Business Unit Director - Consumer & Business Services (TMT/Retail)

Faculty transforms organisational performance through safe, impactful and human-led AI.

We are Europe's leading applied AI company, and saw its potential a decade ago - long before the current hype cycle.

We were founded in 2014 with our Fellowship programme, training academics to become commercial data scientists.

Today, we provide over 300 global customers with industry-leading software, and bespoke AI consultancy for retail, healthcare, energy, and governmental organisations, as well as our award winning Fellowship.

Our expertise and safety credentials are such that OpenAI asked us to be their first technical partner, helping customers deploy cutting-edge generative AI safely.

Our high-impact work has saved lives through forecasting NHS demand during covid, produced green energy by routing boats towards the wind, slashed marketing spend by predicting customer spending habits, and kept children safe online.

AI is an epoch-defining technology. We want people to join us who can help our customers reap its enormous benefits safely.

About the role:

This is a leadership position, reporting to our CCO and situated within our Applied AI consultancy part of the business. You will have ownership of the Consumer & Services Business domain and the freedom to shape the team, strategy and client base to pursue the highest-impact opportunities in this space.

As part of the Faculty leadership team, you will lead and execute on Faculty's commercial strategy in the Consumer Services division, and play an integral part in realising Faculty's wider commercial agenda.

This is a role with a high degree of autonomy - we will look to you to continuously define Faculty's offerings, act as an evangelist and ambassador for Faculty expertise, decide where and when to place emphasis, and to lead a team in driving client engagement and solutions of the intellectual calibre for which Faculty is renowned.

What you'll be doing:

• Client-facing business development - building relationships with new and existing clients to understand the nuances of their requirements and potential fit for Faculty expertise

• Working closely with peers on the technical side of the business to shape Faculty's Consumer Services offerings

• Strategic decision lead on Faculty's market approach, including new sectors ripe for engagement

• Day-to-day leadership of a team commercial individuals to deliver work which engages new clients and drives re-engagement from existing

• Hiring and team growth in line with market success

• Business Development activities which raise the profile of Faculty in our relevant markets - fireside chats, speaking opportunities etc.

• Team development and empowerment

• Full P&L responsibility

Who we are looking for:

At Faculty, your attitude and behaviour are just as important as your skills and experience. Our principles guide our day-to-day actions and we look for individuals who can demonstrate their alignment with these.

We like people who combine expertise and ambition with optimism who are interested in changing the world for the better and have the drive and focus to make it happen. If you're a good fit for Faculty, you probably:

• Love finding new ways to solve old problems - when it comes to your work and professional development, you don't believe in 'good enough'. You always seek new ways to solve old challenges.

• Think scientifically, even if you're not a scientist - you test assumptions, seek evidence and are always looking for opportunities to improve the way we do things.

• Are pragmatic and outcome-focused - you know how to balance the big picture with the little details and know a great idea is useless if it can't be executed in the real world.

Specific expertise we are seeking:

• Experience leading an AI/Analytics teams or work programmes

• Experience driving adoption of AI in complex organisations (either in-house or as a consultant)

• Experience selling, and leading, high value consulting engagements

• Experience building and empowering very high-performance teams

• Knowledge of (a) relevant sector(s); retail, FMCG, software, media, consumer services, legal

• Enthusiastic evangelist for the application of AI to consumer/retail industries

• Energy, commitment, lucidity, gravitas.

The Faculty team is diverse and distinctive, and we all come from different personal, professional and organisational backgrounds. We all have one thing in common: we are driven by a deep intellectual curiosity that powers us forward each day.

Faculty is the professional challenge of a lifetime. You'll be surrounded by an impressive group of brilliant minds working to achieve our collective goals. Our consultants, product developers, business development specialists, operations professionals and more all bring something unique to Faculty, and you'll learn something new from everyone you meet. You'll also have the opportunity to make your mark on a high-growth start-up now poised to expand internationally.