Head of AI Centre of Excellence

Head of AI Centre of Excellence

A leading global provider of new generation IT solutions to the global travel, aviation, transportation and hospitality industries is looking for a Head of AI Centre of Excellence for its consulting organisation.

Role Summary

The AI CoE Head will define and drive the enterprise AI strategy for the consulting organisation, enabling AI-led transformation internally and for customers. The role will build differentiated AI capabilities, accelerate adoption across practices and establish the consulting organisation as a recognised AI transformation partner in the travel industry.

This leader will head the AI Centre of Excellence across four core pillars:

• Solution, Capability & GTM
• Platform & Tools
• Responsible AI
• Innovation

The role requires a Europe-based leader with strong industry credibility, capable of representing the organisation in customer, partner, analyst and industry forums, while also shaping an AI-first culture across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

AI Strategy & Transformation

• Define and execute the AI roadmap aligned to business and transformation priorities.
• Embed AI capabilities across consulting, engineering, delivery, customer experience, cloud and data practices.
• Drive AI-led productivity, quality and delivery acceleration initiatives.
• Build reusable AI frameworks, accelerators, and industry solutions for the travel ecosystem.

Lead the AI CoE

Provide leadership across four strategic areas:

Solution, Capability & GTM

• Develop AI-led consulting offerings and transformation propositions.
• Enable AI capability building across teams and practice champions.

Platform & Tools

• Establish scalable AI platforms, toolchains, copilots and reusable engineering assets.
• Drive enterprise adoption of AI development and delivery frameworks working with practices.

Responsible AI

• Define AI governance, ethics, compliance, security and risk frameworks.
• Ensure responsible and scalable AI adoption across contracts and engagements.

Innovation

• Drive experimentation, incubation, hackathons and emerging AI initiatives.
• Build partnerships across technology ecosystems, startups and academia.
• Establish and operate AI Experience Lab.

Leadership Expectations

• Represent the organisation in global AI and travel industry forums.
• Act as a thought leader and AI evangelist for customers and internal teams.
• Foster an AI-first culture and enterprise-wide AI adoption mindset.
• Collaborate across practices, delivery, sales and transformation leadership teams.

Desired Profile

• 20+ years in technology, consulting, digital engineering or transformation leadership.
• Proven experience leading AI, GenAI or enterprise AI transformation initiatives.
• Strong understanding of AI platforms, AI engineering, Responsible AI and consulting-led transformation.
• Executive presence with strong communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience in travel, aviation, transportation or hospitality domains preferred.

Location

Europe (Preferred) - remote

International travel will be required