AI Adoption Manager

Aurora Energy Research; Oxford; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Medical Insurance

Dental Insurance

Parental Support

Salary-Exchange Pension

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

Local Oxford Discounts

Cycle‑to‑work Scheme

Flu Jabs

Job summary

Aurora Energy Research, based in Oxford, is seeking an AI Adoption Manager to drive enterprise-wide AI enablement through hands-on work in finance, commercial, advisory, people & culture, legal, and operations. You will embed within departments, develop agents, skills, and lightweight automation, and ensure solutions align with architecture guardrails.

You will lead an AI champions network, create training materials for non-technical audiences, and work closely with the AI Council to scale

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience building with generative AI in a business setting; agents, assistants, skills, prompt engineering and lightweight automation.

Responsibilities

• Embed within Aurora's business departments in rotation, working inside the team rather than visiting it, and identify the processes where AI genuinely changes the shape of the work; and where it does not, say so
• Build alongside the team: agents, skills, prompt libraries, lightweight automation, and the AI capabilities already built into the tools we own, working within the approved patterns published by our architecture function
• Hand over deliberately, to the department, to a Systems Manager, or to Engineering, so that what is built is owned and supportable, and leave behind colleagues who can continue unaided
• Escalate to Architecture where a solution requires a new pattern, a new integration or Engineering effort, and draw on the wider Internal Technology function to deliver it rather than building it alone
• Own Aurora's enterprise‑wide AI enablement layer: practical tool guidance, training, worked examples, and internal communication of what colleagues are achieving with AI
• Build and run the AI champions network across the business, working alongside Learning & Development, including the recognition and awards approach agreed by our management team
• Feed what you learn back into the technology function: new patterns for the library, gaps in the guardrails, data quality issues for the enterprise data team, and demand signal into the technology portfolio
• Manage AI vendors and partners, both tooling providers and any professional services engaged to accelerate delivery
• Work within Aurora's AI policy and the guidance of the AI Council, making existing policy usable in day‑to‑day work rather than setting new policy

Skills

Hands-on AI adoption

Generative AI in business

Process & business analysis

Excellent communication

Teaching/enablement

Escalation judgment (architecture)

Microsoft 365 AI capabilities

Training material creation

Self-directed organization

Evidence-led approach

Job description

AI Adoption Manager

Department: Internal Technology

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Oxford, UK

Description

We are looking for a hands‑on AI Adoption Manager to join our growing technology function. Based in Oxford, you will work inside Aurora's business departments in rotation, including Finance, Commercial, Advisory, People & Culture, Legal, and Business Infrastructure & Operations, identifying where AI genuinely changes the shape of how work is done and then making those changes alongside the team. This is a new role, created to accelerate Aurora's ambition to become AI native: processes and ways of working optimised to leverage AI, rather than AI bolted onto processes designed for a pre‑AI world.

The role is deliberately embedded rather than remote. Nobody can specify an AI solution in the abstract, and the most valuable opportunities do not arrive as requests; they are found by watching how work is actually done. You will spend time with each department, leaving behind colleagues who can continue without you and written‑up patterns that can accelerate future work. Alongside the rotations you will own Aurora's enterprise‑wide AI enablement: practical tool guidance, training, worked examples, the champions network, and visible sharing of what colleagues across the business are achieving.

The successful applicant will be genuinely hands‑on with agents, skills, prompt libraries and lightweight automation, and equally comfortable sitting alongside business teams to understand how their work is really done. You will work in a creative, intellectually stimulating environment, enjoy autonomy, and have a significant impact on how this very fast growing, data heavy business adopts AI.

Key Responsibilities

• Embed within Aurora's business departments in rotation, working inside the team rather than visiting it, and identify the processes where AI genuinely changes the shape of the work; and where it does not, say so
• Build alongside the team: agents, skills, prompt libraries, lightweight automation, and the AI capabilities already built into the tools we own, working within the approved patterns published by our architecture function
• Hand over deliberately, to the department, to a Systems Manager, or to Engineering, so that what is built is owned and supportable, and leave behind colleagues who can continue unaided
• Escalate to Architecture where a solution requires a new pattern, a new integration or Engineering effort, and draw on the wider Internal Technology function to deliver it rather than building it alone
• Own Aurora's enterprise‑wide AI enablement layer: practical tool guidance, training, worked examples, and internal communication of what colleagues are achieving with AI
• Build and run the AI champions network across the business, working alongside Learning & Development, including the recognition and awards approach agreed by our management team
• Feed what you learn back into the technology function: new patterns for the library, gaps in the guardrails, data quality issues for the enterprise data team, and demand signal into the technology portfolio
• Manage AI vendors and partners, both tooling providers and any professional services engaged to accelerate delivery
• Work within Aurora's AI policy and the guidance of the AI Council, making existing policy usable in day‑to‑day work rather than setting new policy

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Required attributes:

• Demonstrable, hands‑on experience building with generative AI in a business setting; agents, assistants, skills, prompt engineering and lightweight automation, with the credibility that comes from having genuinely delivered rather than only advised.
• Demonstrable experience working with at least one of Claude, Chat GPT, Microsoft Copilot Cowork, Microsoft Copilot Studio
• Strong process/business analysis capability: able to sit with a team, understand how their work is genuinely done, and identify where the shape of that work could change, including where the right answer is simpler automation, integration or reporting rather than AI.
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills, with the confidence to work alongside senior stakeholders in their own environment, and the persistence to return when a team is too busy to engage.
• A teaching instinct. You measure success by what a team can do after you leave, not by what you delivered while you were there.
• Comfortable working within technical patterns and guardrails set by our Architecture function, with the judgement to recognise when something needs to be escalated rather than solved locally.
• Working knowledge of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and the AI capabilities within it, alongside a broad awareness of the wider enterprise AI tooling landscape.
• Experience creating training material, worked examples or enablement content for non‑technical audiences.
• Self‑directed and well organised: able to run a departmental rotation to a defined outcome while simultaneously maintaining an enterprise‑wide enablement programme.
• An evidence‑led approach, and the openness to publish what worked, what it was worth, and what did not.

Desirable attributes:

• Experience with Microsoft Foundry
• Experience running a champions or practitioner community network across a business.
• Experience of business process improvement or change management approaches, applied in a back‑office or professional services setting.
• Experience with software development lifecycle processes and DevOps principles.
• Familiarity with any of our tier 1 systems:
  • Dynamics 365 F&O
  • Salesforce (including Revenue Cloud)
  • SAP SuccessFactors
  • Microsoft SharePoint and the Power Platform
• Experience working in or alongside a research, consulting or analytics business, where professional judgement sits at the centre of the work

What we offer

Some of the benefits we include are:

• Private Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Parental Support
• Salary-Exchange Pension
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
• Local Oxford Discounts
• Cycle‑to‑work Scheme
• Flu Jabs

At AER, we are committed to offering flexibility in the way we work. Most of our roles are hybrid with a mix of in‑office/home working and potentially adjustable working hours. Let’s discuss what works for you and AER during the interview process.

The Company is committed to the principle that no employee or job applicant shall receive unfavourable treatment on grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy, and maternity.