Head of Applied AI

Department: Leadership

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: London, UK, Remote, UK, Remote

Shape how Colibri takes AI from possibility to production

Why this role is worth a conversation

What youll own

• The Applied AI capability. Its technical direction, standards, people, propositions and continued growth. 
• Senior client conversations. Leading AI discovery, consulting and solution conversations from initial opportunity through to delivery. 
• AI engineering excellence. Setting high standards across architecture, engineering, testing, CI/CD, MLOps/LLMOps, evaluation, security and AI governance. 
• Production AI. Ensuring solutions move beyond experimentation into reliable, scalable and governed production environments. 
• Solution design. Challenging architecture, estimates and delivery approaches before commitments are made. 
• The team. Leading, mentoring and developing AI engineers and senior technical specialists while helping us build the capability we need for the future. 
• Commercial growth. Working alongside sales and pre-sales to build pipeline, win new work and expand existing client relationships. 
• Propositions and IP. Turning successful client solutions into repeatable offerings, accelerators and reusable assets. 
• Capability performance. Helping manage revenue, utilisation, capacity and margin across the practice. 
• Our presence in the AI market. Building visibility through clients, partners, events, content and thought leadership.

What we’re looking for

• Deep technical expertise in modern AI engineering, particularly LLM-based systems, RAG, agentic or multi-agent architectures, vector databases/embeddings and AI evaluation. 
• Taken AI or ML solutions from prototype through to reliable production use. 
• Strong software engineering fundamentals including system design, APIs, version control, automated testing and CI/CD. 
• Experience of MLOps/LLMOps and operating AI systems in production. 
• Experience with modern cloud AI technologies and platforms. 
• Led engineers building AI systems while retaining strong technical credibility yourself. 
• Worked directly with senior clients, ideally within consulting, professional services or another client-led technology environment. 
• Been involved in pre-sales – whether through discovery, solution shaping, proposals, pitches or helping win and expand client work. 
• Led, mentored and developed technical people. 
• A strong understanding of responsible AI, governance, evaluation and the challenges of deploying AI safely at scale. 
• The ability to move comfortably between conversations about business value and commercial outcomes and detailed conversations about how an AI solution should actually work.

The kind of person who’ll thrive here

• Youll probably be naturally entrepreneurial and curious.
• AI is moving too quickly for us to have a playbook for everything. Youll be comfortable operating where the answer isnt always known upfront, experimenting with emerging technologies and making informed decisions about whats genuinely useful versus whats simply generating hype.
• You dont need to come from a small consultancy. Experience within a larger consulting organisation can be equally relevant. What matters is that youre comfortable operating without layers of infrastructure around you, taking ownership and turning ideas into action.
• Were looking for someone who wants to build the playbook, not wait for one.

What youll get

• A highly competitive salary, depending on experience
• Salary Sacrifice Pension plan of 5+3 
• 25 days annual leave + 1 birthday day 
• Private Medical and wider benefits 
• Remote-first within the UK 

How the process runs

1. Talent conversation – an initial conversation with our Talent team to explore the role and your background. 
2. Leadership conversation – focused on your AI leadership, consulting and commercial experience. 
3. Technical/working session – an opportunity to explore how you approach Applied AI, architecture and taking solutions into production. 
4. Practice/peer conversations – meet some of the leaders and technical people youll work alongside. 
5. Executive conversation – time with senior leadership to understand Colibris strategy, growth ambitions and expectations for the role.