Head of AI Transformation

Part of the global leader Bain & Company, Proxima is a well-established and leading management consulting firm specialising in procurement currently with offices in London, Leeds, Cardiff, Dusseldorf and Chicago.

At Proxima, we help leading brands and public organisations unlock value, strengthen supplier relationships, and build sustainable supply chains. We pride ourselves on being open, collaborative, and people-focused - investing in development and encouraging our people to challenge, innovate, and grow their careers with us.

Role Overview

The Head of AI Transformation is responsible for leading Proxima's AI strategy, delivery, and adoption across a global consultancy of over 600 practitioners. Acting as the Product Owner for the firm's AI portfolio, this role owns the AI roadmap, oversees the development and evolution of the in-house AI platform, and leads the team responsible for building and embedding AI-enabled products and capabilities across the business. The role will be based in Cardiff with a hybrid working model , with regular travel required across the UK and occasional international travel to the US and APAC regions.

This is both an internal leadership role and the recognised voice of AI across Proxima. Responsible for shaping AI strategy and driving adoption, the role is also accountable for delivering AI-enabled products and measurable business outcomes.

The function inherits an in-flight transformation programme, including an Azure-based AI platform and products already in development. The successful candidate will build on these foundations, scaling the capability into a mature, well-governed function that delivers lasting business value.

Strategy & Leadership

• Act as Product Owner for the firm's AI portfolio, owning and evolving the enterprise-wide AI roadmap while ensuring alignment with operational excellence objectives and broader business priorities.

• Act as the principal advocate for AI across the executive, partner group, and consultant population - translating capability into business value, and pushing back where AI is the wrong answer.

• Set the direction on build vs. buy: champion in-house solutions where they're the right fit, and equally champion third-party tools where they outperform building.

• Represent AI Transformation at peer level alongside Heads of Business Systems, Data, Standards, and Knowledge - ensuring AI is integrated into, not bolted onto, the wider operational fabric.

Delivery & Team Leadership

• Lead the AI Transformation team: AI Solution Architect, AI Developers (via the SA), and AI Business Analysts.

• Own the delivery pipeline, determining what is prioritised, deferred, or deprioritised, and be accountable for outcomes.

• Run the team's operating rhythm through Azure DevOps — stand-ups, planning, retros, roadmap reviews, and stakeholder reporting.

• Manage budgets, resourcing, vendor relationships, and licensing across the AI estate.

Governance, Risk & Standards

• Establish and maintain the AI governance model: acceptable use, data handling, model selection, security review, and approval gates.

• Set guardrails around responsible AI use within a regulated consultancy environment, working with Data, Standards, and Knowledge counterparts.

• Be the escalation point and decision-maker for AI-related risk — including when to slow down or say no.

AI Tooling & Workforce Enablement

• Champion the firm-wide AI tooling stack — Microsoft Copilot in 365 today, Anthropic Claude as it lands — and approve new entrants as the market evolves.

• Sponsor and organise training programmes to lift baseline AI fluency across all 600+ practitioners, from junior consultants to partners.

• Run a continuous scan of the AI tool market and decide what enters Proxima's standard stack.

• Spot repeatable patterns emerging from everyday AI tool use and route the strongest candidates to the engineering team to be built into robust, governed systems and agents.

Adoption & Change

• Drive adoption of AI capability across UK, Europe, US and APAC consultant populations.

• Sponsor change management, training, and communications alongside delivery.

• Build feedback loops from consultants and clients back into the roadmap.

Qualifications & Experience

• Significant experience leading transformation, product, or technology functions, with at least one cycle of taking an emerging capability to scaled operational delivery.

• Demonstrable track record of delivering AI, automation, or intelligent systems into production — not just strategy or advisory.

• Strong commercial judgement: comfortable making build-vs-buy calls, managing vendors, and defending decisions to executive stakeholders.

• Credible technical fluency — not hands-on, but able to challenge architects and engineers on approach, cost, and risk. Familiarity with Azure, modern AI tooling, and enterprise integration expected.

• Experience operating in a professional services, consultancy, or similarly distributed, knowledge-worker environment is strongly preferred.

• Proven people leadership across mixed technical and non-technical teams.

• Excellent executive communication — able to brief partners, run governance forums, and present externally where required.

• Comfortable saying no, slowing things down, or escalating risk in a culture that's enthusiastic about AI.