About This Role
Leading the enterprise capability that makes AI a practical part of the company's technology foundation is the core of this role. You will shape how AI is adopted safely, securely, and effectively across the organization, bringing together strategy, platforms, engineering, controls, innovation, and partnerships to move AI from opportunity into supported production use.
Responsibilities
- Own and execute SSE’s group-wide AI strategy, investment roadmap, and enterprise operating model, translating business ambition and emerging technology into clear priorities, practical choices, and measurable outcomes
- Establish secure, resilient, and cost-effective enterprise AI platforms, reference architectures, engineering standards, and reusable services
- Enable and support Business Unit and Corporate Function teams to build and operate production-grade AI solutions more quickly and consistently
- Create and operate SSE’s AI control plane, governance, and lifecycle framework, with proportionate evaluation, assurance, monitoring, and human oversight for models, agents, and AI-enabled solutions
- Provide clear and supportive pathways from use-case discovery and experimentation through to supported production use
- Lead common enterprise capabilities and cross-SSE solutions while enabling business areas to retain ownership of their products, adoption, and realised value
- Work collaboratively with the Group Head of Data and Group Head of Architecture to connect trusted, permission-aware data and information with enterprise architecture, cloud, cyber, operational technology, and resilience direction
- Shape SSE’s future AI choices across emerging models, agentic systems, infrastructure, compute, sovereignty, and resilience
- Lead responsible innovation, strategic partnerships, research, and co-development
- Build a high-performing multidisciplinary enterprise AI function and profession, developing the skills, inclusive role-based pathways, communities, and practical support needed to make safe and effective AI adoption part of how SSE works
Requirements
- Relevant degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Mathematics or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience, supported by continued development in AI and technology leadership
- Significant senior technology leadership experience in a large, complex and regulated organisation, including building or materially reshaping an AI, software engineering, platform or equivalent enterprise technology function
- Extensive practical experience designing, engineering, deploying and operating AI-enabled software and platforms in production across cloud and hybrid environments, rather than experience centred primarily on data science, research or prototypes
- Strong technical command of modern AI application architecture and lifecycle engineering, including generative and agentic AI, retrieval and grounding, integration, human-in-the-loop design, MLOps, LLMOps or Agent Ops, observability and operational support
