Head of AI, Automation & Analytics

UpGuard; Australia; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

UpGuard is seeking a Head of AI, Automation & Analytics to lead A3, the central function for AI, workflow automation and analytics within the Operations department. You will lead a small team of AI specialists and work closely with the Enablement Lead in People.

You will set A3's strategy, drive quarterly OKRs, oversee automations across the company and ensure secure, governed AI platforms, collaborating with Cloud Platform Engineering and Security teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in software engineering
• Experience leading AI/automation teams
• Strong governance of AI/automation platforms
• Experience with Google Cloud tools (Vertex AI, BigQuery)

Responsibilities

• Set A3's charter, operating model and 6-month strategy.
• Define quarterly OKRs for the function and report progress to SteerCo and ExCo.
• Decide which processes to automate and which AI capabilities to build.
• Own the roadmap for ug-buddy, UpGuard's internal AI co-worker.
• Lead, coach and performance-manage the A3 team and recruit new members.
• Run delivery process: sprints, prioritisation and capacity model.
• Set technical direction and architecture for AI agents and integrations.
• Review designs and production readiness on Google Cloud and n8n.

Skills

Leadership

Strategy

OKR setting

Team coaching

AI governance

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's Degree in software engineering

Tools

Vertex AI

BigQuery

GKE

n8n

Job description

Who are we?

At UpGuard , we are replacing manual security bottlenecks with AI-driven precision. Fresh off a US$75M Series C, we are scaling our infrastructure to process 100 billion risk signals daily. This isn't just growth; it's a total reimagining of how the world manages cyber risk.

We build the Cyber Risk Posture Management (CRPM) platform that security teams actually love. By integrating security ratings, threat intel, and agentic AI, we empower organisations to stay ahead of an ever evolving attack surface.

We aren't just building another tool; we're defining a category. We provide the autonomy to ship world-class technology and the resources to do it at a global scale.

UpGuard is seeking a Head of AI, Automation & Analytics to lead A3, our central function for AI, workflow automation and analytics within the Operations department. You will lead a small team of a Lead AI & Automation Analyst and two AI & Automation Engineers, and work closely with the AI & Automation Enablement Lead in our People team.

You will set UpGuard's automation and AI strategy, decide what gets built, and make sure the AI agents and automated business processes the team delivers run on secure, reliable and well-governed platforms. Where a team can automate its own work, you give it the tools, standards and coaching to do so. Where the work spans several teams or is too complex for one team to build, your team delivers it directly.

What will you accomplish?

• Set A3's charter, operating model and rolling 6-month strategy, aligned with priorities from the Chief Operating Officer and the Steering Committee (SteerCo)
• Define quarterly OKRs for the function and report progress to SteerCo and the Executive Committee (ExCo)
• Decide which processes to automate and which AI capabilities to build, based on business impact, time saved and risk
• Own the roadmap for ug-buddy, UpGuard's internal AI co-worker, which connects company knowledge, data and tools through a single interface
• Lead, coach and performance-manage the A3 team, design its structure and roles, and recruit new team members
• Run the team's delivery process: fortnightly sprints, prioritisation, and a capacity model that balances project work, automation requests, team improvement and buffer
• Set the technical direction and architecture for AI agents, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), MCP integrations and workflow automation
• Review designs and production readiness of the systems the team builds on Google Cloud (Vertex AI, BigQuery, GKE) and n8n
• Deliver cross-functional automations that no single team owns, such as employee offboarding across identity, collaboration and HR systems
• Set the standards every production automation must meet (ownership, error alerting, enforced linting, documentation and least-privilege access), audit the platform against them and drive remediation
• Work with Cloud Platform Engineering and Security on hosting, access control and incident response for A3 systems
• Perform the AI risk review in UpGuard's vendor procurement process, assessing each vendor's AI use, data handling and contract terms
• Own A3's tooling and vendor relationships, including n8n, AI model providers and Google Cloud AI services
• Act as the single point of contact for AI, automation and analytics requests, through one intake channel where every request gets an owner
• Work with department heads to map how their processes run and agree what A3 will build or enable
• Make A3's services understood across the company through documentation, communication and training, together with the Enablement Lead

How will success be measured?

• Quarterly OKRs delivered and reported to SteerCo
• Effort saved by shipped automations, in hours and dollars
• Adoption of A3 tools across the company, including the automation platform and the AI co-worker
• Every internal request has an owner, with none bounced
• Reliability of production automations: success rate, and failures caught by alerting rather than reported by users
• Share of the organisation that can say what A3 does and how to reach it (survey)

How is the time split?

• Strategy, planning and executive stakeholder management: ~20%
• Team leadership, coaching and recruitment: ~25%
• Technical direction, architecture and design review: ~25%
• Platform standards, AI governance and vendor management: ~10%
• Hands-on delivery of priority builds: ~20%

Who will you work with?

Internal: the Chief Operating Officer, SteerCo and ExCo, department heads across Operations, People, Finance, Legal, Revenue and Product, Cloud Platform Engineering, IT and Security Operations, and the central Analytics team

External: automation, AI and cloud vendors

What do we need from you?

A Bachelor's Degree in software engineering, compu