Director, AI Operations (Edinburgh)

Lenovo; Scotland; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company in Edinburgh, Scotland is seeking a skilled Senior Data Engineering Leader. In this role, you will shape data architecture and lead global teams to implement AI infrastructure. Candidates should have over 12 years of experience in data engineering with a strong command of cloud platforms and distributed systems. The role requires a hybrid work arrangement, requiring in-office presence at least three days a week.

Benefits

Holiday purchase

Private medical

Income protection

Attractive pension scheme

Life insurance

Product discounts

Mortgage advice

Qualifications

• 12+ years in data engineering/infrastructure, with at least 5 years leading large teams.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems and inference platforms.
• Strong experience with cloud platforms and security.

Responsibilities

• Shape data architecture and infrastructure strategy.
• Define and implement vision for AI infrastructure.
• Lead and mentor global engineering teams.

Skills

Data engineering leadership

Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)

Distributed systems expertise

MLOps/DevOps

Excellent communication

Education

Advanced technical degree (MS/PhD)

Tools

Spark

Kafka

Flink

Job description

Overview

This role is open for the Edinburgh, Scotland location only. Candidates must be based there, as the position requires working from the office at least three days per week (3:2 hybrid policy).

Responsibilities

• Responsible for shaping data architecture, infrastructure, and engineering strategy. Acts as the senior site leader for the Edinburgh hub.
• Define and implement the vision and roadmap for AI infrastructure and data engineering.
• Lead, mentor, and scale global engineering teams.
• Oversee large-scale distributed compute, storage, and streaming systems (e.g., Spark, Kafka, Flink, Iceberg/Delta Lakes).
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Data Science, ML Engineering, Product).
• Build and maintain pipelines, governance frameworks, dashboards, and analytics systems.
• Ensure reliability, scalability, compliance, and security across platforms.

Key Qualifications

• 12+ years in data engineering/infrastructure, with at least 5 years leading large teams.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, model training infrastructure, and inference platforms.
• Strong experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), MLOps/DevOps, and security.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred

• Advanced technical degree (MS/PhD).
• Strong knowledge of data systems (SQL/NoSQL, Spark, Kafka, Flink).
• Familiarity with AI-assisted data workflows and intelligent data interfaces.

Benefits

• Holiday purchase
• Private medical
• Income protection
• Attractive pension scheme
• Life insurance
• Lenovo and Motorola products discounts
• Mortgage advice and support

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any federal, state, or local protected class.

Additional Locations

• United Kingdom
• United Kingdom

AI PROCESSING NOTICE

We use AI-based tools to support some of our processes (e.g. online interviews recordings and transcripts) in order to achieve better efficiency, accuracy and for our documentation purposes. AI can make mistakes, but we always make sure that the outputs are manually reviewed by a human. You can always opt-out or contact us in case of any question.