Head of AI Enablement

Head of AI Enablement

Global Advertising Agency

London (Hybrid in office 3 times per week)

£180k base + 10% bonus

This isn't a role where you manage a tool rollout and call it done. There's no playbook yet. You're writing it.

Our client is a global advertising agency with a genuine challenger mindset. They work with major brands (who you'll know) and move fast. Right now, they're building their AI and systems capability from the ground up, and they need someone to own it end to end: the tools, the governance, the adoption, and the proof that it's actually working.

The problem?

Buying AI tools is easy. Making them stick is not. They've got ambition and budget, but they need someone who can take that and turn it into a machine: embedding Gemini into daily workflows, fixing the back-office systems nobody wants to touch, and running the kind of strategic projects that report directly to the COO and CIO. That's this job.

As Head of AI Enablement, you'll own the full picture. The AI rollout, the systems roadmap, the automation pipeline, and the governance framework that keeps it all honest. You won't just launch things. You'll be accountable for whether they actually deliver.

What You'll Own

• AI deployment. Lead the enterprise-wide rollout of Gemini, getting it genuinely embedded into how teams work, not just installed and ignored. Build a Centre of Excellence that shares what's working across the business.
• Automation pipeline. Find the opportunities, vet them, prioritise them, and move them from idea to delivery. Every initiative needs a clear ROI before it gets resourced.
• Systems ownership. Own the long-term roadmap for the agency's back-office applications (Deltek Maconomy, Deltek Workbook, SAGE, Greenhouse). Partner with department heads globally to translate operational pain into system fixes.
• Strategic projects. Act as a senior partner to the COO and CIO on the big stuff, including M&A integrations and operational efficiency programmes across the group.
• Governance and value realisation. Build the framework that keeps the portfolio honest: stage-gate approvals, clear accountability, and post-implementation reviews that check whether the intended benefits actually landed.

What They're Looking For

• Delivery track record. You've taken complex, messy problems and turned them into working solutions. Not prototypes or pilots. Things that shipped and made a difference.
• The hybrid mindset. You can talk AI API integrations with a developer in the morning and agency margins with an MD in the afternoon. Both conversations need to feel natural.
• Systems experience. You've managed enterprise technology in a large, international business services environment. ERP implementations, not just SaaS rollouts.
• AI fluency. You don't need to be a data scientist. You do need to know how to scope, prompt, and deploy AI tools to solve real operational problems, and you need to have done it.
• Seniority. 10+ years at mid to senior level, with enough gravitas to work directly with executive leadership and enough practicality to get your hands dirty when needed.

Bonus Experience/Nice to have

• Experience in advertising, media, or professional services.
• Background in M&A integration or post-merger systems work.
• Familiarity with building governance frameworks from scratch.

Why This One's Worth a Look

You're building, not inheriting. The governance framework, the AI adoption model, the systems roadmap: none of it exists yet. You're creating it.

Real accountability. You own benefit realisation, not just delivery. If the tools don't move the needle, you'll know before anyone else does.

Direct line to the top. You're reporting into and partnering with the COO and CIO on the work that matters most to the business.

It's current. AI in advertising is moving fast, and this agency wants to be ahead of it, not catching up.

Most roles like this ask you to run what's already there. This one asks you to build what doesn't exist yet. If that's the kind of problem you want to own, get in touch.