Group Head of AI

Base Location
:
You'll be expected to spend 50% of your working week in one of the following locations:
Reading, Havant, London, Perth or Glasgow

Salary
: £101,000 - £151,400 + car/car allowance + performance-related bonus + a range of benefits to support your finances, wellbeing and family.

Working Pattern
:
Permanent | Full Time | Flexible First options available

SSE is building a future-fit, enterprise-grade technology foundation that supports resilient operations and enables future growth. As SSE’s first Group Head of AI, you will establish and lead the enterprise capability that makes AI a practical part of that foundation, shaping how it is adopted safely, securely and effectively across the organisation. Working collaboratively across SSE, you will bring together strategy, platforms, engineering, controls, innovation and partnerships to move AI from opportunity into supported production use, enabling safer operations, better decisions, improved performance and the capacity to scale and evolve effectively.

• Own and execute SSE’s group-wide AI strategy, investment roadmap and enterprise operating model, translating business ambition and emerging technology into clear priorities, practical choices and measurable outcomes.
• Establish secure, resilient and cost-effective enterprise AI platforms, reference architectures, engineering standards and reusable services, enabling and supporting Business Unit and Corporate Function teams to build and operate production-grade AI solutions more quickly and consistently.
• Create and operate SSE’s AI control plane, governance and lifecycle framework, with proportionate evaluation, assurance, monitoring and human oversight for models, agents and AI-enabled solutions.
• Provide clear and supportive pathways from use-case discovery and experimentation through to supported production use, leading common enterprise capabilities and cross-SSE solutions while enabling business areas to retain ownership of their products, adoption and realised value.
• Work collaboratively with the Group Head of Data and Group Head of Architecture to connect trusted, permission-aware data and information with enterprise architecture, cloud, cyber, operational technology and resilience direction.
• Shape SSE’s future AI choices across emerging models, agentic systems, infrastructure, compute, sovereignty and resilience, leading responsible innovation, strategic partnerships, research and co-development.
• Build a high-performing multidisciplinary enterprise AI function and profession, developing the skills, inclusive role-based pathways, communities and practical support needed to make safe and effective AI adoption part of how SSE works.

• A relevant degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Mathematics or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience, supported by continued development in AI and technology leadership.
• Significant senior technology leadership experience in a large, complex and regulated organisation, including building or materially reshaping an AI, software engineering, platform or equivalent enterprise technology function.
• Extensive practical experience designing, engineering, deploying and operating AI-enabled software and platforms in production across cloud and hybrid environments, rather than experience centred primarily on data science, research or prototypes.
• Strong technical command of modern AI application architecture and lifecycle engineering, including generative and agentic AI, retrieval and grounding, integration, human-in-the-loop design, MLOps, LLMOps or Agent Ops, observability and operational support.
• Practical experience of responsible AI, evaluation, risk tiering and controls…