Frontier AI Assistant Director

Ernst & Young; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Ernst & Young in the United Kingdom seeks an innovative Frontier AI Assistant Director to identify and scale emerging AI opportunities. You will connect client needs with evolving technologies, lead cross‑disciplinary teams, and shape initiatives from concept to capability development across EY.

You will collaborate with service lines, sectors, alliances and external ecosystems to validate business value, translate technical advances into strategic recommendations, and deliver measurable client

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Business or related field; advanced degree preferred.
• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, AI, machine learning, product development, solution architecture, technical consulting, technical program management, innovation or related tech.
• Hands-on experimentation, prototyping, or building with emerging technologies as part of ongoing learning.
• Experience leading complex technology initiatives spanning technical, business, and stakeholder considerations.

Responsibilities

• Monitor developments across AI to identify capabilities, market signals, and opportunities relevant to clients and EY strategy.
• Build relationships across service lines, sectors, alliances, regions, and ecosystems to understand evolving business needs.
• Identify, shape, and lead Frontier AI initiatives connecting emerging tech with client challenges and priorities.
• Design and build experiments, prototypes, and proofs‑of‑concepts to validate opportunities and accelerate learning.
• Assess opportunities across business value, feasibility, readiness, risk, and adoption potential.

Skills

Software engineering

AI/ML

Product development

Solution architecture

Technical program management

Innovation

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering/Information Systems/Business

Advanced degree preferred

Job description

• Monitor developments across AI, both externally and across EY, to identify emerging capabilities, market signals, and opportunities relevant to clients and firm strategy.
• Build relationships across service lines, sectors, alliances, regions, and external ecosystems to understand evolving business needs and technology opportunities.
• Identify, shape, and lead Frontier AI initiatives that connect emerging technologies with client challenges and strategic priorities.
• Continuously experiment with emerging technologies to develop first-hand understanding of their capabilities, limitations, and potential applications.
• Design and build experiments, prototypes, and proof-of-concepts to validate opportunities, evaluate technologies, and accelerate learning.
• Assess opportunities across business value, technical feasibility, enterprise readiness, risk, and adoption potential.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to validate, refine, and advance new capabilities.
  Deep curiosity about the evolving AI landscape and a demonstrated ability to identify meaningful developments before they become mainstream.
• Ability to connect emerging technologies with client needs, business opportunities, and strategic priorities.
• Broad technical foundation with the credibility to evaluate technologies, challenge assumptions, and engage deeply with technical practitioners.
• Actively builds, prototypes, and experiments with emerging technologies as part of an ongoing hands-on practice.
• Learns through doing, rapidly testing ideas and developing first-hand perspectives on new capabilities.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity, using experimentation and evidence to inform decisions and recommendations.
• Ability to engage effectively with business leaders, client-serving teams, technologists, startups, and alliance partners to identify opportunities and shape initiatives.
• Translates technical developments into business implications, strategic recommendations, and actionable next steps.
• Strong communication, influence, and storytelling skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience bringing together diverse stakeholders to advance new ideas from concept to implementation.
• Builds relationships across internal and external innovation ecosystems to accelerate learning and capability development.
• Creates reusable assets, frameworks, accelerators, and playbooks that enable successful innovations to scale., Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Business, or a related field. Advanced degree preferred.
• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, AI, machine learning, product development, solution architecture, technical consulting, technical program management, innovation, or related technology disciplines.
• Demonstrated history of hands-on experimentation, prototyping, or building with emerging technologies as part of an ongoing practice of learning and exploration.
• Experience leading complex technology initiatives that span technical, business, and stakeholder considerations.
• Experience evaluating emerging technologies and translating them into business value, technical solutions, or new capabilities.
• Preferred backgrounds include technology startups, technical program management, solution engineering, customer engineering, product development, technical consulting, innovation organizations, or related roles.
  At EY, we're all in to shape your future with confidence.

We'll help you succeed in a globally connected powerhouse of diverse teams and take your career wherever you want it to go. Join EY and help to build a better working world. About the Next Frontier: Applied Innovation's Next Frontier focuses on emerging technologies, including Physical AI, Quantum Computing, and Frontier AI, amongst others such as Cyber Frontier. This initiative translates advanced capabilities into measurable outcomes, helping clients and EY teams unlock new opportunities through technology-driven capabilities. The opportunity: Frontier AI bridges emerging AI capabilities and evolving client needs. We identify high-potential innovations in the market and connect experts across EY and the ecosystem; where breakthroughs meet customer needs, we incubate, validate and deliver new scalable capabilities to the firm and its clients. We are builders, strategists, and innovators focused on turning rapidly evolving AI technologies into trusted business outcomes through evidence, collaboration, and responsible innovation. The Frontier AI Assistant Director helps identify, shape, and scale emerging AI opportunities across EY. Working closely with service lines, sectors, alliances, and innovation teams, this role connects evolving client needs with emerging technologies and leads initiatives from experimentation through capability development. Areas of focus may include trusted and open-weight models, AI-native software delivery, enterprise knowledge and context systems, specialized AI, and agentic systems., At EY, we'll develop you with future-focused skills and equip you with world-class experiences. We'll empower you in a flexible environment, and fuel you and your extraordinary talents in a diverse and inclusive culture of globally connected teams. Learn more., EY | Building a better working world EY is building a better working world by creating new value for clients, people, society and the planet, while building trust in capital markets. Enabled by data, AI and advanced technology, EY teams help clients shape the future with confidence and develop answers for the most pressing issues of today and tomorrow. EY teams work across a full spectrum of services in assurance, consulting, tax, strategy and transactions. Fueled by sector insights, a globally connected, multi-disciplinary network and diverse ecosystem partners, EY teams can provide services in more than 150 countries and territories.