AI Technical Lead

London Insurance Life; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Career development opportunities

Exposure to senior stakeholders

Job summary

Howden is seeking an AI Technical Lead to be the technical authority within the Group AI Function. You will own architecture governance, lead AI tool/vendor assessments, and provide technical oversight across AI initiatives with internal teams and external partners.

This role sits at the centre of a programme touching every part of the Group, offering direct access to senior stakeholders and the opportunity to shape Howden’s AI capability and governance standards from day one.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with large language models, retrieval systems, and agent frameworks.
• Exposure to insurance or another regulated industry.
• Cloud-native AI architecture experience.
• Experience with enterprise AI platform governance.
• Track record writing architecture or security design documentation.
• Familiarity with AI evaluation and quality assurance approaches.
• Ability to assess AI vendors and tooling rigorously and independently.
• Experience overseeing third-party AI delivery.
• Strong communication - equally comfortable with engineers and senior leaders.
• Experience in an architecture review or governance context.

Responsibilities

• Architecture governance for AI tools and platforms across the Group.
• Lead architecture review submissions and design documentation.
• Evaluate inbound AI vendors and tools with a repeatable assessment framework.
• Provide technical oversight across AI initiatives with internal teams and partners.
• Set and maintain technical standards for agent development, retrieval, and evaluation.

Skills

LLM experience

Insurance domain

Cloud-native AI

AI governance

Vendor assessment

Security design

Architecture governance

Technical communication

Delivery oversight

Small team work

Job description

Who are we?

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries. People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. Its what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities - work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering - you'll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

The role Howden is moving from deploying AI tools to embedding AI into how the business actually works. The Group AI Function has a clear mandate to drive that shift, and the next phase demands stronger technical governance, sharper architecture thinking, and closer oversight of what's being built across the organisation. The AI Technical Lead is the technical authority inside the function. The role owns architecture governance, leads the assessment of AI tools and vendors, and provides technical oversight across AI initiatives running inside Howden and with external delivery partners. When engineering work is happening - whether done internally or by third parties - this role ensures it's done to the right standard and that Howden retains genuine ownership of the output. This is an individual contributor role. It sits at the centre of a programme that touches every part of the Group, with direct access to senior stakeholders and real influence over how our AI capability develops.

Key responsibilities

• Architecture governance: Own the technical governance process for AI tools and platforms across the Group. Lead Architecture Review Board submissions, produce architecture and security design documentation, and work alongside Enterprise Architecture as the AI function's technical representative. The goal is coherent, well-governed AI infrastructure - not a patchwork of unconnected tools.
• Vendor and tooling assessment: Lead the technical evaluation of inbound AI vendors and tools. Build a repeatable assessment framework that gives the Head of AI a clear, evidence-based view of what to adopt, what to decline, and where to build instead. Ensure that tooling decisions are grounded in architecture fit, security, data governance, and commercial sense - not just functionality.
• Oversight of AI delivery: AI initiatives are running across multiple divisions, and external partners are actively involved in delivery. This role provides the technical oversight that ensures quality, protects Howden’s IP, and prevents the organisation from becoming dependent on third parties for capability it should own internally. This isn't a hands-off review role - it requires enough depth to challenge, guide, and take accountability for outcomes.
• Technical enablement: Set and maintain technical standards for how AI is built across the business - covering areas like agent development, knowledge retrieval, prompt engineering, and evaluation. Support colleagues and divisional AI leads who are building or deploying AI, and translate technical constraints into practical guidance that people can actually use.
• Technical partnership to the Head of AI: Provide the technical grounding that allows the Head of AI to make well-informed decisions quickly. This means flagging risks, pressure-testing proposals, and being a genuine thought partner - not just an executor. The function is small and the relationship needs to work closely.

Background and experience

Essential

• Hands-on experience with large language models, retrieval systems, and agent frameworks
• Exposure to insurance or another regulated industry
• Cloud-native AI architecture experience
• Experience with enterprise AI platform governance
• Track record writing architecture or security design documentation
• Familiarity with AI evaluation and quality assurance approaches
• Ability to assess AI vendors and tooling rigorously and independently
• Experience overseeing third-party AI delivery
• Strong communication - equally comfortable with engineers and senior leaders
• Previous work in an architecture review or governance context
• Intellectually curious, low-ego, and comfortable moving fast in ambiguous conditions
• Experience in a small, high-output team

What good looks like

Over the first year, success in this role means: Architecture governance runs smoothly - new tools are assessed, documented, and reviewed without creating bottlenecks or risk. A repeatable vendor assessment process is in place and being used consistently. Technical oversight of external delivery partners is formalised and effective. AI standards and best practices are being adopted across the business, not just documented. Howden is demonstrably building internal AI capability rather than outsourcing it. The Head of AI has a technical partner who makes decision-making faster and better.

Working in the Group AI Function

The Group AI Function is deliberately small. We work directly with senior stakeholders, operate across the whole Group, and move between strategy and execution without much ceremony. The Head of AI reports to the Group CTO and works closely with divisional leadership. The pace is real and the problems are interesting. The culture values getting things right over looking right. Direct, honest, curious - and not precious about hierarchy or process for its own sake. The role carries real scope from day one and genuine influence over how the function and the broader AI capability develops.

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity - there is no one Howden type. Instead, We're looking for individuals who share the same values as us: Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new. We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges.

Reasonable adjustments

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*. If you'd want to know more, reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations.

Permanent

Howden began in 1994, as just three people and a dog. Now there are 23,000 of us, and We're a leading global insurance group, managing $37bn of premiums for our clients. Our largest shareholder group is us - the people who work in the business - supported by three long-term, minority growth-equity partners who share our vision to build a business to last, one that will never be sold. The owner's mindset is something that is embedded in our culture; our people readily take ownership of their decisions, their actions, and their outputs. They're invested in every sense. And we all know that by working together to drive the business forward, everyone will benefit from the extraordinary results we can achieve.