Fast-Track Apprenticeship Program - System Architect
FORWARD - DEPLOYED Engineer · Montréal, QC · Full-Time, Permanent · 100% On-Site · Start Date: September 14, 2026
🎯 Is This Opportunity Right for You?
The purpose of SIA’s FTA program is to develop future leaders for the agentic era over the next few years. The opportunity is accelerated growth in your knowledge and skills, role/position & responsibilities, and earnings. We hire for talent & attitude – technical skills can be developed, character cannot!
Before reading further, ask yourself these questions. Your honest answers will tell you whether this is the right fit:
① Do you have the ambition to grow a career, not just hold a job?
SIA is structured like a top-tier professional services firm. We recruit entry-level talent with a single long-term objective: to develop your potential into a working equity partner, earned on merit, over the forthcoming years.
② Are you passionate about leveraging technology to raise the bar on performance?
At SIA, the role is more thinking than doing. You are always "on," though not in the sense of working overtime. You are always observing, wondering: "How could my clients benefit from this?" You seek improvements before anyone asks by applying technology foresight.
③ Do you have the drive to invest meaningfully in your own success?
We value thinkers who raise the bar through insight, not hours. Your contribution is measured by how well you learn, adapt, anticipate, and deliver - not by how long you sit at your desk. We look for ambitious over-achievers who are not afraid to work out of their comfort zone. Fail fast. Reflect. Improve. That is our culture.
④ Are you willing and able to invest your own personal time to accelerate your professional development, career growth, and earnings?
It takes the right attitude and a growth mindset to make a personal time commitment to invest 9 personal hours per week (3 hours during the week and 6 hours over the weekend) during your first 8 months.
If you answered yes to all four, we want to hear from you.
🏢 About SIA Innovations
SIA Innovations is a boutique digital transformation consultancy operating at the forefront of AI and hybrid cloud adoption. Our mission is to propel organisations into the future with intelligent, user-centred solutions built primarily on IBM's enterprise technology stack.
Strategically located in the heart of downtown Montréal, with underground access to the Metro and REM, we work alongside Fortune 1000 companies and leading public-sector organisations across Québec, Ontario, the Caribbean, and the United States. We guide these organisations in reimagining their business models, modernising their operations, and building AI-first, data-driven enterprises.
Our Culture: Continuously raising the bar of expected business performance through applied, technology-enabled innovation.
📋 The Role
As a System Architect (Apprentice), you design and orchestrate systems. A system may be traditional software, an autonomous AI agent, a human workflow, or a hybrid of all three. You work alongside SIA's clients to map business outcomes onto executable system designs: deciding what agents handle, what people handle, and how they collaborate. Your primary outcome is a verifiable, adaptive system architecture that delivers business value with fewer lines of human-written code.
This is a 16-month structured apprenticeship designed for driven recent graduates ready to launch their careers at the frontier of AI-driven system design and enterprise technology. It combines hands-on client project work with dedicated learning, building architectural range and technical depth progressively.
Beyond project responsibilities, you are expected to invest additional time in your professional development, team building, and business promotion.
💼 What You Will Do
Your responsibilities at SIA are a direct expression of the firm's five core values. We hire for attitude and behaviour first; technical skills are developed on the job. Each value shapes how you contribute day to day:
Value Creation - Continuously seek better ways to serve clients and improve systems
- Design AI-agent system architectures from ambiguous client needs, turning vague objectives into executable, verifiable blueprints
- Identify automation opportunities and define the boundaries between autonomous agent behavior and human oversight
- Build reusable agent components and architectural patterns for SIA's internal library of intellectual property
- Contribute to R&D initiatives developing new SIA intellectual property and proprietary methodologies
- Conduct applied research to enhance SIA's service offerings and delivery frameworks
- Support the onboarding of new team members into SIA's tools, processes, and culture
- Maintain an active professional presence through IBM TechXchange communities, industry meetups, and networking events
Commitment to Clients - Take ownership of outcomes, not just activities
- Lead outcome-focused requirements workshops with client stakeholders before any technology discussion begins
- Translate client business rules and constraints into agent-ready specifications and governance policies
- Maintain system boundary documentation that clearly defines AI versus human ownership at every stage
- Partner with client stakeholders to manage expectations, coordinate activities, and keep all parties informed throughout the engagement lifecycle
- Manage end-to-end project delivery coordination: tasks, communications, dependencies, and progress reporting through to client sign-off
Servant Leadership - Elevate your team and share knowledge generously
- Support technical leads by managing schedules, tracking task interdependencies, and preparing progress reports
- Contribute to business development through discovery meetings, client presentations, and proposal development
- Guide new team members through SIA's culture, ways of working, and professional standards
- Develop your professional brand through LinkedIn activity and IBM partner community engagement
- Participate in SIA corporate events, IBM and Arrow learning sessions, client relationship activities, and industry conferences
Sustainable Practices - Communicate effectively and foster continuous improvement
- Prepare and deliver monthly Cool Stuff to Know presentations on IBM products, emerging AI technologies, and agentic system design patterns
- Participate actively in your assigned IBM TechXchange community and SIA studio sessions
- Contribute to solution designs that are innovative, operationally viable, and built to last
- Engage in ongoing research and experimental development to refine SIA's methodologies and service offerings
Empowered Teams - Act with initiative, autonomy, and ownership
- Take shared ownership of business outcomes with your project team
- Manage project delivery end-to-end: activities, communications, and progress reporting
- Support the marketing and sales team through discovery meetings, business case development, and RFP responses
- Relieve technical service leaders of administrative burden by managing schedules, interdependencies, and resource availability
⚖️ The Consulting Environment: What to Expect
Working in a boutique IT consultancy is both rewarding and demanding. Here is an honest overview of what this environment offers and what it requires of you.
|
What You Gain
|
What We Expect of You
|
|
· Challenging, high-impact work designing and deploying AI-driven systems and innovative products
· Direct exposure to Fortune 1000 and leading public-sector clients across Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean
· Hands-on experience with IBM AI and hybrid cloud platforms in production environments
· A dynamic, Agile work environment with empowered, cross-functional teams
· Accelerated career advancement on a clearly defined partner track
· Competitive compensation, performance incentives, and a comprehensive benefits package
· Structured mentorship, continuous learning, and real opportunity for personal growth
· Access to IBM partner events, industry conferences, and professional networking communities
|
· A commitment to prioritising your professional development alongside client delivery
· Flexibility to adapt to client working hours, site requirements, and dress codes when on-site
· Willingness to invest time outside regular business hours in learning, networking, and corporate activities
· Readiness for occasional travel, including overnight stays, to meet client timelines
· Personal agility when priorities shift unexpectedly; ownership of outcomes, not just assigned tasks
· Availability for client or project-critical situations, even during personal time off
· Vacation and time-off planning (maximum two consecutive weeks) within designated slow periods
|
🧠 Skills That Will Help You Thrive
We teach, coach, and mentor you to develop your service delivery, consulting/technical presales, and networking skills across four dimensions. You need to show us that you are teachable, coachable and adaptable:
① Hard Skills - Your Academic and Technical Background
- Degree: Bachelors' in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field. Minimum 3.5 GPA required; a master's degree is an asset.
- Systems thinking: The ability to decompose business outcomes into human and machine tasks, define handoffs, and reason across the full system boundary
- Agentic workflow design: Defining goals, constraints, and guardrails for autonomous AI agents operating in real business environments
- Orchestration literacy: Event-driven architectures, workflow engines, and multi-agent coordination patterns
- Observability: Specifying what agents must expose for monitoring, debugging, and continuous improvement
- Prompt engineering: Writing clear, unambiguous instructions that function as executable design artifacts
- Backend and integrations: Python, REST APIs, OAuth2/JWT, OpenAPI, and MCP/tool integration
- Agentic AI and LLMs: Agent frameworks, multi-agent workflows, and conversational AI development
- RAG and knowledge systems: Embeddings, vector databases, chunking strategies, and retrieval patterns
- Cloud and infrastructure: IBM Cloud or AWS, object storage, and foundational deployment concepts
- System design: End-to-end architecture, agent workflow modelling, and C4-level architectural thinking
- Proficiency with Microsoft 365 and communication platforms such as Webex or Slack
- Prior hands-on experience with IBM offerings or modern GenAI tooling is a strong asset
② Soft Skills - How You Operate
- Full professional bilingualism in French and English, spoken and written, is required
- Strong presentation and storytelling skills: the ability to distil complex ideas into clear, compelling narratives for any audience
- Consistent, reliable delivery against milestones and deadlines
- Proactive, outcome-oriented communication with clients, project leads, and senior stakeholders
- Discipline, organisation, and time management across concurrent priorities- personal agility
③ Human Skills - Who You Are
- You demonstrate integrity: you say what you mean and consistently do what you say
- You are emotionally intelligent - self-aware, empathetic, interpersonally sensitive, and composed under pressure
- You bring a creative mindset grounded in business and technology, going beyond conventional solutions
- You lead by attitude and behavior, not by title
- Purposeful agility focused on impact not just work
- Relationship building and networking
④ Brain Skills - How You Think
- A structured problem-solver: you navigate complex, open-ended challenges with no predefined answer
- A strategic thinker: you connect business context to technology possibilities
- A multi-threaded thinker: you hold and advance several lines of analysis at once
- An agile learner: you absorb new tools, frameworks, and domain knowledge quickly
- Intellectually resilient: you sustain rigorous thinking in high-intensity, fast-moving environments
- A systems thinker: you understand how the components of a business or technology ecosystem interact and influence one another
⚡ The Fast-Track Apprenticeship (FTA) Program
Growth here is aggressive, structured, and merit based. You will not wait years for a title change.
The FTA Program is a structured 16-month apprenticeship designed to develop a high-potential recent graduate into the next generation of transformation consultant. By the end of the program, you will have built a strong foundation in business strategy and technology delivery, ready to generate real, measurable client value.
SIA invests heavily in your professional development during your initial journey to accelerate the ramp-up of your career. Your time commitment of 9 personal hours (outside of the regular work week), combined with SIA's 19 weekly hours of teaching/training/mentoring (during the regular work week) will contribute to your rapid career growth and is accompanied by accelerated salary increases, packing 3 years of experience and career development into an intensive 16-month apprenticeship program.
Phase 1: Pre-Fast-Track Apprentice (Months 1 to 8)
The foundational phase. Three pillars are developed simultaneously: business consulting craft, technology fluency, and SIA methodology. This phase builds breadth, giving you the vocabulary, frameworks, and client-facing confidence to contribute from day one.
During the pre-FTA phase, you should expect the following:
- Regular work week (40+ hours)
- 16 hours of structured internal learning across cognitive skills, interpersonal development, industry knowledge, and technical expertise (20 during the first 4 weeks)
- 3 hours of CSTK (team-based learning); eligibility for recognition awards
- 21 hours of cognitive skill-based project work
- Personal time investment
- 3 hours per week for CSTK – one after-hour of learning on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during the 44 work weeks of the year.
- 6 hours per week (dropping to 3 hours per week during the FTA phase) for online learning/education (courses related to IBM credentials and soft skills)
Phase 2: Fast-Track Apprentice (Months 9 to 16)
The depth phase. Industry-specific knowledge, client insights, and domain expertise take centre stage. You will contribute as an active analyst on real internal and external client engagements - not as an observer, but as a delivering team member.
Continuous learning and staying current with the evolving landscape of AI and enterprise technology is a core expectation, not an optional extra.
📈 Career Growth and the Partner Path
Upon successful completion of each stage, you progress in title, responsibility, and compensation. Your journey as a System Architect begins as follows:
|
Months 1–16
Associate System Architect
Fast-Track Apprenticeship
$81,672 – $92,605
|
→
|
Months 17–32
Senior System Architect
V-Based Skills Development
$94,490 – $110,035
|
→
|
Months 33–48
Lead System Architect
PCP Leadership
$116,285 – $130,110
|
···→
|
The ultimate destination: Working Equity Partner. Upon demonstrating sustained individual performance, leadership capability, and a meaningful enterprise contribution (approximately $500,000 in gross profit from client work), you become eligible for equity partnership in eight years or fewer. This is earned, not guaranteed.
📊 How Your Performance Is Measured
Success at SIA is defined by outcomes, not activity. These KPIs form the basis of your performance evaluation:
|
KPI
|
How It Is Measured
|
|
Personal Billings
|
Quarterly billing attainment against entry-level FTA minimum and target thresholds
|
|
Quality of Deliverables
|
Accuracy, clarity, and completeness of system architectures, agent specifications, design documents, and client deliverables
|
|
Client Satisfaction
|
Structured feedback from clients and project leads on delivery quality and professionalism
|
|
Learning Milestones
|
Timely completion of FTA modules, IBM certifications, and Cool Stuff to Know presentations
|
|
Corporate Objectives
|
Contribution toward quarterly attainment of four defined corporate goals ($150 incentive per objective, per quarter)
|
|
Financial Contribution
|
Gross profit generated, net of direct and indirect costs, measured quarterly
|
|
Pre-Sales Support
|
Contribution to RFPs, proposals, discovery meetings, and client-facing presentations
|
|
Social & Brand Engagement
|
Professional networking activity, event participation, IBM TechXchange community involvement, and promotion of SIA's brand
|
You are also expected to consistently demonstrate:
- A genuine growth mindset: coachable, teachable, and adaptable in the face of challenge
- Reliable delivery against milestones and project deadlines
- Active participation in team learning sessions, peer coaching, and Cool Stuff to Know presentations
- Alignment with SIA's five core values in your daily attitudes and behaviors
- Proactive, outcome-oriented communication with clients, project leads, and senior stakeholders
✅ Eligibility and Position Details
|
Work Model
|
100% on-site, five days per week, Montréal, QC, Home is supposed to be your safe place
|
|
Location
|
Downtown Montréal (underground connection to the Metro and REM station)
|
|
Travel
|
Must be allowed and Available for domestic and international travel (Canada, USA, Caribbean), including overnight stays as required
|
|
Employment Type
|
Full-time, Permanent
|
|
Start Date
|
September 14, 2026 (or earlier, based on availability)
|
Why 100% on-site? Consulting is a thinking profession, and great thinking happens in proximity to your team. Collaboration, creative problem-solving, and the informal mentorship that shapes strong consultants are all fundamentally in-person experiences. We build a culture where ideas travel fast and relationships run deep.
🎁 Your Well-Being Matters
SIA offers a comprehensive total rewards package designed to support your health, financial security, and quality of life:
- Comprehensive group insurance plan (dental, medical, life insurance, disability, and more) Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Competitive base salary with performance-based incentives
- Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP)
- Fully stocked snack and refreshment station
- Quarterly Team-building events
- Active social event program, including family-friendly engagement activities throughout the year
- Monthly, quarterly and annually awards recognition
🚀 How to Apply
Before applying ask yourself the below; if you respond YES to all of them, then please send us your CV!
- This role requires flexibility; are you willing and able to accommodate non-standard hours – for learning, projects, and business promotion?
- Will you be able to meet the attendance and scheduling requirements of this role consistently (i.e. you do not foresee excessive absences due to personal or family commitments)?
- Is punctuality important to you (i.e. being “fashionably late” is not one of your habits)?
If what you have read speaks to who you are and what you are looking for, we want to hear from you.
Submit your CV along with a focused cover letter of one page maximum that addresses three questions:
- Why is the SIA Fast-Track Apprenticeship the right fit for you at this stage of your career?
- Why does AI-driven system architecture matter to you - personally and professionally?
- Where do you see leadership within the context of your growth ambitions?
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Early applications are strongly encouraged.
SIA Innovations · siainnovations.com · careers@siainnovations.com · Montréal, QC
