Director, Frontier AI and Emerging Partnerships

HSBC Holdings plc; Greater London; On-site; GBP 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

HSBC is recruiting a Director, Frontier AI and Emerging Partnerships to shape HSBC’s global collaboration with frontier AI providers and ecosystem partners. You will lead the strategy, build executive relationships with leading AI companies, and translate external capabilities into strategic pilots and scaled opportunities.

You will work across business, technology, procurement, legal, risk and the Group AI programme to deliver measurable business outcomes in a global banking context.

Qualifications

• Strong understanding of foundation models, AI ecosystems, and emerging specialist technology markets.
• Hands-on experience building or experimenting with AI solutions, including agents, in professional or personal contexts.
• Proven experience originating, structuring and developing complex partnerships with global technology companies and high-growth specialists.
• Evidence of converting external technologies into assessments, experiments, proofs of value and scaled business opportunities.
• Strong commercial judgement to evaluate strategic fit, differentiation, economics, delivery feasibility, risk and partner value.
• Ability to navigate commercial, operational, regulatory, data, security and third-party considerations in a global bank.
• Clear communication of complex tech topics with credibility across senior leaders and executives at strategic partners.
• Ability to interpret market developments, form viewpoints, and translate uncertainty into focused strategic choices.
• Excellent negotiation and relationship management across cultures and seniority levels.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute HSBC’s global frontier AI and emerging partnership strategy aligned with the Group AI programme and broader innovation agenda.
• Build trusted executive relationships with frontier AI providers, AI infrastructure and ecosystem companies.
• Maintain a dynamic view of the external market, identifying differentiated capabilities and potential partners.
• Translate partner capabilities into defined use cases, outcomes and adoption pathways with business and tech leaders.
• Oversee strategic assessments, pilots, proofs of value and innovation programmes with clear hypotheses and success measures.
• Embed priority partnerships into HSBC’s AI programme workstreams and coordinate dependencies across value streams.
• Establish commercial structures and governance with Procurement, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Cybersecurity, and Data teams.
• Prioritise the partnership portfolio based on strategic relevance and feasibility.
• Provide senior stakeholders with succinct insights on frontier AI developments and partner implications.
• Represent HSBC with priority partners at external forums to contribute to long-term ecosystem strategy.

Skills

Foundation models

AI ecosystems

AI fluency

Partnership development

Commercial judgement

Regulatory & security awareness

Cross-cultural communication

Strategic thinking

Entrepreneurial mindset

Job description

Director, Frontier AI and Emerging Partnerships

Location: London, GB, E14 5HQ

Brand: HSBC

Area of Interest: Technology

Role Workstyle: Hybrid Worker

Date: 25 Sept 2026

Ready to build HSBC’s next-generation frontier AI partnerships?

Why HSBC

HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world. Guided by our purpose of opening up a world of opportunity, our ambition is to become the world’s most trusted bank globally, putting customers at the heart of everything we do.

The Role

Group Innovation and Digital Partnerships (IDP) sets HSBC’s group-wide approach to innovation and strategic digital partnerships, connecting the bank with leading technology companies, AI providers, specialist innovators, universities and ecosystem builders. This is an exciting new role - dedicated to Frontier and Emerging AI Partnerships to help future-proof the bank. As Director, Frontier AI and Emerging Partnerships you’ll define and execute HSBC’s global partnership agenda across frontier AI and selected emerging specialist partnerships. You’ll build senior relationships with leading frontier AI companies and strategic ecosystem partners, initially including OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral and NVIDIA while continuously identifying specialist partners that could create meaningful strategic or competitive advantage for HSBC. Working across business, technology, procurement, legal, risk and the Group AI programme you’ll convert external capabilities into a focused portfolio of strategic assessments, proofs of value, pilots and scaled partnership opportunities. Success looks like clear partnership choices, disciplined experimentation with strong governance and partnerships that translate into measurable business outcomes.

What you’ll be doing

• Develop and execute HSBC’s global frontier AI and emerging partnership strategy aligned with the Group AI programme, business priorities and the broader innovation agenda
• Build trusted executive relationships with leading frontier AI providers, AI infrastructure and ecosystem companies and emerging specialist technology partners
• Maintain a dynamic view of the external market, identifying differentiated capabilities, emerging technologies and potential partners relevant to HSBC
• Translate partner capabilities into defined use cases, business outcomes and adoption pathways with business and technology leaders
• Oversee strategic assessments, pilots, proofs of value and innovation programmes with clear hypotheses, success measures and recommendations
• Embed priority partnerships into the strategic partnerships workstream of HSBC’s AI programme and coordinate dependencies across relevant value streams
• Establish appropriate commercial structures and governance with Procurement, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Cybersecurity, Data and Third Party Risk teams
• Prioritise the partnership portfolio based on strategic relevance, differentiation, feasibility, potential value and the bank’s capacity to execute
• Provide senior stakeholders with concise insight on frontier AI, emerging specialist capabilities, market developments and implications for HSBC
• Represent HSBC with priority partners and at selected external forums, contributing to long-term innovation, research, talent and ecosystem strategy

What we’re looking for

• Bring strong understanding of foundation models, AI ecosystems and emerging specialist technology markets
• Demonstrate practical AI fluency and curiosity through general understanding of AI concepts and hands‑on experience building or experimenting with AI solutions, including agents, in a professional or personal context
• Show proven experience originating, structuring and developing complex partnerships with global technology companies and high‑growth specialists
• Evidence success converting external technologies into assessments, experiments, proofs of value and scaled business opportunities
• Apply strong commercial judgement to evaluate strategic fit, differentiation, economics, delivery feasibility, risk and long‑term partner value
• Navigate commercial, operational, regulatory, data, security and third‑party considerations relevant to adopting technology in a global bank
• Communicate complex technology topics clearly with credibility across senior internal leaders, founders and executives at strategic partners
• Interpret market developments, form a point of view and translate uncertainty into focused strategic choices and action
• Negotiate and manage relationships effectively across cultures and seniority levels
• Bring an entrepreneurial mindset, creating structure and momentum from a 0-to-1 starting point and moving from strategic intent to tangible business outcomes with pace and discipline

Shaping HSBC’s frontier AI partnerships

You’ll help HSBC decide where frontier AI can create real advantage and then turn that intent into outcomes through the right partners and a disciplined path to adoption. The work spans strategy, experimentation and scale - with the governance needed for a global bank and the pace needed for a fast‑moving market. If you want to build senior partnerships across frontier AI and emerging specialist technologies and translate them into measurable business impact we’d like to hear from you.

Being open to different points of view is important for our business and the communities we serve. At HSBC, we’re dedicated to creating diverse and inclusive workplaces - no matter their gender, ethnicity, disability, religion, sexual orientation, socio‑economic background or age. We are committed to removing barriers and ensuring careers at HSBC are inclusive and accessible for everyone to be at their best. We take pride in being a Disability Confident Leader and will offer an interview to people with disabilities, long term conditions or neurodivergent candidates who meet the minimum criteria for the role.

If you have a need that requires accommodations or changes during the recruitment process, please get in touch with our Recruitment Helpdesk via [e-mail] .