Head of Applied AI (m/w/d)

Voya GmbH; Hamburg; Hybrid; EUR 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary

Startup culture

Hybrid work from Hamburg

Earliest start Nov 2026

Job summary

Voya GmbH is seeking a Head of Applied AI to lead our AI business for the European mid-market. This role will own use-case discovery, pricing, positioning and hiring, with the goal to reach ~€1M revenue in year one.

The position offers hybrid or on-site work from Hamburg and involvement in a fast-growing software engineering landscape for automotive and travel clients. The ideal candidate brings 3–7 years in top-tier consulting or growth software, fluent German and English, and a hands-on AI

Qualifications

• Master's degree is required.
• 3 to 7 years of experience in top-tier consulting or fast-growing software.
• Experience owning client discussions at board level in German and English.
• Hands-on work with generative AI and the ability to deconstruct a subject thoroughly.

Responsibilities

• Run discovery with executive teams, define initial use cases, own the proposal and the decision meeting.
• Own the arm's revenue and drive to ~€1 million in year one.
• Deliver production software with engineering pods into client systems and ensure results are proven.

Job description

We are looking for:

Head of Applied AIto lead our AI business and own the results. Whether you prefer hybrid or mostly on-site work, we've got you covered! We have 50 software engineers, real clients and ten years of track record to get you started. We do software engineering for automotive and travel. Our clients are Audi, Volkswagen, CARIAD and Lufthansa; our engineers sit in Hamburg and our two Tech-Hubs in Romania. We sold voya to Volkswagen in 2020, bought it back in 2024, 100% founder-owned since. The models are good enough. What companies lack are the infrastructure, processes and connectors to put them to work, and we believe this gets built in the next two or three years. The IT giants serve the corporations, startups build their own, and the mid-market has nobody credible to call. So we are opening a second arm: AI engineering for the European mid-market, with the first clients signed and the pipeline ahead of our capacity. By 2028 we want to be the first call for AI engineering in the European automotive and travel mid-market. That is the arm you would be running.

Your Tasks:

• Run discovery with executive teams, define the use cases worth starting with, and own the proposal and the meeting where it is decided.
• Own the revenue of the arm, and back yourself to reach about €1 million in year one.
• Ship production software with our engineering pods, into the client's systems and not into a pilot, and stay accountable until the numbers are proven.
• Shape the business with us: positioning, pricing, what we productise, who we hire.

Your Profile:

• 3 to 7 years in top-tier consulting or fast-growing software, and a master's degree.
• Projects and client conversations owned end to end at board level, in German and English.
• Hands-on work with generative AI, and the curiosity to take a subject fully apart.
• You size a business case yourself and defend the number in front of the people who pay it.
• You follow an engineer into the detail rather than nodding along, and you care about software, auto or travel.

What we offer:

• a competitive base plus direct participation in the success of the business. If you are weighing your own venture against simply not doing it, this is a third option: you build it, we carry the risk.
• Startup culture: Small (~50 people) and highly collaborative team.
• Full flexibility: Hybrid work from Hamburg, part-time negotiable.
• Start: Earliest start November 2026.