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.
Job responsibilities
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Job qualifications
Technical Skills
- Enterprise Tech & AI Architecture: Deep proficiency in at least one major cloud (GCP, AWS, Azure), modern data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks), and AI/NVIDIA ecosystems.
- Data/AI Production Experience (70/30 Split): 15+ years in data consulting with concentrated recent depth (last 2-4 years) in productionizing AI, LLMs, and agentic systems.
- Delivery & Risk Management: Deep understanding of the realities of deploying AI into production-specifically evaluating failure modes, delivery costs, governance, and technical risks (not just drawing architecture diagrams).
- Complex Deal Structuring: Proven history of shaping and selling large-scale Data & AI deals, specifically transitioning clients to outcome-linked or fixed-price commercial models.
- P&L & Operations Ownership: Hard business acumen required to manage £50-£75M TCV and £45-£50M ACV, including driving margins, utilization, bench management, and capacity planning.
Professional Skills
- Suite Advisory & Presence: Exceptional ability to act as a strategic sparring partner to CDOs, CIOs, and CFOs. Comfort challenging client assumptions and negotiating ROI and business cases at the executive level.
- Navigating Ambiguity: High resilience and drive. The ability to build momentum and define strategy while internal delivery models, pricing structures, and competency frameworks are still maturing.
- Consultative Facilitation: Adept at framing business-outcome hypotheses, leading strategic client workshops, and breaking down massive transformations into thin, fast-value delivery slices.
- Matrix Leadership & Change Management: Experience leading, scaling, and managing a matrixed team of 50-75 practitioners across the UKI region.
- Coaching & Capability Building: A strong mentoring mindset focused on reskilling existing talent, raising the overall AI fluency of the practice, and shifting the team towards AI-first delivery pods.
Other things to know
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
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