Director of Applied AI in Swindon

Join ICOMAT – Revolutionising the Future of Lightweight Manufacturing! iCOMAT is an advanced manufacturing company that invented Rapid Tow Shearing (RTS) – the only proven technology for producing defect‑free curved‑fiber composite parts at industrial scale. We deliver the lightest structures possible for aerospace, automotive, defense and space, at a rate and cost efficiency that far exceeds existing composite production processes. We build and operate automated factories for composite materials, delivering components to Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs.

The business has three main divisions: development of automated production machines, development of software design and production tools, and operation of the factory. We work with 25+ customers and completed the largest ever Series A in composites manufacturing to fuel a significant scale‑up, with growth plans that will see the business multiply in size over the next two to three years and expand operations into the UK, Europe and the US. The business has currently more than 130,000 sqm of production capacity with manufacturing facilities in the UK (Gloucester and Swindon) and the US (Dayton, Ohio); a Hardware R&D Centre in Bristol, UK; and a Software R&D Centre in Athens, Greece.

We are hiring a Director of Applied AI to turn that data advantage into compounding business value, fast. Series B is the moment to prove that AI is not a story we tell – it is a measurable engine inside the company.

What will you be doing?

• Quality control: move from reactive inspection to predictive quality, with AI‑assisted process monitoring and automated root‑cause analysis.
• Design: reduce design iteration time, automate repetitive engineering decisions, and unlock generative design where it pays.
• Tooling: accelerate tool design, optimise tool life, and bring intelligence to tool‑path generation.
• Manufacturing: improve throughput, reduce scrap, predict defects before they happen, close the loop between machine data and process control.

What success looks like

• Time saved per design cycle.
• Cost per part reduced.
• Defect rate, scrap rate, and rework hours reduced.
• Throughput per machine, per shift, per facility increased.
• Engineering hours redirected from repetitive tasks to high‑leverage work.
• MVPs shipped, retired, or scaled, with a clear scoreboard.

Success is quantitative. AI for the sake of AI is not why we are hiring.

What will you own?

• The AI strategy and roadmap, owned end‑to‑end and reviewed with the CEO.
• A small, sharp portfolio of MVPs running in parallel across design, manufacturing, tooling, and QC.
• The data architecture decisions that make AI possible across the product lifecycle, in close partnership with the software team and IT.
• Tooling and model selection. Build, buy, fine‑tune, or wrap. You make the call on what is fastest to value.
• A KPI dashboard the senior leadership team uses to track AI‑driven gains in real money and real time.
• Year one: hire one to two operators alongside you if and only if the work demands it.

How you fit in

• Work alongside the Software Engineering and IT teams to design world‑class data architecture, tools and processes that support the global adoption of iCOMAT’s Rapid Tow Shearing technology.
• Lead the development of iCOMAT’s AI Engineering team and grow the capability in line with the company’s growth.
• Support the work of the Structures Engineering, RTS Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering teams, unlocking productivity gains and delivering measurable impact.
• Work closely with the Senior Leadership Team to align AI initiatives to the wider company goals.
• Report progress directly to the CEO and collaborate on all aspects of the AI roadmap.

Who you are

• A builder. You ship. You break things on purpose to learn faster than everyone around you.
• Senior individual contributor and player‑coach. You write code, design systems, and lead by example.
• You are not allergic to a whiteboard or a shop floor.
• You have shipped applied machine learning solutions in a real industrial, manufacturing, robotics, or hard‑tech setting. Not just dashboards. Not just demos.
• You speak fluent KPI. You can defend an AI investment in front of a board with numbers, not adjectives.
• You collaborate without ego with software, IT, design, manufacturing, tooling, and QC leaders.
• You are aligned and accountable.
• You are comfortable with ambiguity, fast cadence, and ownership. Excuses do not ship parts. Execution does.
• You have MLOps and production deployment experience at scale.

Great plus

• Background in composites, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, or defense.
• Experience with computer vision applied to automated inspection, generative design, reinforcement learning for process control.
• Prior experience standing up an AI function from zero inside a fast‑moving company.

Our Values:

• Uncompromising Excellence: Discipline over excuses. We commit. We follow through. We hold ourselves and each other to the highest standard, especially when the pressure is on.
• Push the edge: iCOMAT was built on a refusal to accept that curved fibre could not be manufactured at scale. We innovate where others hesitate.
• Aligned and accountable: Everyone owns their lane, communicates openly, and delivers without being chased. No silos. No ambiguity.

Benefits

• Competitive Salary & Benefits: We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including private healthcare, pension scheme.
• Stock Options: Equity options to give employees a stake in the company’s success.
• Career Growth Opportunities: Join us at a pivotal time as we scale up, offering unmatched professional growth opportunities in the rapidly advancing field of composite materials.
• Innovation‑Focused Culture: We pride ourselves on our inclusive, forward‑thinking work environment. Recognized by Bloomberg as a "UK Startup to Watch," iCOMAT celebrates diversity and encourages all applicants, regardless of background, to apply.
• Global Impact: Be a part of our mission to redefine lightweight structures for the automotive, aerospace, and space industries, working with some of the most influential companies worldwide.

Ready to be part of something big? Apply now to learn more and join us on our exciting journey!