Solutions Architect to AI Engineer
Build the Systems You Used to Diagram
You already design systems and align stakeholders. Now you want to ship the AI yourself.
Turn architecture experience into a hands-on AI engineering role paying $150K+.
You can whiteboard the architecture, but you have never deployed the model.
The market wants builders, not just diagrams.
You scope and design AI solutions on slides, but you have never trained, evaluated, or deployed one yourself.
Your value has been advising and reviewing. As more teams build AI in house, pure architecture roles feel less secure.
Hands-on AI engineer roles pay more than your current title, but recruiters see a slide deck career, not a shipping one.
Your architecture instinct is the hard part. Add the building and you are dangerous.
The World-Class AI Engineer Cohort
Solutions architects already understand trade-offs, integration, and what production actually demands. You are not starting over. You are filling the implementation gap so you can ship the AI systems you have only been specifying.
Map What Transfers
Your system design, integration, and stakeholder skills already cover half of an AI engineer role. We pin down exactly what carries over.
Close the Build Gap
You learn to actually implement, evaluate, and deploy an AI system end to end instead of handing the spec to someone else.
Ship and Reposition
You build one production-grade AI project, then reframe your architecture background as senior engineering credibility in interviews.
Meet Your Mentor
My aim has been the same for years: become a world-class AI engineer. Every career move I've made has been measured against that.
I started as a software tester on a $500/month internship in the Netherlands. Taught myself to code, learned to ship real systems, and worked my way to Senior Engineer at GitHub.
Then I left GitHub. I joined an AI research lab as Member of Technical Staff, where I currently build products for secure AI monitoring.
The cohort draws directly from my real experience so you can make progress fast.
I run this special cohort with only a few people because hands-on work with me is what it takes to bring you to become a world-class AI engineer.
Real Results
Vittor
AI Engineer
Built and deployed his portfolio piece, then landed the AI role
"The coaching played a huge part in my success. I focused on AI fundamentals, the certification path, and soft skills like professional writing. Having access to expert guidance gave me confidence during interviews and helped me feel I was on the right path.
I built my own platform (simple but functional) and deployed it on AWS. I used it in my portfolio and showcased it during interviews. The way complex topics were explained, especially the restaurant analogy for AI systems, really stuck with me. Focusing on doing the basics well was absolutely essential."
What You Will Get
8 Weekly Tuesday Sessions
3 hours each for 24 live hours total.
Project Scoping at Kickoff
We set the scope of what you'll ship and the milestones to get there before the live sessions start.
Code Reviews
Reviews of your code from Zen during the cohort.
Lifetime Demo Access
Every architecture demo is recorded and yours to keep.
Demo Day
You present what you built and get feedback from Zen, with a recording you can use in your portfolio.
12 Months Community Access
Included with the cohort.
Architects who can also build the AI themselves are rare. That combination commands the highest offers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a solutions architect become an AI engineer without a deep coding background?
Yes, as long as you can code in Python or TypeScript at a working level. Most solutions architects have written code at some point and stepped back from it. We rebuild that hands-on muscle and point it at AI systems. Your design and integration instincts are the part that takes others years to develop, and you already have them.
How much time will this take?
You'll spend 3 hours every Tuesday in the live session and roughly 3 hours of async work in between, for 8 weeks. The Tuesday session time is fixed.
I'm not pivoting careers. I want to build a product. Does this still work?
Yes, the cohort works for people shipping their first serious AI system whether the goal is to land a senior role or to launch a product. The shipped system serves both equally well.
What does it cost?
It's a four-figure investment that we discuss during the 30-minute consult, alongside whether the cohort is the right fit for your project.
Can I do this while working full-time?
Yes, most attendees do. The live session is one Tuesday a week and the async work fits around your existing schedule, as long as you can carve out roughly 6 hours a week.
I've signed up for cohorts before and dropped out. How is this different?
It probably isn't, and you should hold the money. Most cohort dropouts are people who couldn't articulate what they were shipping when they signed up. That's why the consult exists, and why I turn down most applications. If we get on the call and you can't tell me what you'll have shipped at the end of week 8, I'll point you to the AI Native Engineer community until you can.
What from my solutions architect experience actually transfers to AI engineering?
More than you think. System design, evaluating trade-offs, integration across services, non-functional requirements, and translating business goals into technical decisions are all core to building AI systems. The gap is implementation: training, evaluating, and deploying models and AI pipelines yourself. Once you can build what you used to only specify, your architecture background becomes a genuine advantage over engineers who can code but cannot see the whole system.
Do AI engineers earn more than solutions architects?
Hands-on AI engineering roles frequently reach $150K and well beyond, and the most senior AI builders out-earn many traditional architect roles. The premium goes to people who can both design and ship. As a former solutions architect who can now build, you sit in exactly that band rather than competing on diagrams alone.
Will I have to step back to a junior role to switch into AI engineering?
No. The goal is not to restart as a junior. We position you as a senior engineer who happens to be new to AI specifics, backed by one shipped production AI project and years of architecture credibility. That combination is far more compelling to hiring teams than a junior with tutorials and no system thinking.
I accept those who have the highest chance of success.
In the 30-minute call we discuss your goals and whether you are ready for the program.