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Greater London, England, United Kingdom
Hybrid
We are looking for a Director-level Market Lead to head our Data & AI practice in the UK & Ireland. This is a hybrid leadership role. You combine deep technical solutioning with real commercial skill, and you are credible both in an architecture debate and across the table from a CDO, CIO or CFO.
Our delivery model is shifting from large time-and-materials teams to small, AI-first pods working against a business outcome. As Market Lead, you will shape how we take that model to UKI clients: what we sell, how we price it, and how we staff and deliver it. You will lead a core team of 5–6 direct reports and a wider matrix of around 50-75 people across UKI, and you will help them build the skills this shift requires. We are developing these ways of working together.
Data/AI Production Experience (70/30 Split): 15+ years in data consulting with concentrated recent depth (last 2–4 years) in productionizing AI, LLMs, and agentic systems.
Delivery & Risk Management: Deep understanding of the realities of deploying AI into production—specifically evaluating failure modes, delivery costs, governance, and technical risks (not just drawing architecture diagrams).
Complex Deal Structuring: Proven history of shaping and selling large-scale Data & AI deals, specifically transitioning clients to outcome-linked or fixed-price commercial models.
P&L & Operations Ownership: Hard business acumen required to manage £50–£75M TCV and £45–£50M ACV, including driving margins, utilization, bench management, and capacity planning.
Suite Advisory & Presence: Exceptional ability to act as a strategic sparring partner to CDOs, CIOs, and CFOs. Comfort challenging client assumptions and negotiating ROI and business cases at the executive level.
Navigating Ambiguity: High resilience and drive. The ability to build momentum and define strategy while internal delivery models, pricing structures, and competency frameworks are still maturing.
Consultative Facilitation: Adept at framing business-outcome hypotheses, leading strategic client workshops, and breaking down massive transformations into thin, fast-value delivery slices.
Matrix Leadership & Change Management: Experience leading, scaling, and managing a matrixed team of 50–75 practitioners across the UKI region.
Coaching & Capability Building: A strong mentoring mindset focused on reskilling existing talent, raising the overall AI fluency of the practice, and shifting the team towards AI-first delivery pods.
There is no one-size-fits-all career path at Thoughtworks: however you want to develop your career is entirely up to you. But we also balance autonomy with the strength of our cultivation culture. This means your career is supported by interactive tools, numerous development programs and teammates who want to help you grow. We see value in helping each other be our best and that extends to empowering our employees in their career journeys.
At Thoughtworks, we use AI tools to support our recruitment team with administrative tasks such as drafting communications, scheduling interviews and writing job descriptions.
Crucially, our AI tools do not screen, assess, rank or make hiring decisions. Every application is reviewed by our team and all selection decisions are made exclusively by our interviewers and hiring managers.
We are committed to fairness and responsible AI. We actively manage our AI systems by testing, monitoring for biased outcomes and implementing mitigation measures. We hold our third-party vendors to these same high standards through a rigorous governance process. For additional information, please see our full Thoughtworks AI Policy for Recruitment.
Thoughtworks is a dynamic and inclusive community of bright and supportive colleagues who are revolutionizing tech. As a leading technology consultancy, we’re pushing boundaries through our purposeful and impactful work. For 30+ years, we’ve delivered extraordinary impact together with our clients by helping them solve complex business problems with technology as the differentiator. Bring your brilliant expertise and commitment for continuous learning to Thoughtworks. Together, let’s be extraordinary.