AI Productivity Lead in London

Who are we? Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries. People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work/life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

Location: London, UK (Hybrid)

Employment Type: Permanent, Full-time

Role purpose: Own the identification, prioritisation, adoption, and value realisation of AI use cases across Howden. This role sits at the intersection of business, delivery, and governance. You're accountable for ensuring AI initiatives solve real problems, are adopted in practice, and deliver measurable outcomes in a regulated enterprise environment. This is a senior individual contributor role focused on delivery and impact rather than management or policy development. Success means shipping use cases that people actually use and that deliver demonstrable value. You'll operate as one of two senior individual contributors in the AI Productivity team, working in close partnership with colleagues based globally.

Key accountabilities

• AI use-case ownership & prioritisation: Lead discovery with brokers and corporate teams to identify high-value AI opportunities. Translate complex problems into clear, prioritised use cases with explicit success criteria. Make and support evidence-based recommendations on whether to build, iterate, or stop.
• Adoption & change: Own the rollout and adoption of AI solutions into real workflows. Design enablement, guidance, and operating rhythms that move AI from novelty to habit. Identify and address barriers when adoption stalls or value isn't being realised.
• Value, measurement & outcomes: Define baselines and success metrics that Finance and senior stakeholders trust. Track productivity, cost, risk, and quality outcomes post-launch. Produce clear reporting on what's working, what needs improvement, and why.
• Governance & responsible AI: Partner with Legal, Compliance, Risk, and InfoSec to ensure AI use cases meet regulatory and policy requirements. Contribute to governance processes, risk assessments, and decision forums. Help ensure governance supports delivery rather than hindering it.
• Delivery partnership: Work in close partnership with other AI Productivity leads and Champions across the world. Shape requirements, acceptance criteria, and rollout plans together. Provide timely, grounded feedback from real usage to inform solution iteration.
• Stakeholder leadership: Act as a credible point of contact for senior business leaders. Lead Communities of Practice and develop training programmes with the training team. Challenge assumptions thoughtfully, manage expectations, and maintain delivery focus. Communicate trade-offs between speed, value, and risk clearly and calmly.
• Management of AI analysts.

Skills & experience

• Proven experience and examples of driving AI, automation, or advanced analytics initiatives from concept to live use.
• Demonstrable expertise in AI platforms.
• Experience of the insurance industry.
• Strong workflow analysis and business case development capability.
• Comfortable defining and defending metrics for productivity and value.
• Experience partnering closely with vendors, engineers, and data scientists on delivery.
• Confident engaging senior stakeholders without relying on positional authority.
• Clear written and verbal communicator.

What this role is not:

• Not a deputy director or people-management role.
• Not focused purely on research or experimentation.
• Not a reporting-only analyst position.
• Not primarily a policy or compliance function.

What success looks like after 12 months:

• A clear, trusted pipeline of AI use cases aligned to business priorities.
• Multiple AI solutions in active use, with adoption tracked and improving.
• AI benefits reported in a way Finance and leadership trust.
• Governance processes that are understood, practical, and effective.
• Strong delivery rhythm with the AI Productivity team, with good collaboration and high throughput.

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new.
• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges.
• We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond.

Reasonable adjustments: We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours or hybrid working. If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require. Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.