Director of Data and AI

Department: Platform

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: London, Greater London, London, Hybrid

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, manage, and develop the Data and AI team, driving a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement
• Define and execute the Data and AI strategy in alignment with wider business goals
• Partner with senior stakeholders across Engineering, Product, Risk, Commercial, Finance, and the wider business to ensure Data and AI capabilities enable delivery, growth, and operational excellence
• Ensure the business has access to accurate, timely, and actionable data, enabling self-serve analytics and insight-led decision-making
• Own and improve the reliability, scalability, governance, quality, security, and performance of data and AI platforms, products, and services
• Establish clear metrics to measure the impact of Data and AI initiatives, data quality, model performance, adoption, and team effectiveness
• Drive best practices across data engineering, analytics, machine learning, data governance, experimentation, model monitoring, and responsible AI
• Ensure that AI solutions are robust, explainable, compliant, and aligned to business outcomes
• Support career development, mentoring, and succession planning within the team
• Contribute to wider technology and business leadership discussions, helping shape how data and AI are used responsibly and effectively across the organisation

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Proven experience leading Data, Analytics, Machine Learning, or AI teams at a senior level; ideally within a fintech environment
• Strong people leadership skills, with a track record of building and developing high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams
• Experience defining and delivering Data and AI strategy aligned to business outcomes
• Deep understanding of modern data platforms, data architecture, data modelling, data pipelines, analytics engineering, machine learning systems, and AI-enabled products
• Strong knowledge of data governance, data quality, privacy, security, regulatory considerations, and responsible AI principles
• Experience delivering production-grade data and AI solutions, including model deployment, monitoring, evaluation, and lifecycle management
• Strong hands-on understanding of modern data and AI tooling, ideally including SQL, Python, Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, Metabase, Tableau, and AWS-based data services
• Experience with data ingestion, streaming, and change data capture tooling, such as Fivetran, Estuary, or similar platforms
• Experience working with cloud data warehouses and operational databases, particularly Snowflake and Postgres
• Familiarity with BI and self-serve analytics platforms such as Metabase and Tableau, with an understanding of how to drive adoption across business teams
• Experience with SQL transformation and analytics engineering workflows using dbt, including governance, standards, and enablement for analytics engineers
• Ability to oversee API-based and batch data extraction processes, particularly those built in Python and orchestrated using Airflow
• Understanding of machine learning tooling and lifecycle management, ideally including DVC, MLflow, Evidently AI, or equivalent platforms for experiment tracking, versioning, monitoring, and evaluation
• Ability to work effectively across a data ecosystem that uses a range of AWS services to support ingestion, orchestration, transformation, machine learning, monitoring, and platform operations
• Ability to influence and communicate effectively with senior stakeholders and non-technical audiences
• Commercial awareness with experience managing budgets, prioritising investment, and optimising data and AI costs
• A pragmatic, delivery-focused mindset with the ability to balance short-term business needs and long-term Data and AI strategy

Job Benefits

• Award-Winning Workplace: YouLend has been recognised as one of the “Best Places to Work in 2024 and 2025” by the Sunday Times for being a supportive, diverse, and rewarding workplace.
• Award-Winning Fintech: YouLend has been recognised as a “Top 250 Fintech Worldwide” company by CNBC. 

• We have developed powerful solutions, secured significant partnerships, and are growing rapidly.
• The global opportunity is still massive, and YouLend is a raw organisation where we are only just getting started. 

• High-growth (>100% growth during 2022 and 2023), so clear outlook to compensation (bonus or share option appreciation) and career growth (through growth with the business).
• Well-capitalised with supportive private equity backing.
• Part of Banking Circle Group with a fully licensed Luxembourg bank, which can provide a balance sheet and support European expansion in otherwise complex regulated markets. 

•  A high-quality team that pushes each other to succeed through direct feedback and aligned incentives. 
• Strong, transparent team culture: we have each other’s backs.
• Independent work environment where results matter.
• Data-driven culture and emphasis on speed (anti-red tape). 

• Private Medical Insurance (via Vitality)
• EAP with Health Assured
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave
• Great office space (including a gym!) in Central London
• Subsidised lunch (via Feedr)
• Deliveroo allowance if working late in the office
• Monthly in-office masseuse
• Team and Company socials
• Sports clubs