Principal AI Coach

Atomic Weapons Establishment; Reading; On-site; GBP 46,000 - 72,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

9‑day working fortnight

270 hours annual leave

Pension scheme

Professional development funding

Employee assistance programme

Job summary

Atomic Weapons Establishment seeks a Principal AI Coach (AI Adoption) to lead senior‑level AI enablement across the organisation. You will train, coach and coordinate AI Coaches, ensuring practical, user‑focused AI adoption that aligns with security and learning & development aims.

Working closely with the AI Adoption Lead and L&D, you’ll translate AI capabilities into measurable improvements for diverse teams while maintaining safe, compliant usage and continuous evolution of enablement

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience.
• Strong experience in training, coaching or enabling the adoption of technology in a complex organisation.
• Proven ability to help people learn and apply new tools in day‑to‑day work, ideally including AI or automation.
• Hands‑on experience using digital or AI tools to support practical use cases.

Responsibilities

• AI Enablement Impact: Drive real‑world adoption of AI by helping people understand its relevance to their roles.
• Hands‑On Training & Coaching: Deliver practical, engaging training that builds confidence and capability.
• AI Coach Coordination: Support AI Coaches to ensure a consistent, high‑quality experience.
• User‑Centred Approach: Ground activity in real user problems and opportunities.

Skills

Training delivery

Coaching

AI adoption

User‑centred approach

Cross‑functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Digital Tech / Data / CS

Tools

M365 Copilot

Power Platform

Job description

Principal AI Coach (AI Adoption) Closing date: 2nd September 2026 Location: RG7 4PR, located between Reading and Basingstoke, with free onsite parking. Package: £45,560 - £72,000 (depending on your suitability, qualifications, and level of experience) Working pattern: AWE operates a 9-day working fortnight. We will consider flexible working requests so that your work may fit in with your lifestyle. Just let us know your preferred working pattern on your application.

The Principal AI Coach plays a senior, hands‑on role in helping colleagues across AWE discover, understand and use AI in their day‑to‑day work. Working alongside the AI Adoption Lead, they deliver practical training, coaching and real‑world examples that bring AI to life for teams, while lightly coordinating AI Coaches to ensure support is consistent and user‑focused. They act as a key link into Learning & Development, shaping how people learn AI in an engaging and evolving way. At its core, the role builds confidence, curiosity and safe, effective use of AI to help individuals and teams achieve better outcomes.

Key Accountabilities

• AI Enablement Impact: Drive real‑world adoption of AI by helping people understand how it can support their specific roles and outputs.
• Hands‑On Training & Coaching: Deliver practical, engaging training and coaching that builds confidence, curiosity and capability across the workforce.
• AI Coach Coordination: Support and coordinate AI Coaches (including B2 roles), ensuring a consistent and high‑quality experience while contributing directly to delivery.
• User‑Centred Approach: Ensure all activity is grounded in real user problems and opportunities, not generic or overly structured training.
• Communities & Culture: Build and sustain AI communities of practice and champion networks that encourage exploration, sharing, and peer learning.
• Dynamic Learning Approach: Continuously evolve training and enablement approaches to reflect rapidly changing AI tools and user needs.
• Practical Value Delivery: Support the identification and use of simple, high‑impact AI use cases that demonstrate tangible benefits quickly.
• Cross‑Organisation Alignment: Work with L&D, business areas and AI teams to ensure coherent and connected enablement activity.
• Responsible Use: Promote understanding of safe, responsible AI use, ensuring people know both the opportunities and limitations.

Who are we looking for?

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience) in a relevant field such as Digital Technology, Data, Computer Science, or similar.
• Strong experience in training, coaching or enabling the adoption of technology within a complex organisation.
• Proven ability to help people learn and apply new tools in their day‑to‑day work, ideally including AI or automation.
• Experience working directly with users to solve real problems and improve outcomes, not just delivering theoretical training.
• Hands‑on experience using digital or AI tools to support practical use cases.

Whilst not to be considered a tick list, we’d like you to have experience in some of the following

• Qualifications or certifications in AI, digital transformation, learning & development, or change management.
• Familiarity with enterprise AI tools (e.g. M365 Copilot, Power Platform or similar).
• Understanding of learning design or change/adoption approaches.
• Background in regulated or secure environments.
• Skilled in working with Learning & Development teams or external training partners.
• Proven ability to support communities of practice and capability‑building initiatives.

Benefits

We ask a lot and set the bar high because our work truly matters. In return we offer balance, with award winning benefits including:

• 9-day working fortnight – meaning you get every other Friday off work, in addition to 270 hours of annual leave.
• Market leading contributory pension scheme (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your contributions).
• Family friendly policies: Maternity Leave - 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave - 4 Weeks Full Pay.
• Opportunities for Professional Career Development including funding for annual membership of a relevant professional body.
• Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Services.
• Life Assurance (4 x annual salary).
• Discounts – access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending.
• Special Leave Policy including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring.

Due to the classified nature of the work involved, there are limited opportunities to work from home in this role. It is anticipated that the successful candidate will spend the majority of their time working on site.

You will need to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE. The nature of our work does mean you need to be a British Citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 5 years in order to apply for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.

Please let us know on your application form if you need any adjustments/accommodations during the process.

Our ambition is to create workplaces where we recognise and celebrate differences, encourage diverse contributions and our employees feel able to be themselves at work. We strive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants.

Please note that you must be a British Citizen to apply for a role with us.

We are at the start of a once in a generation – possibly two generations – programme to design and produce a replacement warhead for the UK’s continuous at sea deterrent. We will do this while continuing to deliver the Trident programme as well as managing ambitious state‑of‑the‑art capital and construction projects – some of which have never been done before. Find out more on our website.