Data and AI Engineer Director | Market Lead

Data and AI Engineer (Market Lead), UKI Data and AI Engineer (Market Lead), UKI · Director level · London preferred We are looking for a Director-level Market Lead to head our Data & AI practice in the UK & Ireland. This is a hybrid leadership role. You combine deep technical solutioning with real commercial skill, and you are credible both in an architecture debate and across the table from a CDO, CIO or CFO. Our delivery model is shifting from large time-and-materials teams to small, AI-first pods working against a business outcome. As Market Lead, you will shape how we take that model to UKI clients: what we sell, how we price it, and how we staff and deliver it. You will lead a core team of 5–6 direct reports and a wider matrix of around 50-75 people across UKI, and you will help them build the skills this shift requires. We are developing these ways of working together. Main focus and responsibilities: Commercial and solutioning • Drive commercial success on complex Data & AI deals across UKI, from shaping the opportunity through to a signed deal. This includes structuring fixed-price and outcome-linked commercial models, and understanding delivery cost, margin and risk. • Partner with tech advisory and industry domain leads from pre-sale through delivery, so the commercial story, the architecture and the sector insight reinforce one another. • Frame and test business-outcome hypotheses with executives, and define thin slices of delivery that prove value quickly. • You stay close enough to delivery to know what is realistic, and you share accountability for outcomes on the deals you sell. Practice leadership • Spearhead growth of the UKI Data & AI practice: build, lead, scale and mentor a high-performing team. • Work with delivery and talent leads to match demand with capacity, so the right people and pods are available when deals land. Keep specialist skills sourced and bench waste low. • Shift the practice's capability mix towards production AI engineering and agentic delivery, through hiring, reskilling and role-based onboarding. Client engagement • Manage executive-level relationships with CDOs, CIOs, CISOs and other CXOs. Act as a sparring partner on AI strategy: challenge assumptions, size the opportunity, and help clients decide where agentic automation and AI can move the P&L. • Build and manage robust sales pipelines and lead strategic client workshops. • Advise clients on responsible AI, covering risk, governance and regulatory expectations in the UK and wider markets. • Expected to lead and drive P&L with TCV of 50 -75 M GBP and ACV of 45-50 M GBP/ • Expected experience and capabilities in driving all P&L criterias including sales, margin, utilization, bench management, training, learning, partnership based sales etc. I deal candidate profile The successful candidate is a true dual-threat practitioner, equally at home in a complex architecture discussion and in closing a large commercial deal. Criterion Requirement Experience Significant senior experience in data and AI consulting, typically 15+ years, with a track record in leadership roles. You are neither a pure solution architect nor a pure sales profile. Commercial track record History of selling multiple large-scale data and AI deals, ideally including recent GenAI or agentic engagements, and able to discuss deal shape, pricing structure, trade-offs and delivery and business value delivery in concrete terms. Technical expertise Strong solutioning background in complex ecosystems: data platforms and data products, data governance, and AI systems in production, including agentic and LLM-based systems. You understand failure modes, evaluation, cost and risk, not just architecture diagrams. Data/AI balance Roughly 70/30, with demons