Associate Director of Artificial Intelligence

The Portfolio Group; Manchester; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

An international high-growth SaaS company seeks an Associate Director of Artificial Intelligence to lead their AI strategy and initiatives. This role offers a unique opportunity for career advancement and significant impact in shaping AI technologies within an innovative organization.

Benefits

Pension scheme

Private healthcare

Attractive bonus scheme

Qualifications

• Proven leadership in AI with a strong STEM background.
• Hands-on experience with production-grade ML models.
• Deep expertise in generative AI and complex model translation.

Responsibilities

• Drive and execute the company’s AI strategy.
• Identify opportunities and risks using AI/ML.
• Own the lifecycle of AI initiatives from design to optimization.

Skills

Leadership in AI

Machine Learning

Generative AI

NLP

Python

SQL

DevOps

Education

Degree in Computer Science or related STEM field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

Associate Director of Artificial Intelligence

Associate Director of Artificial Intelligence

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Chief Operations Officer at The Portfolio Group | Executive Recruitment & Search Assignments.

Associate Director of Artificial Intelligence (AI) | Manchester | Excellent Salary + Bonus + Benefits

Shape the Future of AI at a Fast-Growing Global Tech Innovator

Are you ready to take yourArtificial Intelligence (AI) expertise to the next level in a role with true strategic impact? Join a high-growth, international SaaS company that’s disrupting the market through cutting-edge technology, rapid product development & continuous investment in innovation. This is more than a job—it's a once-in-a-career opportunity to help define the AI future of an award-winning organisation with an entrepreneurial, world-class leadership team.

As Associate Director of Artificial Intelligence, you’ll drive and execute the company’s AI strategy—leading initiatives that harness the power of Machine Learning, Generative AI, NLP, and more to fuel scalable business growth and operational excellence.

Role Scope

• Lead the identification of opportunities and risks in a fast-evolving competitive landscape, using AI/ML to deliver measurable business value & growth.
• Understand and maintain a RADAR of technologies, in order to understand the risk and reward profile of selecting a technology to capitalise on an opportunity or mitigate a risk
• Own the lifecycle of AI initiatives—from vision through to design, delivery, and optimisation in high-performance, high-volume environments.
• Build evidence-based business cases to influence senior stakeholders and drive organisation-wide adoption.
• Empower delivery teams with the tools, capabilities, and insights needed to embed AI at scale.

Required Skills & Experience

• Proven leadership in AI, with a background in computer science, machine learning, data science or a related STEM field (degree or equivalent experience).
• Hands-on experience developing and deploying production-grade ML models, including advanced RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) systems.
• Deep expertise in Generative AI, LLMs, NLP, and Knowledge Graphs—with a track record of translating complex models into real-world business solutions.
• Strong engineering fundamentals, including DevOps, CI/CD, and secure ML/AI pipelines (DevSecOps).
• Highly proficient in Python, SQL, and key AI/ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• Ability to mitigate model hallucination, optimise performance, and lead governance around AI risk and ethical deployment.

Ready to Transform the Future?

This a career-defining opportunity working within an international high growth organisation providing award winning consultancy services to an expensive client base. With the opportunity to make an unrivalled impact on their AI strategy, innovation and commercial business growth. Our client offers a highly attractive package consisting of highly competitive base salary, attractive bonus scheme, pension scheme and excellent benefits including private healthcare.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Director

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Information Technology

• Industries

  IT System Custom Software Development and Human Resources Services

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