Senior AI Architect, Agent Governance & Controls

Location: Sunnyvale, California, United States

We Are:

At Synopsys, we drive the innovations that shape the way we live and connect. Our technology is central to the Era of Pervasive Intelligence, from self-driving cars to learning machines. We lead in chip design, verification, and IP integration, empowering the creation of high-performance silicon chips and software content. Join us to transform the future through continuous technological innovation.

You Are:

You are a visionary, systems-level thinker who thrives at the intersection of advanced AI, enterprise security, and operational excellence. You see beyond individual AI agents to envision the holistic operating model that ensures trust, compliance, and reliability at scale. With a strong foundation in enterprise environments, you have successfully built and governed systems where compliance, reliability, and auditability are non-negotiable. You’re comfortable navigating open design questions and excel at collaborating with both deeply technical and non-technical stakeholders—maintaining credibility and building consensus across the organization.

You understand the intricacies of agentic AI systems—how they reason, act, and sometimes fail—and you design robust controls that address these realities. Your approach balances visionary thinking with a pragmatic focus, delivering production-ready governance frameworks while anticipating the next wave of technological change. You stay ahead of emerging agent capabilities and failure modes, continuously evolving governance standards, architecture patterns, and operational processes. Your ability to translate complex policies into actionable, enforceable controls makes you a trusted partner for Security, Observability, and domain teams. You thrive in hybrid, multi-vendor environments, and your leadership inspires cross-functional teams to adopt best-in-class practices. If you are passionate about building the trustworthy AI operating models of the future, you will find your next challenge—and opportunity—here at Synopsys.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Lead the design and implementation of Synopsys’ enterprise governance and enforcement layer for AI agents operating in production environments.
• Define and implement robust runtime controls, including permissions, approvals, guardrails, escalation, and exception handling, to ensure safe and compliant agent actions.
• Collaborate with Security/IAM teams to establish agent identity and access patterns, following principles of least privilege, scoped access, and auditable actions.
• Translate enterprise policies into enforceable, automated controls that consistently govern agent decision rights, risk boundaries, and data access rules.
• Establish and maintain standards for agent lifecycle management, including onboarding, ownership, change control, monitoring, and decommissioning.
• Define and implement requirements for observability and auditability, including logging, monitoring, tracing, and evidence collection for agent decisions and actions.
• Develop frameworks for expanding agent decision rights based on measurable reliability and risk signals, ensuring responsible autonomy over time.
• Set reference architectures and standards for hybrid, multi-vendor environments, guiding build/buy decisions to maximize flexibility and avoid vendor lock-in.

The Impact You Will Have:

• Establish the foundation for trustworthy, scalable AI agent operations across Synopsys’ enterprise domains.
• Drive the adoption of industry-leading governance, risk, and compliance practices for AI-powered systems.
• Enhance the safety, reliability, and auditability of AI agents in production, supporting business-critical applications.
• Reduce organizational risk by ensuring AI agents operate within well-defined policy and compliance boundaries.
• Enable rapid innovation by providing robust, scalable controls that empower domain teams to deploy AI agents confidently.
• Foster a culture of collaboration across Security, Observability, SRE, and domain teams, unifying efforts to deliver secure and reliable AI solutions.
• Shape Synopsys’ enterprise AI operating model, influencing the evolution of agent capabilities and governance standards as technology advances.

What You’ll Need:

• 10+ years in enterprise architecture, platform engineering, systems engineering, or related roles.
• Hands-on experience delivering and operating production systems with security, reliability, and audit requirements.
• Strong expertise in at least two of the following: Identity & Access Management (IAM), policy enforcement and controls, governance, observability, or platform operations.
• Demonstrated experience with hybrid (on-prem + cloud) environments and integrating solutions across multiple vendors.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional projects and influence without direct authority.
• Preferred: Experience with cloud or digital transformation initiatives, agent-based AI systems (LLM orchestration, RAG, guardrails), and implementing robust approval workflows, audit logging, and risk controls.

Who You Are:

• Strategic and systems-oriented thinker with a passion for trustworthy AI.
• Collaborative leader who thrives in cross-functional, matrixed environments.
• Exceptional communicator—able to translate complex technical concepts for diverse audiences.
• Proactive, adaptable, and comfortable with ambiguity and evolving requirements.
• Detail-oriented with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Continuous learner who stays current on emerging AI, security, and governance trends.

The Team You’ll Be A Part Of:

You’ll join a forward-thinking team within Synopsys IT focused on building secure, scalable, and trustworthy AI operating models for the enterprise. Our team partners closely with Security/IAM, Observability/SRE, and domain engineering teams to drive the adoption of robust governance and control frameworks. We operate at the cutting edge of AI governance, setting standards and best practices that empower Synopsys to innovate responsibly and at scale.

Rewards and Benefits:

We offer a comprehensive range of health, wellness, and financial benefits to cater to your needs. Our total rewards include both monetary and non-monetary offerings. Your recruiter will provide more details about the salary range and benefits during the hiring process.