Data and AI Engineer Director | Market Lead

Data and AI Engineer (Market Lead), UKI

Data and AI Engineer (Market Lead), UKI · Director level · London preferred

We are looking for a Director-level Market Lead to head our Data & AI practice in the UK & Ireland. This is a hybrid leadership role. You combine deep technical solutioning with real commercial skill, and you are credible both in an architecture debate and across the table from a CDO, CIO or CFO.

 Our delivery model is shifting from large time-and-materials teams to small, AI-first pods working against a business outcome. As Market Lead, you will shape how we take that model to UKI clients: what we sell, how we price it, and how we staff and deliver it. You will lead a core team of 5–6 direct reports and a wider matrix of around 50-75 people across UKI, and you will help them build the skills this shift requires. We are developing these ways of working together.

Main focus and responsibilities:

Commercial and solutioning

• Drive commercial success on complex Data & AI deals across UKI, from shaping the opportunity through to a signed deal. This includes structuring fixed-price and outcome-linked commercial models, and understanding delivery cost, margin and risk.
• Partner with tech advisory and industry domain leads from pre-sale through delivery, so the commercial story, the architecture and the sector insight reinforce one another.
• Frame and test business-outcome hypotheses with executives, and define thin slices of delivery that prove value quickly.
• You stay close enough to delivery to know what is realistic, and you share accountability for outcomes on the deals you sell.

Practice leadership

• Spearhead growth of the UKI Data & AI practice: build, lead, scale and mentor a high-performing team.
• Work with delivery and talent leads to match demand with capacity, so the right people and pods are available when deals land. Keep specialist skills sourced and bench waste low.
• Shift the practice's capability mix towards production AI engineering and agentic delivery, through hiring, reskilling and role-based onboarding.

Client engagement

• Manage executive-level relationships with CDOs, CIOs, CISOs and other CXOs. Act as a sparring partner on AI strategy: challenge assumptions, size the opportunity, and help clients decide where agentic automation and AI can move the P&L.
• Build and manage robust sales pipelines and lead strategic client workshops.
• Advise clients on responsible AI, covering risk, governance and regulatory expectations in the UK and wider markets.
• Expected to lead and drive P&L with TCV of 50 -75 M GBP and ACV of 45-50 M GBP/
• Expected experience and capabilities in driving all P&L criterias including sales, margin, utilization, bench management, training, learning, partnership based sales etc.

Ideal candidate profile

The successful candidate is a true dual-threat practitioner, equally at home in a complex architecture discussion and in closing a large commercial deal.

Criterion

Requirement

Experience

Significant senior experience in data and AI consulting, typically 15+ years, with a track record in leadership roles. You are neither a pure solution architect nor a pure sales profile.

Commercial track record

History of selling multiple large-scale data and AI deals, ideally including recent GenAI or agentic engagements, and able to discuss deal shape, pricing structure, trade-offs and delivery and business value delivery in concrete terms.

Technical expertise

Strong solutioning background in complex ecosystems: data platforms and data products, data governance, and AI systems in production, including agentic and LLM-based systems. You understand failure modes, evaluation, cost and risk, not just architecture diagrams.

Data/AI balance

Roughly 70/30, with demonstrable recent depth in AI (last 2–4 years), for example AI agents, AI advisory or AI foundations with large UK clients. Data depth is the foundation, but hand on AI credibility is required.

Tech stack

Strong cloud proficiency in at least one major platform (GCP, AWS or Azure). Snowflake or Databricks experience is a strong plus. Familiarity with the AI tooling and model platforms available on those clouds is expected. Experience on NVIDIA and other modern tech stacks will be great addition.

Commercial acumen

Comfortable with P&L, business cases and ROI conversations, and able to negotiate with CFO-level stakeholders.

Leadership

Experience leading and scaling teams of this size, in a matrix, through change.

• UK-wide remit. London-based candidates (or within about a two-hour commute) are preferred, with 1–2 days a week in the London office for collaboration and leadership visibility. 
• Weekly once or twice travel to customer location in UKI. 

Soft skills and cultural fit

• You bring drive and resilience, and you build momentum in a fast-changing environment.
• Executive presence: exceptional communication, with real C-level exposure and comfort presenting and negotiating with CDOs and CXOs.
• Facilitation of strategic workshops and consultative client conversations.
• Comfort leading through ambiguity while the delivery model and competency frameworks are still maturing.
• A coaching mindset: you grow other leaders and raise AI fluency across the team.

Learning & Development

• There is no one-size-fits-all career path at Thoughtworks: however you want to develop your career is entirely up to you. 
• But we also balance autonomy with the strength of our cultivation culture. 
• This means your career is supported by interactive tools, numerous development programs and teammates who want to help you grow. 
• We see value in helping each other be our best and that extends to empowering our employees in their career journeys.

Responsible Use of AI in Recruitment

• At Thoughtworks, we use AI tools to support our recruitment team with administrative tasks such as drafting communications, scheduling interviews and writing job descriptions.
• Crucially, our AI tools do not screen, assess, rank or make hiring decisions. Every application is reviewed by our team and all selection decisions are made exclusively by our interviewers and hiring managers.
• We are committed to fairness and responsible AI. We actively manage our AI systems by testing, monitoring for biased outcomes and implementing mitigation measures. We hold our third-party vendors to these same high standards through a rigorous governance process. For additional information, please see our full Thoughtworks AI Policy for Recruitment.

About Thoughtworks

• Thoughtworks is a dynamic and inclusive community of bright and supportive colleagues who are revolutionizing tech. As a leading technology consultancy, we're pushing boundaries through our purposeful and impactful work. 
• For 30+ years, we've delivered extraordinary impact together with our clients by helping them solve complex business problems with technology as the differentiator. 
• Bring your brilliant expertise and commitment for continuous learning to Thoughtworks. Together, let's be extraordinary.

See here our AI policy.