Data & AI Architect Principal

Job Description

Why BT International?

At BT International, our purpose is to keep the world connected. As part of BT, we build on almost 180 years of innovation and expertise to deliver secure connectivity and digital services to some of the world’s leading multinational businesses and organisations. Our customers trust us to safeguard their data, drive their digital transformation and keep their businesses running.

With colleagues on the ground across the world and supporting customers wherever they need to operate, BT International offers a truly global experience. Whether it’s about providing cloud connectivity, helping organisations collaborate, or enabling innovation in cybersecurity and digital services, you’ll be part of a team that shapes how businesses succeed in a world that is being transformed by AI.

If you have the drive and ambition to make an impact on a global stage, BT International is where it happens.

Why this job matters

The Data and AI Architect Principal is central to BT International's ability to compete in an increasingly data and AI-driven market. This role owns the architectural vision for data platforms and AI capabilities that directly impact business intelligence, operational efficiency and product innovation. This architect ensures every data and AI architectural decision drives business value and enables product velocity. This position leads data platform modernization, establishes MLOps practices and collaborates with senior stakeholders. By aligning data and AI architecture with business imperatives and group strategy, the role ensures BT International remains competitive, agile and customer-focused in a rapidly evolving global landscape.

What you will be doing – your accountabilities

1. Define and lead data and AI platform architecture strategy, establishing patterns that balance functional requirements with non-functional requirements including scalability, data quality, privacy and cost optimization
2. Work hand in hand with product engineering squads to establish data generation patterns, working directly with engineers to build data-informed products and AI capabilities
3. Drive architectural strategy for making data available across the organization through self-service data products, APIs and governed data access patterns
4. Lead the technical vision for AI capabilities distinguishing between machine learning for pattern recognition and agentic AI for autonomous task execution, establishing platform foundations for both
5. Champion data mesh principles where appropriate, enabling domain teams to own their data as products while maintaining consistency through federated governance
6. Establish MLOps practices and platforms that enable product teams to train, deploy and monitor machine learning models with the same velocity as application code
7. Collaborate with IT Systems and NaaS architects to ensure telemetry, network data and business systems generate high-quality data with proper lineage and governance
8. Work across multi-vendor environments including cloud data platforms, on-premise data systems and SaaS analytics tools to establish cohesive data architecture
9. Drive architectural governance for data and AI work ensuring solutions follow platform patterns for data quality, model governance and AI safety
10. Provide technical thought leadership on emerging data and AI technologies, evaluating applicability and translating possibilities into roadmaps aligned with BT International's platform strategy
11. Mentor architects and engineers, fostering architectural thinking and technical leadership capability across both the architecture and product engineering organizations

The skills you’ll need to succeed

Strategic Architecture Leadership – Proven ability to define data and AI platform vision with track record driving large-scale data transformation programs

Data Platform Architecture – Deep expertise in modern data platform design including data lakes, data warehouses, streaming architectures and data mesh patterns

AI/ML Architecture – Strong understanding of machine learning systems including feature engineering, model training, serving, monitoring and MLOps platforms

Agentic AI – Emerging expertise in agentic AI systems including LLM-based agents, tool use and reasoning frameworks for autonomous task execution

Technical Depth – Hands-on background with coding capability in data languages (Python, SQL, Spark), enabling credibility with engineering teams and participation in data work

Data Engineering Patterns – Strong understanding of ETL/ELT patterns, data quality frameworks, schema evolution and data lineage tracking

Cloud-Native Data – Experience with cloud data services and platforms across multi-vendor environments including data warehouses, data lakes and ML platforms

Platform Engineering Mindset – Ability to treat data and AI capabilities as platform products with clear service contracts and developer experience focus

Leadership accountabilities

• Owning outcomes: I take the right decisions that benefit the broader organisation
• Delivering for the customer: I execute brilliantly on clear priorities that add value to our customers and the wider business.
• Growth mindset: I experiment and identify opportunities for growth for both myself and the organisation

Experience you’d be expected to have

• Strong engineering background with hands-on experience in data engineering or ML engineering, demonstrating technical credibility through active contribution to data platforms and AI implementations
• Extensive experience designing and building data platforms in large enterprise or telco environments, with hands-on work across data ingestion, processing and analytics at scale
• Proven track record implementing AI and ML capabilities in production including MLOps practices, model serving infrastructure and enabling data science team autonomy
• Significant experience working hand in hand with product engineering teams establishing data generation and consumption patterns
• Strong background with modern data stack technologies including cloud data warehouses, data processing frameworks and ML platforms
• Experience with data governance, privacy and regulatory compliance balancing data accessibility with security requirements
• Demonstrated success evaluating emerging AI technologies and translating technical possibilities into practical implementations

Key decisions

This role is accountable for all decisions within the remit of this job description reporting directly into the CTIO.

Being trusted: Our code

Compliance with all BT Group policies is mandatory and applies to all BT Group employees. Policies can be accessed via the Policy Portal and should be adhered to in-line with Standards of Behaviour Policy and Procedure and the Being trusted: our code.

What we offer

Compensation and benefits:
• Attractive salary
• Cafeteria package - HUF 600,000/ year
• Performance-based bonus
• Comprehensive private health care package for all the employees, which can be extended to family members
• Nursery support for mothers returning from maternity
• Extended paternity leave: 10+10 day fully paid days
• Commuting allowance
• Home office allowance
• Employee discount opportunities
• Highly affordable mobile packages for the family as well

Work atmosphere and community:
• New high-class offices both in Budapest and Debrecen
• Wide-range of company and community programmes (including support for different sport activities)

Flexibility:
• Family-friendly culture
• Smart working approach (hybrid working model, 3 together, 2 wherever)

Our leadership standards

Looking in:
Leading inclusively and Safely
I inspire and build trust through self-awareness, honesty and integrity.
Owning outcomes
I take the right decisions that benefit the broader organisation.

Looking out:
Delivering for the customer
I execute brilliantly on clear priorities that add value to our customers and the wider business.
Commercially savvy
I demonstrate strong commercial focus, bringing an external perspective to decision-making.

Looking to the future:
Growth mindset
I experiment and identify opportunities for growth for both myself and the organisation.
Building for the future
I build diverse future-ready teams where all individuals can be at their best.

About us

BT Group was the world’s first telco and our heritage in the sector is unrivalled. As home to several of the UK’s most recognised and cherished brands – BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet, we have always played a critical role in creating the future, and we have reached an inflection point in the transformation of our business.

Over the next two years, we will complete the UK’s largest and most successful digital infrastructure project – connecting more than 25 million premises to full fibre broadband. Together with our heavy investment in 5G, we play a central role in revolutionising how people connect with each other.

While we are through the most capital-intensive phase of our fibre investment, meaning we can reward our shareholders for their commitment and patience, we are absolutely focused on how we organise ourselves in the best way to serve our customers in the years to come. This includes radical simplification of systems, structures, and processes on a huge scale. Together with our application of AI and technology, we are on a path to creating the UK’s best telco, reimagining the customer experience and relationship with one of this country’s biggest infrastructure companies.

Change on the scale we will all experience in the coming years is unprecedented. BT Group is committed to being the driving force behind improving connectivity for millions and there has never been a more exciting time to join a company and leadership team with the skills, experience, creativity, and passion to take this company into a new era.

A FEW POINTS TO NOTE:

Although these roles are listed as full-time, if you’re a job share partnership, work reduced hours, or any other way of working flexibly, please still get in touch.

We will also offer reasonable adjustments for the selection process if required, so please do not hesitate to inform us.

DON'T MEET EVERY SINGLE REQUIREMENT?

Studies have shown that women and people who are disabled, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse or from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification and criteria. We're committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace where everyone can be their best, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every requirement on the Job Description, please apply anyway - you may just be the right candidate for this or other roles in our wider team.