Director – AI & Innovation

Role Description

Who we are:

Born digital, UST transforms lives through the power of technology. We walk alongside our clients and partners, embedding innovation and agility into everything they do. We help them create transformative experiences and human-centered solutions for a better world.

UST is a mission-driven group of over 30,000+ practical problem solvers and creative thinkers in over 30+ countries. Our entrepreneurial teams are empowered to innovate, act nimbly, and create a lasting and sustainable impact for our clients, their customers, and the communities in which we live.

With us, you’ll create a boundless impact that transforms your career—and the lives of people across the world.

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Director – AI & Innovation

UST is seeking a Director of AI & Innovation to define and lead the engineering strategy for our enterprise AI across both services and platforms, enabling scalable, secure, and commercially viable AI adoption across client engagements.

This is a hands-on, strategic leadership role at the intersection of engineering, architecture, and AI innovation, with accountability for translating emerging AI capabilities into enterprise-grade, reusable services and solutions. You will drive the evolution of our AI services from innovation-led initiatives into a mature, production-ready offerings that deliver measurable client value.

While operating at a director level, this role remains intellectually hands-on, requiring deep technical engagement in architectural decision-making, design validation, and engineering execution where required.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise AI Strategy & Leadership

Define and execute the end-to-end engineering vision and roadmap for UST’s AI services and platforms, aligned to enterprise, client, and market needs
Establish architecture principles, engineering standards, and governance frameworks to ensure scalability, security, and sustainability
Act as a senior technical authority, influencing direction and long-term investment decisions

Productisation & Commercialisation of AI

Lead the transition of AI capabilities from experimentation and PoC into scalable, enterprise-grade products
Drive the creation of reusable, modular, API-first components supporting multi-client adoption
Embed engineering thinking, ensuring the services/products are client-ready, configurable, and commercially scalable

Scalable, Secure & Cloud-Native Architecture

Ensure the services are engineered for multi-tenant environments, high availability, resilience, and performance at scale
Champion cloud-native, secure-by-design, and observable architectures across Azure, AWS, or GCP
Oversee AI service/platform maturity, including release management, versioning, and lifecycle governance

Engineering Excellence & Delivery Leadership

Embed best-in-class engineering practices, including design patterns, code quality standards, and DevOps maturity
Provide leadership across AI/ML, GenAI, engineering, and full-stack development, ensuring robust and consistent delivery
Remain hands-on where required, reviewing architecture, validating designs, and unblocking complex engineering challenges

Client Engagement & Solution Leadership

Partner with Sales, Solutions, and Delivery teams to position the AI platform in strategic client engagements
Lead or contribute to executive-level solution discussions, technical workshops, and architecture reviews
Ensure that all capabilities directly translate into business outcomes and client value realisation

Thought Leadership & Talent Development

Build, scale, and lead a high-performing, cross-functional engineering organisation
Foster a culture of engineering excellence, innovation, and accountability
Represent UST in industry forums, events, and executive briefings as a thought leader in AI and innovation.
Contribute to innovation via proposal support, client workshops, and innovation-led pursuits.

What We Are Looking For

Extensive experience of leading innovation and AI initiatives across services and platforms.
Proven experience operating at an influential level within enterprise services, platform, or product engineering environments
Demonstrated success in innovation, building and scaling complex platforms, SaaS solutions, or reusable engineering ecosystems
Strong track record of leading large, cross-functional engineering teams, balancing strategy, delivery, and technical depth (ideally within a Centre of Excellence)
Ability to operate seamlessly across architecture, hands-on engineering, and executive stakeholder engagement

Technical Expertise

Deep experience with AI/GenAI ecosystems, including LLM-based applications, RAG architectures, orchestration frameworks, and ML platforms
Strong expertise in cloud-native architecture (Azure, AWS, or GCP) and distributed systems design
Advanced knowledge of microservices, APIs, event-driven architectures, and integration patterns
Experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, release engineering, and DevOps best practices
Proven ability to scale platforms from proof-of-concept to enterprise production environments

Client & Commercial Exposure

Experience engaging directly with enterprise clients, including solution shaping, technical advisory, and delivery governance
Ability to influence technical and commercial decision-making at senior stakeholder levels

Why Join UST?

This is an opportunity to define and lead a next-generation AI capability at scale, shaping how enterprise clients adopt AI in a secure, scalable, and impactful way, while remaining close to the technology and engineering craft.

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What We Believe

We’re proud to embrace the same values that have shaped UST since the beginning. Since day one, we’ve been building enduring relationships and a culture of integrity. And today, it's those same values that are inspiring us to encourage innovation from everyone, to champion diversity and inclusion, and to place people at the center o