Head of Data & AI

Role Summary

Own the data & AI function end-to-end — from strategy and roadmap through to delivery. This role sets technical direction, builds and leads a multi-disciplinary team, and partners directly with business units to turn ambiguous problems into shipped data and AI products. You are equally comfortable in a strategy review and a code/architecture review.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Roadmap

• Align the data & AI strategy with the broader organizational strategy and roadmap; translate business objectives into a concrete technical agenda.
• Own the data & AI roadmap — prioritization, sequencing, trade-offs, and communicating it to both leadership and the delivery team.
• Partner with business stakeholders as the technical authority: scope problems, assess feasibility, and design solutions that solve real business needs rather than chasing technology for its own sake.
• Set expectations on what data & AI can and can't do, and hold the line on scope and value.
• Lead and grow a technical team spanning Data Engineers, AI Engineers, Data Scientists, and Data Architects.
• Build team capability, define roles and career paths, set technical standards, and create an environment where the team ships reliably.
• Set architectural direction and guardrails across the data & AI platform; ensure decisions favor maintainability, governance, and avoiding vendor lock-in.
• Stay current on data & AI trends and evaluate what's genuinely worth adopting versus hype.

Required Qualifications

• Proven experience leading data and/or AI teams, with hands-on depth in at least one of: data engineering, ML/AI engineering, or data science.
• Track record of taking data/AI initiatives from strategy to production, not just prototypes.
• Strong stakeholder management — able to influence business leaders and translate between technical and business language.
• Solid grounding in modern data & AI architecture (pipelines, ML lifecycle, cloud/on-prem trade-offs, governance/compliance).

Preferred

• Experience in retail/FMCG industry
• Familiarity with open-standard, lock-in-averse platform design