Head of Applied AI

Nasstar

1d•Remote

About The Position

Colibri Digital is looking for a Head of Applied AI to lead and grow our AI engineering capability. This is a senior leadership role sitting at the intersection of AI engineering, consulting, commercial growth and technical delivery. You'll help shape where we take our AI capability next, lead senior conversations with clients and remain close enough to the technology to challenge architecture, guide engineers and influence how solutions are built. Our focus is very much on applied AI. We're interested in what happens beyond the demo: taking Generative AI, Agentic AI and predictive AI into secure, governed production environments where they solve real business problems. You'll inherit strong technical capability, but there's plenty still to build. You'll have the opportunity to shape the team, our propositions, how we go to market and how we turn emerging AI technology into solutions clients can actually use.

Requirements

Deep technical expertise in modern AI engineering, particularly LLM-based systems, RAG, agentic or multi-agent architectures, vector databases/embeddings and AI evaluation.
Proven experience taking AI or ML solutions from prototype through to reliable production use.
Strong software engineering fundamentals including system design, APIs, version control, automated testing and CI/CD.
Experience of MLOps/LLMOps and operating AI systems in production.
Experience with modern cloud AI technologies and platforms.
Experience leading engineers building AI systems while retaining strong technical credibility.
Experience working directly with senior clients, ideally within consulting, professional services or another client-led technology environment.
Experience in pre-sales – whether through discovery, solution shaping, proposals, pitches or helping win and expand client work.
Experience leading, mentoring and developing technical people.
A strong understanding of responsible AI, governance, evaluation and the challenges of deploying AI safely at scale.
The ability to move comfortably between conversations about business value and commercial outcomes and detailed conversations about how an AI solution should actually work.

Nice To Haves

Experience within a larger consulting organisation can be equally relevant.
Comfortable operating without layers of infrastructure around you, taking ownership and turning ideas into action.
Wants to build the playbook, not wait for one.

Responsibilities

Own the Applied AI capability: its technical direction, standards, people, propositions and continued growth.
Lead senior client conversations: AI discovery, consulting and solution conversations from initial opportunity through to delivery.
Drive AI engineering excellence: Setting high standards across architecture, engineering, testing, CI/CD, MLOps/LLMOps, evaluation, security and AI governance.
Ensure Production AI: Solutions move beyond experimentation into reliable, scalable and governed production environments.
Oversee Solution design: Challenging architecture, estimates and delivery approaches before commitments are made.
Lead, mentor and develop AI engineers and senior technical specialists while helping build the capability needed for the future.
Drive Commercial growth: Working alongside sales and pre-sales to build pipeline, win new work and expand existing client relationships.
Develop Propositions and IP: Turning successful client solutions into repeatable offerings, accelerators and reusable assets.
Manage Capability performance: Helping manage revenue, utilisation, capacity and margin across the practice.
Enhance our presence in the AI market: Building visibility through clients, partners, events, content and thought leadership.