Chief AI Transformation Officer

TechHeads; Dublin; Hybrid; EUR 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

TechHeads in Ireland is seeking a senior AI Transformation Leader who reports to the CIO to take ownership of the organisation’s AI agenda. This is a senior enterprise leadership appointment focused on AI strategy, governance and business value creation, not pure technology delivery.

The successful candidate will shape the strategic roadmap, engage senior stakeholders, and align investment with opportunities that deliver material impact.

Qualifications

• Senior enterprise leadership with proven AI strategy experience.
• Experience engaging with C-suite, Board and investors.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the enterprise AI strategy and roadmap.
• Establish AI governance, responsible AI and internal controls.
• Create the framework to assess, prioritise and fund AI demand.
• Translate AI capabilities into commercial and operational outcomes.
• Represent the AI agenda at C-suite and Board level.

Job description

AI Transformation Leader – Reporting to CIO

I’m supporting a confidential search for a Director of AI to take ownership of the next phase of a major organisation’s AI transformation.

This is a senior enterprise leadership appointment, reporting directly to the CIO and operating at the intersection of AI strategy, business transformation, governance and commercial value creation.

The organisation is already well into its AI journey. An established AI function of approximately 8–10 people is in place, 1,800 Microsoft Copilot licences have been deployed across the estate, and significant investment is being made across AI platforms, people and capability.

The opportunity now is to move from AI capability to enterprise-scale impact.

The Mandate

The successful individual will take executive ownership of the organisation’s AI agenda, defining where AI can create material business value, establishing the strategic roadmap and ensuring investment is directed towards the initiatives that matter most.

This is not a technology delivery role.

There is already strong technical capability within the organisation.

The mandate is to provide the strategic leadership, enterprise perspective and governance discipline required to bring AI into the heart of the business.

You will work across the organisation, engaging senior stakeholders to identify opportunities, challenge assumptions, establish priorities and create alignment around what the organisation should and should not pursue.

Critically, this individual will need the confidence to say “not yet” when necessary, ensuring the organisation focuses its investment and capacity on the opportunities capable of delivering the greatest impact.

The role will encompass:

• Ownership of the enterprise AI strategy and roadmap
• Establishing the organisation's approach to AI governance, responsible AI and internal controls
• Creating the framework through which AI demand is assessed, prioritised and funded
• Identifying opportunities for AI and automation to fundamentally improve how the organisation operates
• Translating emerging AI capabilities into commercial and operational outcomes
• Building executive and business-wide confidence in the organisation's AI agenda
• Providing strategic leadership to the AI function and shaping its future operating model
• Ensuring technical delivery is aligned to a clear enterprise strategy
• Representing the AI agenda at C-suite and Board level

The CIO is looking for someone who can operate with significant autonomy, someone who can take ownership of the agenda rather than waiting for direction.

The organisation is already making a multi-million-euro annual investment in AI, including approximately €1m in platforms and licences and a further €1.5m in people and delivery capability.

There is therefore a substantial platform from which to build.

The opportunity is particularly significant given the scale and complexity of the wider organisation, with AI expected to play an increasingly important role in areas including:

Automation | Productivity | Tendering | Knowledge Management | Lessons Learned | Operational Efficiency | Workforce Scalability | Decision Support

The ambition is not simply to deploy AI.

It is to use AI as a strategic lever for how the organisation scales, operates and competes.

The Leadership Profile

This appointment is suited to an established AI executive / senior AI transformation leader who has already operated at significant scale.

We are looking for someone who has:

• Previously defined, shaped or led an enterprise AI strategy
• Operated successfully at Director, VP or equivalent executive level
• Experience taking AI beyond experimentation and into scaled enterprise adoption
• Strong commercial and strategic judgement
• Experience establishing AI governance and responsible AI frameworks
• The gravitas to engage credibly with C-suite, Board and PE-backed stakeholders
• A track record of leading through influence across complex organisations
• Experience managing and directing technical AI capability without needing to be the hands‑on engineer
• The maturity to prioritise, challenge and make difficult decisions
• Genuine understanding of the art of the possible with AI, balanced with the pragmatism to recognise what is realistic

A Microsoft-centric enterprise environment would be advantageous, as would experience within engineering, construction or another complex, high-volume operating environment. Neither is essential.

What Will Differentiate the Successful Candidate?

This organisation does not need someone who believes they can transform everything in six months.

It needs someone who has been through enterprise transformation before.

Someone who understands that AI creates enormous opportunity, but that successful adoption requires prioritisation, governance, sponsorship, investment and disciplined execution.

Someone who can walk into a business with 100 potential opportunities and confidently identify the 10 that will genuinely move the organisation forward.

Someone who has the credibility to engage the Board, the commercial instinct to demonstrate value and the leadership capability to bring the wider organisation with them.

The Opportunity

Ireland | Hybrid

Initial appointment: 3–6 month interim mandate, with a transition into a permanent leadership position.

This is an opportunity to join an organisation early enough in its AI maturity to genuinely shape the function, but sufficiently advanced that the foundations, investment and executive sponsorship are already in place.

If you are an established AI leader who has built and led enterprise AI strategy at scale, I would be very interested in speaking with you.

All enquiries will be handled in the strictest confidence.