Director of AI - Private Equity

Harnham; England; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A specialist private equity firm is seeking a Principal or Director of Data & AI to lead AI strategy across its financial services portfolio. This role involves designing and delivering AI initiatives, leading technical diligence, and managing a high-performing AI team. Candidates need expertise in financial services and a proven background in AI systems. The position offers a competitive salary with significant bonuses and flexible hybrid working conditions.

Qualifications

• Must have experience in the financial services or banking sectors.
• Proven track record of designing and delivering AI/ML systems.
• Strong leadership and team management skills.

Responsibilities

• Design and deliver AI & data strategies across portfolio companies.
• Lead technical diligence on AI-readiness during deal evaluations.
• Build and deploy reusable LLM/AI/ML systems to unlock value.
• Define governance frameworks for risk and compliance.
• Own internal AI transformation and training programs.
• Build and manage a high-performing AI team.

Skills

Financial services expertise

AI strategy design

Leadership

Technical diligence

Python

MLOps

Tools

Azure

AWS

GCP

Job description

Do you want to design and lead AI strategy across a PE portfolio?

Have you built and delivered AI / ML systems that directly impacted business outcomes?

Are you ready to work with board-level leaders to define how AI transforms financial services?

A specialist private equity firm is hiring a Principal or Director of Data & AI to lead strategic and technical AI initiatives across its portfolio of financial services and fintech companies. The firm operates internationally and maintains a collaborative, flat-structured team culture with a strong emphasis on innovation, impact, and value creation.

This role sits within their internal innovation and value creation function. You will work closely with investment teams, portfolio executives, and internal stakeholders to deploy LLMs, design AI strategies, and build capabilities that drive measurable impact across the group.

This person needs financial services / banking / capital markets domain expertise.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and deliver AI & data strategies across portfolio companies and internal teams
• Lead technical diligence on AI-readiness and opportunities during deal evaluation
• Build and deploy reusable LLM / AI / ML systems (agents, copilots, etc.) to unlock value
• Define governance frameworks across risk, explainability, audit, and compliance
• Own internal AI transformation—deploying tools, platforms, and training programmes
• Build and manage a small, high-performing AI team (strategists, engineers, architects)
• Act as a thought leader across the portfolio, publishing insights and sharing best practices

Key Details

• Location : London (hybrid, 2 days / week in-office)
• Director : £120,000–£200,000 base + ~20% bonus
• Principal : £120,000–£140,000 base + ~20%+ bonus
• Team : 3–4 person AI team within a 100-person private equity firm
• Tech Stack : Python, LLMs, MLOps, cloud (Azure, AWS, GCP), agentic systems
• Visa Sponsorship : Happy to sponsor

Interested? Please apply below.