Principal - AI & Leadership

Forward Institute; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Training and development budget

Pension scheme

Job summary

Forward Institute is seeking an experienced professional for a strategic role focused on AI leadership. This position involves translating advanced AI concepts into compelling client solutions and facilitating high-impact engagements. You will work closely with senior leaders and can expect a hybrid working model. The ideal candidate has over 8 years in strategy consulting and a proven track record of client engagement and workshop facilitation. The role comes with health insurance and a supportive environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years’ experience in strategy consulting, leadership consulting, or programme design.
• Experience taking a proposition to market and growing it.
• 1-2 years’ experience working in AI, technology or innovation.

Responsibilities

• Translate AI and leadership concepts into client propositions.
• Engage with clients and develop tailored proposals.
• Facilitate workshops and leadership sessions for senior teams.

Skills

Commercial instinct

Intellectual rigour

Facilitation skills

Understanding of AI

Job description

Salary: Dependent on experience.

Contract: Full-time, permanent

Location: London/Hybrid

ABOUT THE ROLE

This role is about building and scaling Forward Institute’s AI leadership offer. It combines three core elements:

• Translating our distinctive point of view into commercial propositions
• Converting growing demand into high-quality client engagements
• Delivering that work with senior leaders across sectors

The role requires someone who is comfortable operating with autonomy, working across strategy, business development and delivery.

You will work closely with the CEO and Managing Director to translate our distinctive thinking on AI and leadership into propositions and engagements for our partners.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Turn Forward Institute’s distinctive thinking on AI and leadership into compelling client propositions
• Work with internal and external experts to codify the offer
• Build a deep understanding of client context, needs and priorities
• Connect our vision with client challenges to shape tailored, high impact proposals
• Lead client conversations, develop proposals and convert opportunities into engagements
• Design and facilitate workshops, programmes and leadership sessions for senior teams, acting as co‑facilitator on larger engagements
• Lead client engagements end-to-end, acting as a trusted point of contact
• Create trusted spaces for reflection, challenge and decision‑making
• Build relationships with mission‑aligned organisations and identify opportunities for collaboration
• Support the development of joint work, thought leadership and impact‑led initiatives
• Contribute to our external voice on leadership in the age of AI

ABOUT YOU

This is a strategic and commercial role at the heart of a growing area of our work. We are looking for someone with strong commercial instinct, intellectual rigour, and a genuine obsession with how AI will reshape organisations, leadership and society.

You will have experience of building and growing a new proposition and the confidence to take it into the market. You are as comfortable winning work as you are delivering it.

You’ll love it here if you are…

• Entrepreneurial and comfortable building something new from strong but incomplete foundations
• Commercially sharp, with a clear instinct for where value lies
• Deeply curious about how AI will reshape organisations and leadership
• Collaborative and able to work across teams and disciplines
• Gets energy from working with ideas and making them land in practice

You’ll thrive if you have:

• Ability to translate a strong intellectual framework into clear, compelling client propositions
• Strong commercial capability, including leading client conversations and converting work
• Ability to move fluently between conceptual thinking and commercial application
• Excellent facilitation skills with senior teams
• Ability to translate ideas about AI into clear leadership action
• ~8+ years’ experience in strategy consulting, leadership consulting, or programme design
• Experience taking a proposition to market and growing it
• Proven track record of winning work through senior relationships
• 1‑2 years’ experience working in AI, technology or innovation
• Experience working closely with senior leadership teams and delivering high quality workshops/advisory

ABOUT US

We believe a better future is possible, and how we get there begins with leaders. The choices they make will determine the years to come.

Through transformative leadership programmes, advisory support and powerful cross‑sector collaboration, we help leaders reimagine what responsible leadership looks like - and make it real in their organisations.

Our work blends world‑class faculty insight with deep organisational partnership. We support leaders to lead with purpose, respond to complexity and shift culture in service of long‑term impact. And through our growing Fellowship of over 1,500 changemakers, we help build a movement of leadership that is courageous, collaborative and fit for the future.

Responsible leadership is the courageous and creative use of power to shape a better future. It is a choice, and we help leaders choose it.

BENEFITS

We know our greatest strength is our people. We want every one of us to feel supported in their health, in wellbeing, and in building a secure future.

When you join, you are enrolled on our Health Insurance, we have a working from home set up, generous training and development budget, an abundance of library books to borrow, you’ll be enrolled onto our people’s pension scheme and more.

Our benefits are here to reflect our values in action: to help you thrive at work, protect what matters outside it, and feel confident through the twists and turns of your personal and professional journey.

HOW TO APPLY

We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment practices. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences.

We want to make this process as inclusive and accessible as possible. If you have any access needs or specific requirements, please get in touch with [e-mail].

Applications for this role are closing on Monday 25th May.

You must have the right to work in the UK.