St. James’s Place
Director - AI
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Are you ready to chart your own career path? With our refreshed strategy, we’re building on our rich heritage and transforming our business to be more scalable and efficient, unlocking the capabilities needed for future success. This includes significantly investing in technology, streamlining the way we work and creating an environment where colleagues feel engaged, empowered and accountable; where they can show up, speak up and perform - because we believe in the difference our work makes.
At a glance:
- LOCATION: London - Paddington
- Workplace Type: Hybrid
- Employment Type: Permanent
- Seniority: Director
The Role
As the Director of AI, you will establish and guide SJP’s enterprise AI strategy, vision, and risk framework. You will ensure AI is applied effectively and responsibly, aligning with our Corporate Strategy and business goals.
You will partner with engineering, architecture, and delivery divisions across SJP, SS&C, and strategic partners to advance our corporate strategy through broader AI adoption. Your role involves leading innovation, supporting transformation, and incorporating AI-led change organisation-wide.
You will also guide the creation and use of AI and ML tools throughout SJP. You will ensure solutions provide clear value, are well controlled, and support sustainable growth.
What you will be doing
- Delivery, Execution & Value Realisation
- Governance, Risk & Regulatory Compliance
- Collaborator Leadership & Influence
- People, Leadership & Culture
What we are looking for
Strategy & Vision
- Define and take responsibility for SJP’s enterprise AI strategy, vision, and roadmap, aligned to corporate priorities, with clear outcomes over a 12-36 month horizon.
- Apply strong commercial judgement to the evolving AI landscape, identifying material opportunities and translating them into compelling, dedicated investment cases.
- Lead the end-to-end delivery of strategic AI initiatives, taking accountability for pace, prioritisation, and realisation of measurable business value.
- Partner with engineering, architecture, technology operations, and delivery teams to compose, build, deploy, and scale AI solutions that are robust, secure, and aligned to business priorities.
- Build and govern delivery plans with senior collaborators, managing dependencies, trade-offs, and risk to ensure initiatives transition effectively from concept to live service.
- Drive identification and prioritisation of high-value AI use cases, coordinating their lifecycle from ideation through to optimisation and, where appropriate, decommissioning.
- Ensure solutions are production-ready and scalable through the adoption of MLOps, AI guardrails, and emerging capabilities, maintaining long-term sustainability.
- Define and integrate a comprehensive AI governance, risk, and control framework aligned to SJP’s enterprise risk model and regulatory obligations.
- Ensure all AI solutions meet required standards across data protection, privacy, security, and model governance, evolving policies in line with technological advancement.
- Monitor and interpret regulatory developments, proactively adapting SJP’s approach to ensure compliance and leadership in responsible AI.
- Act as SJP’s authoritative voice on AI at GEC and senior leadership levels, translating complex concepts into clear, business-focused narratives.
- Develop and sustain robust, trust-centered connections throughout GEC, GEC-1, and strategic partners to ensure sponsorship, alignment, and support of the AI agenda.
- Drive clear, consistent communication of AI strategy, progress, and outcomes throughout the organisation.
- Champion AI literacy across SJP and Partner practices, building understanding of AI capabilities, risks, and opportunities.
- Build and develop organisational capability in AI and ML through mentoring, talent development, and knowledge sharing.
- Provide strong functional leadership, ensuring clear accountabilities, effective prioritisation, and long-term capability through recruitment, performance management, and succession planning.
- Lead by example in embedding SJP’s values, ethical standards, and inclusive culture.
- Foster a high-trust, collaborative environment that encourages open dialogue, constructive challenge, and continuous learning to support innovation and adoption.
- Ability to coordinate the development of new machine learning models, evaluate the efficiency of existing models, and find opportunities for innovation and improvement.
- Ability to work closely with engineering, architecture, tech ops, delivery, and cross-functional teams to incorporate AI and ML solutions into existing systems, platforms, controls, and workflows.
- Ensure compliance with all relevant data privacy and security regulations.
- Comprehensive understanding of the ethical considerations and governance frameworks necessary for the responsible use of AI.
- Ability to communicate complex AI concepts and solutions to non-technical collaborators, both internally and externally.
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
Reasonable Adjustments
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
We're an equal opportunities employer and want to ensure our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive for all. If you require reasonable adjustment(s) at any stage, please let us know by emailing us at careers@sjp.co.uk
Research shows applicants, especially from underrepresented groups, may hesitate to apply if they lack all criteria or have had a long career break. If you believe you match this role and have transferable experience, please apply even if you don't meet every requirement.
Please be aware that this position is a Certification role under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime.
What's in it for you?
We reward you for the work you do, whether that’s through our discretionary annual bonus scheme that reflects both personal and company performance, competitive annual leave allowance (28 days plus bank holidays, with the option to purchase an additional 5 days), or online rewards platform with a variety of discounts.
We also have benefits to support whatever stage of life you are in, including:
- Competitive parental leave (26 weeks full pay)
- Private medical insurance (optional taxable benefit)
- Non-Contributory Pension – 10% (increasing with length of service up to 15%) with further pension matching.
What's next?
If you're excited about this role and believe you have the skills and experience we're looking for, we'd love to hear from you! Please submit an application by clicking ‘apply’ below and our team will be in touch.
As a business regulated by the FCA we would advise you to familiarise yourself with the conduct regulations and in particular consumer duty obligations prior to an interview with SJP.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills