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About the Role
The purpose of the Director of Innovation role is to lead the development and delivery of strategic Aritifical Intelligence (AI) initiatives, with a strong emphasis on generative AI, and to oversee the full lifecycle of AI-powered applications across the University. This role plays a critical part in driving digital transformation and aligning innovation with institutional goals such as operational efficiency, enhanced student support, and improved service delivery.
The role holder is responsible for managing a multidisciplinary team that includes AI scientists, AI engineers, application developers, testers, and support engineers. They will lead the delivery of robust, scalable, and ethical AI solutions embedded in applications used by students, staff, and other key stakeholders.
Working closely with academic, operational, and technical teams, the role holder will shape a clear strategic direction for the University's AI and application delivery efforts. They will help establish a Centre of Excellence for AI, fostering a collaborative culture, supporting the adoption of common platforms and reusable assets, and ensuring consistency in delivery standards and governance.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the strategic direction for the development and delivery of generative AI capabilities and AI-powered applications across the institution, ensuring alignment with the University's broader goals in innovation, digital transformation, and student success.
- Lead the design and delivery of robust technical foundations, including model orchestration frameworks, prompt management systems, application pipelines, and development environments, to support the scalable and ethical use of generative AI technologies.
- Shape and implement best practices, development standards, and operating models for AI and application delivery, ensuring high-quality engineering, testing, and support processes across a cross-functional team.
- Actively influence architectural, security, data governance, and model evaluation frameworks that underpin responsible AI use and application development within the University context.
- Work closely with Data Technology and Enterprise Architecture teams to align infrastructure and platform capabilities with the needs of AI and application development, including model hosting, vector stores, APIs, and observability layers.
- Proactively identify opportunities where AI and generative AI applications can improve operational performance, service delivery, or the student experience, and lead the development of end-to-end solutions that address these opportunities.
- Champion responsible AI principles and foster internal understanding of AI tools and limitations, influencing stakeholders across academic and professional units to make informed and ethical use of generative AI capabilities.
- Lead a multidisciplinary team comprising AI scientists, AI engineers, application developers, testers, and support engineers, ensuring high levels of performance, motivation, and continuous skills development.
- Represent the Chief Data Office and wider digital leadership at senior-level forums, including University-wide steering groups and strategic committees, contributing to policy discussions and technology strategy at the highest level.
- Collaborate with external technology partners, vendors, and research communities to ensure the University's generative AI strategy reflects cutting-edge thinking and emerging best practices, while ensuring effective transfer of knowledge into institutional delivery.
About You
Essential:
- Extensive experience in leading and developing high-performing, multidisciplinary teams across AI, machine learning, and software/application development, with a proven ability to manage complex delivery portfolios and support career development within the team.
- Demonstrable success in designing and delivering generative AI and machine learning solutions at scale, including responsibility for model development, evaluation, orchestration, and deployment into production-grade applications.
- Proven ability to lead and influence cross-functional teams outside of direct line management, collaborating with platform engineers, enterprise architects, data stewards, and business stakeholders to drive large-scale AI adoption.
- Strategic thinker with experience developing and executing long-term AI and digital product roadmaps aligned with organisational priorities, balancing innovation with governance, compliance, and technical feasibility.
- Deep understanding of the full AI and application product lifecycle, including prompt engineering, infrastructure requirements, model monitoring, product design, user testing, and post-release support.
- Skilled in translating complex technical concepts into accessible insights for senior stakeholders, with strong experience preparing executive-level reports, proposals, and business cases.
- Strong stakeholder management, negotiation, and influencing skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across academic, operational, and technical functions.
- Comfortable operating in high-pressure environments, with a focus on ownership, problem solving, and timely delivery of high-impact solutions.
- Demonstrated commitment to user-focused design, continuous improvement, and responsible innovation, with a clear appreciation for the ethical and social dimensions of AI.
- Inclusive and collaborative leadership style, fostering a culture of psychological safety, innovation, and learning across diverse technical teams.
Desirable:
- Undergraduate degree or equivalent experience, with advanced qualifications (such as a Master’s or PhD) in AI, Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field.
Support with your application
If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.
What's in it for you?
At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).
Flexible working
We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.
It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be a minumum of 3-4 times per month.
Next steps in the Recruitment process
We anticipate that interviews for this role will be taking place on-site at our Milton Keynes campus during the week commencing 17 November 2025.
Early closing date notification
We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.
How to apply
To apply for this role please submit the following documents:
- CV
- A personal statement of up to 1000 words. You should set out in your statement why you are interested in the role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the required competencies for this role as detailed in the job description.
You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.
