Wanted: Head of Data Science and AI

Together, we’re working to welcome millions more passengers, while ensuring aviation can continue to be a force for good by leading global efforts in sustainability. At Heathrow, you can be part of this – providing solutions that make every journey better for millions each year. That means ensuring we meet the changing needs of the passengers, colleagues and partners who use our airport to work, travel, trade, shop, eat, explore and connect.

Our Solutions team covers project management, process improvement, business change, technology, cyber defence, masterplanning, infrastructure and procurement. It brings together people with the skills to deliver prestigious and often large-scale projects, from transforming terminals to making big reductions in our carbon emissions. Every day will test your skills and give you the opportunity to make your mark.

This role shapes how data science and AI are used across Heathrow. It sets direction for enterprise analytics and AI services that support safe, efficient and reliable airport operations. The role oversees Data Science and AI services across multiple business areas. It ensures AI use is responsible, well‑governed and delivers clear value. It also supports senior decision‑making through insight and evidence.

Your role will involve:

• Set the direction for data science and AI across Heathrow, aligned to business needs.
• Put clear AI governance, ethics and assurance arrangements in place.
• Ensure analytics services are reliable, secure and meet agreed service outcomes.
• Oversee investment, supplier arrangements and value tracking for AI and analytics.
• Build sustainable capability across data science, AI engineering and analytics.

These Skills Are Essential:

• Strong experience delivering data science or AI solutions at enterprise scale.
• Experience guiding teams that develop and deploy machine learning models.
• Practical knowledge of responsible AI, governance and regulatory expectations.
• Experience shaping strategy and turning insight into business outcomes.
• Experience using cloud platforms for analytics and AI workloads.
• Ability to explain technical ideas clearly to non‑technical audiences.

Desirable:

• Experience working in complex operational environments.
• Familiarity with production‑level model deployment and monitoring approaches.

With 80 million passengers passing through our airport each year, it takes hundreds of systems, platforms and networks to keep our airport running smoothly, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Join us, and you’ll thrive on the buzz of providing the technology, data, cyber and digital capabilities that run all the services you’d expect to see in a city – and more. Tech at Heathrow isn’t typical – the scale and non‑stop nature of our airport make it truly unique.

Our Data, Digital and Technology team are leading the way in innovations that will make our airport more efficient, resilient and competitive, in an increasingly digital marketplace, as well as keeping Heathrow safe and secure. Every day will test your skills and give you the opportunity to make your mark. We’re constantly looking for new ways to help Heathrow transform and grow, responding to the changing needs of passengers, colleagues and partner businesses. It means the chance to work on a huge variety of inspiring projects and to develop in lots of exciting directions. Our team covers technology, cyber defence, data and digital, offering one‑of‑a‑kind careers you won’t find anywhere else.