Head of Data and AI

Contract Type: Permanent

Location: Hybrid 

About Us

We’re Nominet, a world-leading domain name registry operating at the heart of the UK internet. While we're best known for running UK domains, we also help protect public services from cyber threats.  As a public benefit company, our work has a positive impact on society. We’ve donated millions to projects that use technology to improve people’s lives and have committed to delivering £60m worth of support over the next three years. We’re also already a Carbon Neutral company, and we’re committed to helping the UK reach Net Zero by 2050.

About the role

As the Head of Data and Al at Nominet, you will create a high performing engineering team that uses data and Al to drive innovation and create new value for the business. Your team will act a central hub for innovation with data, empowering users across the business to use data and Al to enhance their roles. To make this shift, you will redesign Nominet's Data Operating Model from the ground UP in a way that reimagines the team as data product development, data advisory, and an Al innovation function to enable others.

As part of the new Data Operating Model, you will implement a framework for the ethical use of Al at Nominet in line with the evolving good practice and the wider regulatory landscape.

You will implement a data quality management strategy to drive consistency and repeatability in our data, including appropriate guardrails and safeguards around our most sensitive data assets. You will sponsor and drive a programme of work to ensure all but the most accuracy critical business reporting moves to the business teams.

As a technology thought leader, you will have a passion for new and emerging data and Al technology. YOU will use this energy and enthusiasm to evangelise about new data and Al possibilities internally and externally.

You will work with the CT O and executive team on ideas to improve Nominet's core business.

You will recognise yourself as what has come to be known as an 'E' shaped person. Someone who combines their extensive expertise with experience, execution, and exploration to solve challenging problems as they emerge, or that you identify.

Responsibilities

• Lead from the front as a partially hands-on subject matter expert
• Build on our data platform (Databricks) to establish an internal Al innovation lab
• Provide collaborative leadership to reimagine the data function across data engineering, data product development, data science, ML/AI
• Collaborate with stakeholders and project managers to turn business goals into technical solutions
• Define best Al/ ML driven practices and establish an Al development lifecycle from prototyping to production
• Oversee model training and optimisation
• Coach and mentor our teams to build scalable data and Al solutions across the business
• Build and deploy end to end ML/ Al models and leverage metrics to support predictions, recommendations, search, and growth strategies
• Inform and deliver product roadmaps to accelerate growth

Interpersonal skills

• An authentic, positive leadership style that can guide and motivate teams in the right direction with a bias towards action
• Ability to communicate effectively at all levels, flexing style to the audience with differing levels of technical understanding
• Ability to manage differences of opinion within teams and across teams to build consensus, while upholding a culture of inclusivity and respect
• Promote and role model Nominet's values of 'we keep it simple', 'we bring a positive mindset', 'we pul together' and 'we make things happen'
• Demonstrate empathy when managing individuals, ensuring their views are heard through active listening
• Foster teamwork through participation, involvement and oversight of development and operations
• Ability to recruit, mentor, and retain a world-class team of software engineers

Key Results

• Measurable continuous improvement in Nominet's platform and product reliability
• Realisation of economies of scale found through automation and repeatable practices
• Proven performance that can be measured through data and insight
• Increased awareness of Nominet as a thought leader and
• demonstrable engineering excellence

About you and your experience

• 7+ years of software engineering experience; 3+ years of senior leadership experience, preferably working within a similar industry
• Expert experience with data and analytics
• Strong experience with Data Science and Machine Learning (ML), with the mindset to continuously explore and experiment with emerging AI
• Strong understanding of supervised learning, unsupervised learning,reinforcement learning and deep learning
• Knowledge of Neural Networks (CNNs, RNNs, Transformers)
• Experience developing and commercialising solutions/ products
• Enterprise architecture mindset and experience
• Experience with near real time systems and streaming systems preferred
• Knowledge and practical experience of product development life cycle and Agile development methodology
• Experience of working with highly secure environments
• Experience with data platforms and cloud platforms (Databricks and  AWS preferred, but not essential).
• Proven experience in software planning, organisation, and development
• Experience with data engineering and data product development from business requirements analysis to day-to-day management
• Programming experience with more than one programming language, typically Python or Java
• Ability to align key stakeholders toward a common goal, drive results, and facilitate change
• Superior problem-solving, written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills
• Experience managing, coaching, developing, and inspiring direct reports
• The role demands focus, energy and enthusiasm for creating high- quality software products as well as a positive attitude to succeed.
• Candidates must enjoy learning, be adaptable to changing priorities and have the flexibility to be effective in an evolving DevOps / DataOps / MLOps environment.

Interview process

1st stage: Introduction call with a member of the TA team (30 mins) 

2nd stage: Hiring manager interview (45 mins)

3rd stage: Technical interview (60 mins)

4th stage: Psychometric assessment 

5th stage: Values interview with leadership team (60 mins)

What we offer

• 30 days annual leave plus bank holidays, with the ability to purchase an additional 5 days
• Bupa private healthcare + Employee Assistance Programme
• Electric vehicle scheme with on-site charging points
• Rewards platform with access to discounts at hundreds of shops, restaurants etc.
• MediCash discounts on routine healthcare including optical, dental and much more
• Company and individual performance-based annual bonus

Please note, all roles working for Nominet will be subject to a Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) check. Some roles will require additional security clearance due to the nature of their work.  Nominet is also unable to offer Visa Support in any capacity.

We’re proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we’re committed to building an inclusive, diverse community that celebrates and welcomes everyone.
If there are any adjustments we could make to the recruitment and selection process to support you, please let us know.