Head of AI / Director of AI (Hands on)

Head of AI / Director of AI (Hands-On) | Manchester (On-site)

Shape the AI strategy and build it yourself.

An award-winning international professional services organisation, with a strong record of year-on-year growth, is investing significantly in AI and is looking for a Head of AI / Director of AI to lead the way. This is a fully on-site role based at their Manchester office.

Our client is a market leader in B2B consultancy, providing critical legal and professional support services that help businesses manage complexity, stay compliant and grow.

This role is for someone who wants to set the direction and stay close to the AI engineering. You''ll define the AI vision and roadmap, and you''ll also roll up your sleeves to design, build and deploy solutions that make a real difference to clients and the business. You''ll move AI beyond experimentation and into production, and shape how professional expertise is delivered at scale.

Open to established leaders and those ready to step up. We''d love to hear from current Directors or Heads of AI, as well as Lead or Principal AI/ML Engineers who are ready for their first senior leadership role.

What you''ll do

• Define and lead the organisation''s AI strategy and roadmap, reporting into the senior leadership team.
• Stay hands-on: architect, build and deploy AI solutions into production, and set the technical standard for the team.
• Identify and deliver AI opportunities across client services, professional delivery, internal operations, knowledge management and commercial growth.
• Work with Generative AI, LLMs, Machine Learning, RAG, vector search and knowledge graphs.
• Build and lead a cross-functional AI team, bringing together engineers and professional subject matter experts.
• Establish practical AI governance, covering security, privacy, compliance, accuracy, explainability and responsible AI.
• Partner with senior leaders to turn AI opportunities into measurable client and commercial outcomes.

About you

• Strong hands-on experience taking Machine Learning and Generative AI solutions into production, including RAG architectures.
• Deep technical knowledge of LLMs, NLP, Python, SQL and frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• A solid understanding of MLOps, DevOps, CI/CD and DevSecOps.
• Experience leading AI initiatives or technical teams, whether as a Director, Head of AI, or Lead or Principal Engineer.
• The ability to talk strategy in the boardroom and architecture with engineers, with the commercial judgement to know what will make an impact.
• Experience in professional services, consulting, legal, HR, compliance or another knowledge-intensive environment is a bonus, but not essential.

Why this role?

• A rare chance to shape AI at a pivotal point in a high-growth, multi-award-winning organisation.
• Real autonomy to build the strategy, the team and the technology.
• Close working with an ambitious leadership team, influencing the company''s next phase of growth.
• A competitive salary, performance bonus, private healthcare, pension and premium benefits.

INDAM

The Portfolio Group are acting on behalf of our client in recruiting for this position.