Director of AI Strategy & Implementation

Overview

The Mission

At Haymarket we are at the forefront of the AI media revolution. We have successfully laid the foundations for staff augmentation (Stream 1) by deploying Gemini, a best-in-class AI tool across the organisation and our workplace tools. While the business change, learning, and awareness programmes for Stream 1 remain vital and ongoing, we are now ready to accelerate our goals, focusing on greater speed, sharper intent, and deliberate commercial viability across Product Innovation (Stream 2) and Automation & Agents (Stream 3).

We are seeking a high-calibre, commercially minded Senior AI Strategy & Implementation leader to bridge the gap between our technical foundations and our commercial ambitions. This is not a research or experimentation role; the focus is on pace, clarity, and outcomes. Reporting directly to our Group Chief Technology Officer, you will lead the end-to-end delivery of Streams 2 and 3 globally. Building on the momentum of our early, high-impact AI projects, your mission is to work hand-in-hand with our Divisional MDs and their senior teams to architect the processes and discovery frameworks that enable each business unit to continuously identify, validate, and deliver transformative value through AI. Crucially, you will act as the "Voice of AI" for the group, ensuring progress and successes are communicated effectively to both the executive team and the wider organisation, while navigating the sensitivities inherent in the shift towards automated workflows.

Responsibilities Strategic Leadership & Stream 2 (Product Innovation)

• Architect Divisional Discovery Processes: Partner with divisions to design and embed sustainable processes within their teams to discover high-value AI product opportunities. You will provide the "playbook" and consultative support needed for brands to surface ideas that solve specific market needs.
• Establish the Innovation Funnel: Create a formalised, group-wide Innovation Funnel that captures divisional discoveries. You will lead the validation and prioritisation of these opportunities based on their potential to drive revenue or audience growth.
• Commercial Prioritisation: Establish a rigorous ROI-led framework to evaluate AI initiatives, ensuring resources are focused on products that drive subscription retention, ad revenue, or market expansion.
• Cross-Divisional Orchestration: Act as the central architect for innovation, ensuring that breakthroughs in one brand are shared and scaled across the group.

Stream 3 Architecture & Execution (Automation & Agents)

• Sensitive Automation Strategy: Lead the rollout of the Agentic roadmap with a focus on addressing operational friction and removing drudgery. You will navigate the organisational sensitivities of automation by prioritising internal efficiency and trust-building over disruptive external changes.
• Agentic Infrastructure & Tooling Selection: Evaluate and recommend the optimal technology stack for agentic orchestration. You will ensure that selected tools align with Haymarket's existing technical foundations while providing the scalability required.
• Define Safety Boundaries: Develop the strategic roadmap and safety framework for Stream 3. You will define the boundaries for autonomous agents, ensuring "human-in-the-loop" oversight remains central to our agentic architecture.
• Agent Lifecycle Management: Lead the transition from Phase 1 "Digital Interns" (Internal/Low Risk) to Phase 3 "Autonomous Creators" (External/High Value), ensuring each stage is met with cultural readiness and clear communication.

AI Evangelism & Strategic Communication

• Executive Strategy Partner: Provide regular, high-impact briefings to the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) on the progress of Streams 2 and 3, highlighting ROI, strategic risks, and future opportunities.
• Cultural Catalyst: Champion AI success stories to the wider organisation. You will design and lead initiatives (such as "AI Showcases") to share progress, demystify the technology, and inspire employees with the "art of the possible."

Future Organisational Design (The Legacy)

• Future Structure Proposal: Conduct an assessment of the current AI operating model and propose a permanent future structure for AI within Haymarket. This includes identifying the permanent roles, central vs. divisional reporting lines, and the long-term capabilities required to maintain momentum beyond this 12-month contract.

The Ideal Candidate

• Seniority: Extensive experience in senior product strategy, technology leadership, or management consultancy, ideally within Media, Publishing, or Data services.
• Empathetic Change Leader: Highly attuned to the cultural sensitivities of automation; able to frame AI agents as "co-pilots" and "interns" that empower staff.
• Master Communicator: Exceptional at translating complex AI concepts into compelling narratives for different audiences, from technical teams to the executive board.
• Process Architect: Exceptional at designing discovery frameworks and workshops that empower non-technical leaders to identify high-value AI use cases.
• AI Fluency: Deep conceptual understanding of RAG, LLM limitations, and Agentic workflows.

We are a Disability Confident employer and offer guaranteed interviews to all disabled applicants who meet the above minimum criteria.

To be considered as part of this initiative, please ensure you indicate if you have a disability when applying for the post. If you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to fully participate in the recruitment process, please contact us at .

Why work with us?

Haymarket Media Group values its people and strives to shape a better future with remarkable content. From paid content and subscription services; to integrated advertising and content marketing packages. We deliver market-leading branded experiences that inspire great decisions. From data and digital information solutions to live events, awards and professional education services.

Our benefits include:

• Flexible working hours (core hours from 10-3) allowing you the flexibility to adapt your work schedule to your personal commitments
• 25 days holiday per year excluding bank holidays (increasing 1 day per year of service up to 30 days)
• Work from anywhere in the world for up to 3 weeks of the year
• Generous contributory pension scheme
• Health Cash Plans: With our health cash plans, you can access a range of healthcare benefits, including coverage for medical expenses, dental care, optical services, and more

More about working for Haymarket. Putting social and environmental responsibility at the forefront of our business we have aligned our current sustainability goals with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. As we serve our audiences, clients and communities, we are committed to driving the meaningful change necessary to build a better world. The principles of diversity, inclusion, respect, responsibility and sustainability are at the heart of our business.

We want to support our people to balance their personal and professional lives and we believe our range of benefits encourages this. Nothing beats face-time with our colleagues to promote creativity and collaboration, we've therefore adopted a blended working model where full time employees can expect to spend 3 days of their week in the office and the other 2 working at a location of their choice.

Haymarket is proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to ensuring that all candidates are given the same opportunity to succeed regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, marital status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion, age or disability.

If you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to fully participate in the recruitment process, please contact us at .

Come and join us and see for yourself how Haymarket is an enriching, empowering and exciting place to work.