AI and Technology Lead

About Us

At National Grid, we light up the world by harnessing the unique strengths of our people. Join us as a AI and Technology Lead to be part of a team that's driving forward the energy transition, creating a brighter, more sustainable future for all. Unleash your superpower and bring energy to life.

National Grid is hiring a AI and Technology Lead - This position is based from our Warwick office however we offer flexible hybrid working options.

The AI and Tech Lead will drive the strategic adoption and delivery of advanced technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, to enable data-driven decision-making and operational excellence. This role will provide technical leadership across digital and data initiatives, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, and aligned with business objectives. Acting as a bridge between product, engineering, and business teams, the AI and Tech Lead will shape the technology roadmap, champion innovation, and oversee the development of high-impact AI / ML use cases that deliver measurable value.

• Define and own the AI and technology roadmap aligned to business outcomes, regulatory obligations, and enterprise architecture standards.
• Establish and embed AI governance (model risk management, ethical use, responsible AI, data privacy) and report compliance status to leadership.
• Work with central teams to set technical standards, patterns, and guardrails for AI/ML, analytics, and automation across the product portfolio.
• Prioritise, scope, and deliver high impact AI / ML use cases with clear KPIs, value hypotheses, and benefits tracking.
• Lead / Oversee solution delivery end to end, from discovery and PoC to productionisation, ensuring scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Manage and lead the data science team in line with the product managers roadmap
• Drive continuous improvement through retrospectives, A/B testing, and post implementation reviews to realise expected outcomes.
• Champion cloud-native engineering best practices, automation, and CI/CD for AI workloads.
• Define data quality SLAs and controls for critical datasets; establish monitoring for drift, bias, and model performance.
• Implement model lifecycle management (validation, approval, retraining schedules) and manage deprecation/rollback procedures.
• Partner with interal Legal, Security, and Risk teams to assess and mitigate AI related risks
• Engage product owners, business stakeholders, and operations to translate needs into AI-enabled features with clear Definitions of Ready/Done.
• Communicate complex technical topics in plain language; provide updates on delivery, risks, and decisions to senior leadership.
• Lead training, adoption plans, and playbooks to embed new capabilities and processes.
• Build and mentor a high performing team (data scientists, ML engineers), fostering a culture of safety, learning, and optimisation.
• Create standards for code quality, documentation, and peer review; run communities of practice and technical design forums.
• Upskill the wider organisation on AI literacy and responsible use through enablement sessions and guidance.

• Proven track record delivering AI/ML solutions from concept to production at scale.
• Advanced proficiency in Python and ML frameworks
• Hands-on experience with MLOps tooling (MLflow, Kubeflow, Azure ML pipelines) and cloud platforms (Azure preferred).
• Strong understanding of Generative AI, LLMs, and prompt engineering for enterprise use cases.
• Knowledge of data engineering principles, feature stores, and scalable data pipelines.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence senior stakeholders.
• Skilled in translating complex technical concepts into clear business outcomes.
• Experience in mentoring and capability building within technical teams
• Familiarity with Responsible AI principles, data privacy (GDPR), and regulatory frameworks.
• Experience implementing AI governance and risk management processes.
• Strong problem-solving and strategic thinking skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

A competitive salary - dependent on capability.

As well as your base salary, you will receive a bonus of up to…