AI Solution Lead

Location: Warminster, Wiltshire

Job Type: Permanent, Full Time (37 hours per week), Hybrid

Security Clearance: SC – Must be eligible to work in the UK without sponsorship.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of end-to-end AI/ML solutions aligned to organisational strategy and operational objectives.
• Define scalable, secure, and maintainable AI architectures, covering data pipelines, model lifecycle management, deployment, and monitoring.
• Establish architectural standards, design patterns, and engineering best practices.
• Provide technical oversight across the full AI lifecycle: concept, prototyping, production deployment, and optimisation.
• Review and approve solution designs produced by AI Solution Engineers and wider delivery teams.
• Lead, mentor, and develop AI Solution Engineer(s) and associated technical staff.
• Set technical direction and ensure consistency in engineering standards across AI initiatives.
• Conduct code and design reviews to ensure quality, security, and maintainability.
• Identify capability gaps and drive upskilling across the AI team.
• Foster a collaborative, high-performance engineering culture.
• Own technical delivery of AI solutions, ensuring alignment with scope, timelines, and quality expectations.
• Oversee deployment of AI systems into secure or controlled environments.
• Ensure compatibility of AI solutions with DevSecOps pipelines and enterprise technology stacks.
• Define and monitor performance metrics for deployed models, ensuring operational effectiveness and reliability.
• Lead remediation and optimisation efforts when performance, compliance, or operational risks arise.
• Embed ethical AI principles, including fairness, explainability, auditability, and transparency, into solution design.
• Ensure compliance with data governance, security, and regulatory requirements.
• Support accreditation and assurance activities within regulated or defence environments.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate technical risks associated with AI deployment.
• Translate operational or business requirements into AI-enabled solution approaches.
• Engage senior stakeholders, providing clear technical briefings and strategic recommendations.
• Contribute to AI capability roadmaps and innovation strategies.
• Lead technical input into bids, proposals, or programme planning activities where required.
• Conduct horizon scanning to evaluate emerging AI technologies and assess relevance to operational use cases.
• Drive continuous improvement of AI engineering practices, tooling, and delivery methods.
• Champion adoption of MLOps practices to enhance repeatability, traceability, and scalability.
• Promote knowledge sharing and best practice dissemination across engineering teams.

Who we are looking for

You will bring a mission focus, enthusiasm, and drive to get things done, working collaboratively with defence training organisations and the British Army. You will not let bureaucracy hinder progress, and you will learn and share lessons across the team. The successful candidate will be a technically astute AI Solution Lead who thrives on engineering execution to realize enterprise goals and is capable of designing and sustaining AI/ML solutions that align with the Army Collective Training Service (ACTS) architectural vision.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Extensive experience in leading technical teams designing and delivering end-to-end AI/ML solutions from concept to production within regulated or controlled environments.
• Strong Python expertise and deep knowledge of ML frameworks such as TensorFlow and PyTorch.
• Experience defining scalable ML architectures, including lifecycle management, monitoring, and resilience strategies.
• Experience overseeing deployment using containerisation and orchestration platforms and governing CI/CD and MLOps practices.
• Strong understanding of API-led integration within enterprise systems.
• Experience embedding responsible AI principles into architectural design.
• Strong understanding of secure coding, data protection, and governance frameworks, and experience supporting accreditation or assurance processes.
• Accountability for technical risk identification and mitigation.
• Experience translating operational requirements into AI-enabled capabilities.
• Ability to engage and influence senior stakeholders.
• Experience defining AI roadmaps and technical strategy.
• Strong decision-making capability balancing innovation, risk, and operational constraints.
• Proven experience leading, mentoring, and developing AI/ML engineers.
• Strong systems-level analytical thinking.
• Autonomous operation with accountability for outcomes.
• Degree in a relevant discipline or equivalent senior-level experience.

What we offer

• Competitive salaries.
• 25 days holiday + statutory public holidays, with the option to buy and sell up to 5 days (37hr week).
• Contributory Pension Scheme (up to 10.5% company contribution).
• Company bonus scheme (discretionary).
• Life Assurance equivalent to 6 times salary with pension.
• Flexible Benefits scheme with extensive salary sacrifice options, including Health Cashplan, Dental, and Cycle to Work.
• Enhanced sick pay.
• Family-friendly policies, including enhanced maternity, paternity, and shared parental leave.
• Optional 5 paid days volunteering each year.
• Hybrid and remote work options, with a flexible working culture focused on output rather than time at desk.

Equal Employment

The company adheres to the principles of equal employment. All qualified applications will be given careful consideration without regard to ethnicity, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.