Director of Technology and AI

We have an exciting new opportunity at Scope for a Director of Technology and AI to join our team!

We are looking for people who can connect their own personal vision and values into some of what we do at Scope.

Our vision as a company is to become a leading force in Eyecare, with people at our core.

The Compensation & Benefits for this role include (but not limited to):

• Performance related bonus
• 24 days annual leave (pro rata).
• Healthcare allowance beginning post probation and increasing at 2 and 5 years service.
• Pension contributions through Zurich beginning post probation and increasing at 2, 5 and 8 years service.
• Further Education policy
• Professional Membership

Please note, this role can be based across the UK, Ireland or the US.

The Director of Technology & AI will build and lead Scope Technology, the new function that brings Scope’s software, data and AI together under one roof for the first time. Reporting to the CEO and sitting on the Scope Leaders Forum, you will own the technology, data and AI agenda end to end: one trusted data backbone, software products with real ownership behind them, and AI put to safe, measurable use in every part of the business.

This is a build role in a regulated business, so you will set the strategy and the standards for governance, delivery and validation, and grow a strong team around an experienced in-house systems team. Your job is to make technology one of the reasons Scope leads its market rather than follows it.

• Set and own Scope’s technology, data and AI strategy in line with the long-range plan, and review it every three to six months rather than once a year, because technology and AI move too fast for a fixed annual roadmap.
• Build the function in a sensible sequence: hire the Product & Emerging Technology and AI & Automation leads, develop the Business Systems, Data & Platform team, and add capability as the agenda grows.
• Own the technology budget, vendor strategy and supplier portfolio, and move from undirected outsourced support to directed partnerships and in-house capability.
• Set the operating rhythm, governance and reporting for technology so the leadership team can see what is being delivered, what it costs and what it returns.
• Contribute as a member of the Scope Leaders Forum, translating technical choices into commercial consequences the leadership team and Board can act on.

• Consolidate parallel data operations into one governed backbone, covering warehouse, pipelines and business intelligence tooling, with one agreed source of truth the business trusts.
• Set a clear split of responsibility: the platform prepares and serves data, the business interprets it, and AI builds on top of it.
• Broaden the remit of the existing information systems team from support into the integration backbone of the business, with clear development pathways for the people in it.
• Define the target architecture and the standards, patterns and controls that new systems are built to.

• Install real product ownership across Scope’s software products, including the Optase MX2 platform and our Optase Connect & Scope Connect products, and consolidate them onto a shared platform.
• Move development from a closed, bespoke toolchain to an open, modern and AI-assisted approach owned by the team, removing single points of dependency on individuals or small suppliers.
• Bring proportionate delivery discipline so that development is predictable, visible and reportable, and the speed of change goes up.
• Work alongside R&D on the software within Scope’s device products. Device engineering itself stays with R&D.
• Run AI as a governed service to the whole business, turning scattered…