AI Systems Architect Consultant

Overview

First & Third is a fully remote boutique web design and development agency specializing in UX/UI, development, and strategy for ecommerce and content-driven brands.

We’re building AI-powered systems that combine large language models, automation, and agent-style workflows. What starts as internal tooling has the potential to evolve into more scalable products over time.

We move fast, but we don’t want to build carelessly. As these systems become more central to what we do, architectural clarity matters.

We’re looking for a senior AI systems consultant who has shipped real-world AI systems and can serve as an ongoing technical sounding board. This is not a coding role and not a product role. It’s a high-leverage consultant position focused on helping us make better architectural decisions.

Part-time engagement (approximately 5–10 hours per week).

The Role

As we expand our AI capabilities, we want a seasoned technical voice who can help us think clearly about what we are building and how we are building it.

You will regularly review our proposed system designs and help us evaluate tradeoffs around architecture, orchestration patterns, infrastructure strategy, and evaluation frameworks. In some cases, that may mean validating our approach. In other cases, it may mean challenging our assumptions and redirecting us toward a simpler or more sustainable path.

We are not looking for someone to own implementation or manage day-to-day engineering work. Instead, we are looking for a senior systems thinker who can:

• Pressure-test architectural decisions before they solidify
• Assess whether an “agent” approach is warranted or unnecessarily complex
• Evaluate how we structure prompts, memory, orchestration, and feedback loops
• Advise on infrastructure strategy and long-running system design
• Help us design thoughtful evaluation and observability layers
• Challenge sequencing and prioritization when technical order of operations matters

You should be comfortable telling us when something does not make sense and offering a better alternative.

What We’re Looking For

The ideal candidate has real-world experience designing and shipping AI systems that go beyond basic prompt engineering. You understand how these systems behave under load, where they break, and how complexity compounds over time.

You likely have experience with:

• Building or advising on production multi-agent or orchestration-based systems
• Designing long-running AI workflows with evaluation and feedback loops
• Structuring LLM-based systems with attention to latency, cost, and failure modes
• Building internal AI tools (e.g., workflow assistants, Slack-based agents, automation systems)
• Working with a small, fast-moving team where architectural clarity matters

We are not looking for someone whose primary experience is tutorial-level frameworks or surface-level integrations. We are looking for someone who has already navigated the tradeoffs and learned the hard lessons of production AI systems.

How We Work With You

This role is structured around regular architecture conversations and ongoing consultancy input. We anticipate:

• A recurring working session to review direction and upcoming decisions
• Async input on key architectural questions
• Occasional deeper dives when we are evaluating a major shift or project decision

You will influence how we execute our roadmap, and you will have the latitude to reshape our thinking where necessary. While you will not own final product direction, your technical judgment should meaningfully affect how we build.

What Success Looks Like

Success means our technical direction gets sharper and more intentional. We’re not chasing frameworks or overcomplicating problems, we’re making clear architectural decisions and understanding the tradeoffs behind them.

With your input, we avoid expensive rewrites and unnecessary complexity. We choose simple solutions when they’re right, and more sophisticated ones when they’re justified. Over time, our systems feel cohesive and well thought out, not like a collection of experiments stitched together.

Importantly, what we build isn’t limited to internal tooling. We want the flexibility to evolve these systems into more scalable, outward-facing products if the opportunity is there. That means making architectural choices today that won’t box us in tomorrow.

About us

First & Third helps organizations turn strategy into high-impact digital experiences. We’ve partnered with teams like LeanIn.Org, Meta, Billboard, and The Hollywood Reporter. We are proud to be a WordPress VIP partner and Shopify Plus agency.