Defence & National Security AI Technology Lead

Are you curious about new technologies, and how they can lead to long-term sustainable value? We think creatively at the intersection of business and technology, inventing solutions to redefine what you do. You need a partner with intimate knowledge of your industry and proven experience of delivering value from deep tech breakthroughs. Discover more about the work we do in your sector and how we can create real commercial advantage for you. Are you looking for an opportunity for your abilities to be recognised, and make a real difference? Whether you are just starting out or you’re an experienced professional, we would love to hear from you.

Main purpose of the job

You will join an established team of commercial and technical leaders working with clients in the Defence and National Security sector, who operate with colleagues from across Cambridge Consultants to deliver great deployed capability. The potential for AI to play a lead role in many aspects of Defence and Security is huge and we have already deployed capabilities to clients. We’re ambitious to do more, we have a great technical AI and algorithms team as well as great hardware and software teams and we work across the full span of UK Defence and National Security. Our AI solutions are applied to meet operational needs, at the Edge and on Enterprise hosts, in applications such as cybersecurity, C2, network management, smart sensors and ISR. We are seeking somebody to lead the AI capability for this market. To do this well you will need to be able to represent the client in CC and the CC AI capability in the client organisations, as well as our broader offering. You will have many internal and external stakeholders to manage, but your goal is to form an impactful and shared vision of the future of AI in the CC Defence and National Security business. It is likely that you will have first-hand experience of working client side within a government department. This role has significant client contact, and you will use your domain and technical knowledge to steer development of our core technology in AI for our broad set of clients. You will define work programmes and our commercial approach with the client account managers. You will be able to work on your own initiative and develop your own line of business. Developing key client relationships and repeat business built on trust is the cornerstone of our commercial approach and your responsibilities will include an important element of client management during project delivery.

Responsibilities

• Develop and own the CC Defence and National Security AI capability and our plans for building business in this market.
• Identify and build consultative relationships with key clients in government and industry within the Defence and National Security sector.
• Develop strong commercial relationships with key individuals within client and potential client organisations to enable further sales opportunities.
• Work collaboratively with our technical teams to develop their technology roadmap to best address our strengths and the client needs.
• Interact with teams across the whole of Cambridge Consultants to bring the best technology to our clients to solve their problems.
• You will also use your strong technical skills to communicate what Cambridge Consultants can deliver to potential clients.
• Your background skills will also help you to make a significant contribution to the overall direction of development projects, often working on multiple projects at a time.

Our technical team is based in Cambridge and there will be significant travel in the UK.

Minimum Requirements

Having a technical background in areas relevant to the market. Your career will have included experience in an R&D or design role. You will have had exposure to the commercial side of projects within this market area and you will possess detailed domain knowledge. Previous experience of working in a consultancy, government agency or other ‘fee for service’ organisation would be an advantage but is not essential. Ideally you will have a successful track record of building business to deliver technical solutions in this sector and will have experience developing innovative development work for specific client needs. To meet the requirements of this role you will have:

• A passion for innovative technology solutions and for solving complex problems.
• A commercial understanding of what’s valuable to our clients.
• Experience working with clients in the Defence & National Security sectors.

Type of work undertaken by Business Unit

The Defence and Security Business Unit specialises in the design and development of innovative solutions for specific client needs. Often projects start with requirements analysis of complex issues informed by our collective domain knowledge and evolve through technology to develop prototype manufacture and long-term delivery of equipment and services. The projects always incorporate considerable technical challenges. We work across the lifecycle, from research to deployment. Our workforce has broad expertise in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, sensing and data analytics & signal processing as well as radio frequency engineering, analogue electronics, embedded and high-level software development, mechanical design, physics and mathematics so we can and do develop complete systems for clients. Thus, clients for AI solutions are quite broad with AI applied to meet operational needs such as cybersecurity, C2, network management & ISR. The technologies we deploy include GenAI, CoMARL and simpler Neural Nets, but often targeting deployment on Edge devices.

Why Cambridge Consultants?

Cambridge Consultants creates exciting and novel breakthroughs in technology and products. We help our clients achieve the kind of game-changing leap forward that will transform their whole business. At the heart of what we do are talented and motivated multi-disciplinary teams empowered to create cutting edge technologies and systems to solve difficult problems for our clients. We recognise and celebrate individual talent and we understand the importance of letting individuals be just that. Our people are here to do the best work of their lives and our job is to provide the platform for them to do it. Cambridge Consultants is a workplace where everyone is welcome. When the brightest minds come together and feel included, that’s when we develop the most important technology breakthroughs. We believe that equality can only flourish when everyone feels involved and has a sense of belonging. We welcome and value all people regardless of their characteristics and encourage applications from all backgrounds and dimensions of society. Cambridge Consultants is committed to developing its employees’ careers and has a flexible policy for individual capabilities and preferences. Promotion is linked to merit.