Modernization Application Architect

Who We Are At Kyndryl, we run and reimagine the mission-critical technology systems that drive advantage for the world’s leading businesses.  We are at the heart of progress; with proven expertise and a continuous flow of AI-powered insight, enabling smarter decisions, faster innovation, and a lasting competitive edge. For our people—Kyndryls—that means doing purposeful work that powers human progress. Join us and experience a flexible, supportive environment where your well-being is prioritized and your potential can thrive. The Role The Opportunity Every large enterprise is sitting on decades of business-critical applications and a rare chance to reinvent them with agentic AI. As a Modernization Architect at Kyndryl, you’ll be the person who turns that chance into reality. You’ll step into a client’s toughest modernization challenge, turn ambiguity into a clear architecture and roadmap, and build the working demo, pilot, or MVP that proves the value. Then you’ll stay with it, guiding delivery teams and advising senior executives, until the promised outcomes are delivered. Your work will span everything from focused engineering pilots to large-scale agentic factories. This is a hands-on, client-facing leadership role in Kyndryl’s Global Modernization Center of Excellence. It’s built for architects who like to build, enjoy being in the room with decision-makers, and want their work to show up in real business results. Who You Are Why You’ll Love This Role Build things that work. Create production-ready agentic AI demos, pilots, and reference implementations, not slideware. Start ahead. Accelerate your solutions with the Kyndryl Agentic Framework (KAF), Kyndryl AI IP, and proven modernization offerings instead of starting from a blank page. Get a seat at the table. Advise senior client stakeholders across industries and help shape their modernization strategy. Own the outcome. Take a solution from scoping, estimates, and SOW through delivery, and see your designs go live. Work with the best. Collaborate with sales, consulting, legal, delivery, and engineering teams, and bring in cloud, mainframe, and network & edge specialists whenever a solution crosses domains. Keep growing. Ongoing learning and certification are part of the job, not an extra. What You’ll Do Discover and shape the opportunity Lead client discovery and AI readiness assessments to uncover high-value application modernization and agentic AI use cases. Turn ambiguous business needs into clear technical architectures and implementation roadmaps. Facilitate workshops, design sessions, and architecture reviews that align business and technical stakeholders. Advise senior client leaders on modernization and agentic AI adoption, with solution narratives that resonate with both executive and technical audiences. Architect and build Design target-state cloud-native and AI-native architectures, using microservices, APIs, containers, and cloud-native patterns, to modernize legacy and monolithic applications. Define modernization solutions that combine application, infrastructure, agentic SDLC, and platform engineering expertise across public and private cloud. Build agentic proofs of concept, pilots, MVPs, and reference implementations that demonstrate measurable business value. Scope, estimate, and win Own technical solution definition, including scope, PoC framing, assumptions, dependencies, and baselines. Prepare estimates for effort, cost, risk, timeline, and team composition using Kyndryl’s solution calculator and related tools. Develop SOWs, RFP responses, and technical proposal content, and contribute to commercial inputs. Lead technical due diligence and confirm that proposed solutions are feasible and deliverable. Deliver and grow Partner with sales, consulting, legal, delivery, engineering, and COE teams to structure sound, deliverable engagements. Provide technical leadership from pursuit through implementation to protect solution fidelity and client success. Engage Cloud, Mainframe, Network & Edge, and other specialists when a solution spans multiple domains. Stay ahead of advances in AI, application, and cloud technologies through continuous learning and certification. What Success Looks Like Clients see you as a trusted advisor who brings clarity to complex modernization decisions. Your pilots and MVPs move from demo to production and show measurable business value. Your estimates and SOWs hold up in delivery, and delivery teams value the clarity you provide. You become a go-to voice in the COE, sharing patterns and reusable assets that make the next engagement faster. Choose Your Path: Areas of Specialization You’ll bring deep expertise in at least one of these areas, along with an application-led perspective across the others. Apps on Public Cloud (AWS, GCP, or Microsoft Azure): Design and deliver application modernization and agentic AI solutions on a leading hyperscaler. Edge & Software-Defined Networks: Modernize networks with agentic AI, SDN, SD-WAN, SASE, and zero-trust patterns for autonomous, resilient, and secure connectivity. Mainframe Modernization: Modernize IBM Z and z/OS workloads through migration, integration, and adoption of modern application platforms. Cloud Platform Engineering: Build internal developer platforms and apply CI/CD, DevOps, and DevSecOps practices to speed up modern application delivery. Private Cloud: Modernize applications and workloads for private-cloud and data-center environments. What You Bring Core qualifications Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a comparable discipline (or equivalent practical experience). At least eight years of hands-on experience in solution architecture, software engineering, or technical consulting focused on application architecture and modernization. Deep expertise in at least one of the five specialization areas above. At least two years of hands-on experience delivering production-grade agentic AI applications. Advanced expertise with leading open-source agentic frameworks such as LangChain/LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI, Semantic Kernel, or equivalent. Deep Python proficiency; TypeScript/Node.js experience is a plus. Experience integrating AI agents with enterprise systems, including CRMs, ERPs, APIs, and data lakes. Experience with vector databases, embedding pipelines, and practical RAG architectures. Strong client-facing advisory, pre-sales, live-demo, and technical storytelling skills for engineering and executive audiences. Working knowledge of responsible AI, data privacy requirements, and enterprise security standards, applied across pursuit and delivery. Depth in your specialization Show us depth in the area you’re choosing. Certifications are valued, and if you don’t hold one yet, we’ll support you in earning it. Apps on Public Cloud: Design and implement cloud-native and AI-native applications on AWS, GCP, or Azure. Helpful certifications: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect, or Azure Solutions Architect Expert. Edge & Software-Defined Networks: Design agentic AI-enabled network modernization using SDN, SD-WAN, SASE, zero-trust, and automation patterns, with expertise in Palo Alto, Zscaler, Illumio, or Guardicore and strong DevNetOps and DevSecOps skills. Helpful certifications: CCNP Enterprise, AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty, Azure Network Engineer Associate (AZ-700), or Google Cloud Professional Cloud Network Engineer. Mainframe Modernization: Design modernization approaches for IBM Z and z/OS workloads, including migration, integration, API enablement, and adoption of modern application platforms. Helpful certifications: IBM Z Xplore or IBM Z Skills badges covering z/OS and IBM Z Software, or an IBM or Broadcom Mainframe Modernization or zCloud Program certification. Cloud Platform Engineering: Design internal developer platforms and standardized go