Head of Data in Manchester

CreateFuture is fast becoming the UK’s most recognisable digital consultancy, with years of experience building digital products and services for major organisations whilst putting our people first. We have offices in the centre of Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, and London as well as remote employees located throughout the country. We are a team of creators - whether that’s code, project plans, go to market strategies, culture initiatives, marketing campaigns, large language models or people policies. Together, with our clients, we create the future. This has seen us collaborate and partner across a multitude of industries and sectors, with the likes of PayPal, adidas, Natwest, FanDuel and Money Saving Expert, to name just a few. Our reputation as a partner determined to deliver high-quality, robust and thoughtful products has enabled us to scale to over 500 people in the last couple of years, and it is our amazing people - along with the safe, supportive and friendly culture we have built - that makes CreateFuture a great place to work. We have been recognised by Best Workplaces UK multiple years in a row - across a number of categories - and our employee exit rate is astonishingly low.

As Head of Data at CreateFuture, you are accountable for the direction, evolution, and performance of our Data capability, reporting directly to the Director of Cloud & Data Engineering. This is a senior, high-impact leadership role with significant scope and autonomy, designed for an individual operating at the very top end of Capability Lead expectations. You will be responsible for owning the Data portfolio end‑to‑end, spanning Data Engineering, Analytics, Data Science, Machine Learning, MLOps, and AI‑enabled delivery, and for materially raising the bar on technical excellence, commercial impact, and market relevance.

The role goes well beyond stewardship of an existing practice. You will play a visible consulting leadership role with clients, working directly with senior stakeholders to shape, design, and deliver high-impact Data & AI solutions. You will help clients translate data, analytics, and AI capabilities into tangible business outcomes, bringing both strategic insight and deep technical credibility to complex engagements. Alongside this client-facing leadership, you will evolve our strong Data Engineering-led capability into a differentiated, outcome-led Data & AI practice, aligned to CreateFuture’s vertical strategy and AI-driven software delivery lifecycle.

You will combine consulting leadership, technical authority, hands-on delivery involvement, and disciplined capability development. You will remain accountable to the Director of Cloud & Data Engineering for strategy alignment, delivery quality, and commercial performance, while acting as a senior Data & AI advisor across key accounts and strategic bids. Success in this role will be measured through client impact, revenue growth, margin performance, delivery excellence, and visible proof of Data & AI value in the market.

What you'll be doing:

• Own and execute CreateFuture’s Data & AI strategy, in alignment with the wider Build strategy and the AI‑driven SDLC.
• Translate strategic themes into clear, actionable roadmaps across: Data Engineering & platforms, Analytics & insight, Data Science & applied ML, MLOps, model lifecycle management, and AI enablement.
• Evolve the capability from a predominantly generalist delivery model into a sharper, more opinionated Data & AI offer, with particular depth in Tier 1 verticals (Financial Services and iGaming).
• Define and maintain reference architectures, standards, and patterns that improve delivery speed, quality, and margin.
• Ensure Data is a visible, credible pillar of CreateFuture’s AI‑led delivery model — internally and externally.

Vertical Propositions & Client Value

• Work with vertical and commercial leadership to develop proof‑led, outcome‑focused Data & AI propositions aligned to real industry problems.
• Ensure propositions are framed explicitly in the language of Quicker, Better, Leaner.
• Sponsor the creation of Data & AI IP, accelerators, and reusable assets that support repeatability and premium pricing.
• Act as senior Data & AI SME on strategically important bids, shaping both technical approach and delivery model.
• Support senior client engagements as a trusted technical advisor, particularly where Data, ML, or AI adoption is central to value.

Technical Authority & Delivery Assurance

• Act as the primary technical authority for Data & AI delivery across CreateFuture.
• Lead or directly contribute to high‑risk, high‑value, or strategically important engagements.
• Set clear expectations for engineering, analytics, and ML quality, ensuring consistency across teams and projects.
• Ensure advanced analytics and AI techniques are embedded into delivery by default, rather than treated as specialist add‑ons.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex architectural, delivery, or performance challenges within the Data domain.

Capability Leadership & Talent Density

• Build and sustain a high-performing, high-talent-density Data organisation across engineering, analytics, data science, and MLOps.
• Line-manage senior Data leaders and principals; ensure they remain close to delivery, clients, and technical decision-making.
• Define what ‘great’ looks like for Data roles at CreateFuture, with clear expectations around technical depth, client impact, and commercial awareness.
• Foster a positive, supportive environment where talented people can do their best work, combining high trust, candour, and accountability with minimal unnecessary process and management close to the work.
• Create a team culture where individuals feel respected, motivated, and proud of the work they deliver for clients, while maintaining high standards of performance and collaboration.
• Make clear, pragmatic decisions on hiring, progression, performance management, and targeted learning investment.

Commercial Ownership & Performance

• Take clear ownership of the Data capability’s contribution to revenue growth, gross margin protection and improvement, win rates and deal quality.
• Support deal shaping through pricing models, delivery approaches, and team composition that balance quality with commercial outcomes.
• Identify and pursue opportunities to expand Data & AI work within existing client accounts.
• Track and report on a small set of meaningful capability KPIs focused on outcomes rather than activity.

What you bring:

• Proven experience operating as a senior Capability Lead, Head of Data, or equivalent within a consultancy or complex delivery organisation.
• Demonstrable success building and scaling multi‑disciplinary Data capabilities, not solely Data Engineering teams.
• A track record of shaping and delivering Data & AI‑led solutions with clear commercial and client impact.
• Experience engaging confidently with senior client stakeholders, including technology, data, and business leaders.

Technical & Strategic Depth

• Deep, hands-on understanding of modern cloud-native data platforms and analytics ecosystems.
• Significant experience designing and delivering AWS-centric data platforms, including lakehouse and streaming architectures using services such as S3, Glue, Redshift, EMR, and Kinesis.
• Practical experience with modern data platforms such as Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, and Snowflake.
• Familiarity with Azure and GCP data ecosystems to support multi-cloud client environments and enterprise-scale architectures.
• Strong grasp of ML lifecycle management, MLOps, and production AI systems.
• Ability to connect technical decisions to business value, risk, regulation, and operational constraints.
• A clear, well-formed point of view on how Data and AI should be applied pragmatically to deliver outcomes, rather than hype.

Leadership Style

• Leads with credibility, clarity, and low ego.
• Comfortable operating with high accountability and making difficult trade‑offs.
• Stays close to delivery, clients, and teams.
• Builds trust through technical authority, consistency, and follow‑through.

What we’ll offer you:

We trust people to do their best work. That means flexibility over rigid rules, impact over activity, and real investment in your growth both professionally and personally. You’ll be part of a supportive, and friendly culture, surrounded by smart, curious people who care deeply about what they do. We offer flexible working, including hybrid and remote options. Our office hubs are located in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, London and Bulgaria, with occasional travel to client sites or CreateFuture offices when needed. We trust you to manage your time balancing collaboration with client time and focused work. What matters is the impact you have, not how busy you look.

Our hiring process

We try to keep our hiring process clear, fair and respectful of your time. We aim to get back to everyone who applies and we will be upfront about where you are in the process. It usually looks like this: Call with our Talent Acquisition Team, Role specific capability interview. Depending on the role, we might also ask you to do a short presentation, a practical or technical task or have a values focused conversation. We will explain what is involved before anything happens.

Inclusion at CreateFuture

We believe diverse teams build better workplaces and better products. We want CreateFuture to be a place where people feel able to be themselves and do their best work. If you need any adjustments or support during the application process, just let us know. We will do what we can to help. We look forward to your application!