Director of Data, ML & AI Engineering

As Director of Data, ML & AI Engineering, you will lead the design, delivery, and evolution of Collinson's enterprise data and AI engineering platforms. Reporting to the VP of Platform Ecosystem, you will shape the technical foundations that empower analytics, data science, and AI capabilities across the organisation.

You will ensure Collinson's data, ML, and AI platforms are reliable, scalable, secure, and cost-efficient, enabling teams to move from insight to production with speed and confidence. This role blends strategic vision with operational excellence, acting as a catalyst for innovation across the business.

Success will be measured by:

• Highly available, efficient, and scalable data and AI platforms operating at enterprise scale
• Reduced time to production for analytics, data science, and AI initiatives
• Strong adoption and satisfaction across analytics, AI, and business teams
• Embedded security, governance, and compliance by design
• Engaged, high-performing teams with clear ownership and accountability, 1. Data, ML & AI Platform Leadership
• Lead the design and evolution of enterprise-grade data, ML, and AI engineering platforms, covering ingestion, transformation, feature management, model pipelines, and deployment.
• Ensure platforms are resilient, scalable, and production-ready to support both analytics and AI workloads.
• Balance continuous innovation with operational reliability, service continuity, and business value.

2. Engineering Delivery & Operations

• Lead multiple engineering squads across data, platform, ML, and AI engineering disciplines.
• Establish clear engineering standards, ownership models, and accountability frameworks.
• Embed modern delivery practices such as DevOps, DataOps, MLOps, and AIOps to improve reliability and speed.
• Champion operational excellence, predictable delivery, and effective incident management.

3. Enabling Analytics & AI

• Partner with the VP of Analytics and Head of Innovation & AI to align platform capabilities with insight delivery, experimentation, and AI productisation.
• Provide high-quality, governed, production-ready data products and shared tools that empower analytics and AI teams.
• Accelerate time to value through automation, reusable patterns, and scalable platform abstractions.

4. Cost, Risk & Governance by Design

• Own and optimise platform total cost of ownership (TCO), driving transparency and sustainable scaling.
• Embed security, privacy, and governance controls into platform design in partnership with Data Governance, Security, and Assurance teams.
• Ensure compliance with internal standards and external regulatory or client requirements.

5. Group Enablement & Stakeholder Partnership

• Deliver consistent, reliable group-wide data and AI platform services that balance shared capability with local flexibility.
• Build trusted relationships with stakeholders including Analytics, Innovation & AI, Cloud, Security, and Operating Company technology leaders.
• Collaborate with the VP of Platform Ecosystem to align data and AI platforms with broader integration and ecosystem strategy.
• Manage strategic vendors and partners supporting platform delivery and operations.

6. Leadership & Capability Building

• Build and retain inclusive, high-performing engineering teams with strong technical expertise and clear accountability.
• Coach and develop emerging leaders across data, ML, and AI engineering.
• Foster a culture that values ownership, quality, learning, and continuous improvement.

Do you have experience in Leadership?, * Senior leadership experience across data, platform, ML, and/or AI engineering in enterprise or federated environments

• Deep understanding of modern cloud-native data platforms, large-scale distributed systems, and emerging data technologies
• Proven experience delivering and evolving enterprise-scale data and AI platforms from inception to production
• Hands-on knowledge of ML/AI operationalisation, including pipelines, lifecycle management, and experimentation frameworks
• Demonstrated capability managing cost, risk, security, and compliance at scale
• Strong people leadership and team development experience, promoting inclusion, clarity, and accountability
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into business impact with senior stakeholders
• A collaborative, adaptive leadership style that encourages openness, trust, and curiosity

We welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds and career journeys who are passionate about building the platforms that power analytics and AI at scale.

Collinson is the global, privately-owned company dedicated to helping the world to travel with ease and confidence. The group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market-leading airport experiences, loyalty and customer engagement, and insurance solutions for over 400 million consumers. Collinson is the operator of Priority Pass, the world's original and leading airport experiences programme. Travellers can access a network of 1,500+ lounges and travel experiences, including dining, retail, sleep and spa, in over 650 airports in 148 countries, helping to elevate the journey into something special. We work with the world's leading payment networks, over 1,400 banks, 90 airlines and 20 hotel groups worldwide. We have been bringing innovation to the market since inception - from launching the first independent global VIP lounge access Programme, Priority Pass to being the first to sell direct travel insurance in the UK through Columbus Direct and creating the first loyalty agency of its kind in the travel sector with ICLP. Today we still invest heavily in innovation to ensure that we continue to deliver superior customer experiences. Key clients include Mastercard, American Express, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM, Flying Blue, Accor, EasyJet, HSBC, Chase, HDFC. Our mission is focused on doing good beyond profit, which for us means we seek out opportunities for our people to share in our success and that we give back to the communities and people within which we work. Never short of ambition, the success of our business is delivered through the diverse and talented team of over 2,200 global colleagues.