python (data workflows, Azure SDKs)
    • C#/.NET (integration with enterprise systems)
    • React (frontend POC/demo apps)
  • Deep understanding of:
    • RESTful API design & consumption
    • Azure AI service orchestration & pipelines
    • Cognitive Search (keyword, semantic & hybrid modes)
    • OCR, key-value pair extraction, and document layout analysis
  • Experience building or deploying:
    • Speech transcription pipelines
    • Document intelligence models
    • Multilingual translation solutions

Desirable:

  • Familiarity with:
    • Azure OpenAI Service
    • Azure Content Safety and governance policies
    • Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines
  • Knowledge of court or legal systems (highly advantageous but not essential)

Please note that you must be eligible for BPSS clearance.

Apply