Innovation Lab Specialist

The Enterprise Innovation Lab is a two-person special projects team inside the Enterprise line of business (LoB) AI & Automation programme. The remit: find high-value AI and automation opportunities across the Enterprise line of business, explore new tools and technology from outside the organisation's existing technology stack to apply to use cases, build working prototypes at pace, validate them quickly, and hand solutions to the delivery work streams to product ionise.

The Specialist role will sit in an independent mini-team, the Innovation Lab, with the Specialist and the Manager running under the direction of the AI & Automation Director - fast, self-sufficient and built to make the wider programme go faster. You will manage the pipeline of pilots, contribute to pace and outcomes, and build alongside the Manager.

The successful candidate will contribute to building stronger AI and automation capability over time, independently driving new solutions and technologies, and helping to ensure that AI investment converts into measurable enterprise value through clear outcomes, disciplined delivery, and early-stage building.

• Manage a pipeline of prototypes – mandate to deliver and iterate at pace.
• Frontier tooling - hands-on with the latest AI platforms, with responsibility to explore and test.
• High autonomy - an independent two-person team, light-touch direction and outcome-focused.

• Accelerate Enterprise is bringing functional AI and Automation to the Enterprise line of business - a strategic priority for the organisation.
• This is an Enterprise LoB role sitting in the commercial business, not engineering. You will spend real time with Commercial and Operations teams and their partners (Credit, Compliance, Marketing, and more). Being able to explain what you built and why it matters commercially is part of the job.
• The role is not strictly aligned to defined functions - free to find and test opportunities anywhere in the Enterprise LoB, ahead of formal delivery.
• Tool and tech scouting is a core part of the remit - the Lab tests cutting-edge tools from outside the organisation's existing technology stack against real use cases and informs what the organisation adopts next.

• Build and manage a pipeline of AI and automation opportunities sourced directly from Enterprise Commercial and Operations teams and partner functions.
• Frame every pilot commercially before build starts: quantify the value (revenue, cost, risk, speed), define success criteria and clear stop conditions.
• Pressure-test ideas with frontline teams before committing build effort.

• Build hands-on alongside the Manager across the existing technology stack.
• Run and manage structured pilot tests with real users in Commercial and Operations teams.
• Set up measurement for every pilot: baseline, pilot result, delta. Results reported accurately and transparently back to leadership.
• Iterate quickly on feedback and flag early when something is not working.

• Manage relationships with Enterprise Commercial and Operations leads.
• Bring partner functions in early - so pilots do not stall at governance gates later.

• Manage the Lab's “tool and tech radar” - track the market for new AI and automation tools worth testing (automation platforms, agent frameworks, etc).
• Apply new tools from outside the organisation's existing technology stack to real use cases. Run and manage structured side-by-side evaluations against the incumbent stack: capability, cost, security posture, integration effort.
• Share findings to the organisation - tools tested, findings, and…