AI Technical Lead

Who are we?

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It's what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities - work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering - you'll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

The role

Howden is moving from deploying AI tools to embedding AI into how the business actually works. The Group AI Function has a clear mandate to drive that shift, and the next phase demands stronger technical governance, sharper architecture thinking, and closer oversight of what's being built across the organisation.

The AI Technical Lead is the technical authority inside the function. The role owns architecture governance, leads the assessment of AI tools and vendors, and provides technical oversight across AI initiatives running inside Howden and with external delivery partners. When engineering work is happening - whether done internally or by third parties - this role ensures it's done to the right standard and that Howden retains genuine ownership of the output.

This is an individual contributor role. It sits at the centre of a programme that touches every part of the Group, with direct access to senior stakeholders and real influence over how our AI capability develops.

Key responsibilities

• Architecture governanceOwn the technical governance process for AI tools and platforms across the Group. Lead Architecture Review Board submissions, produce architecture and security design documentation, and work alongside Enterprise Architecture as the AI function's technical representative. The goal is coherent, well-governed AI infrastructure - not a patchwork of unconnected tools.
• Vendor and tooling assessmentLead the technical evaluation of inbound AI vendors and tools. Build a repeatable assessment framework that gives the Head of AI a clear, evidence-based view of what to adopt, what to decline, and where to build instead. Ensure that tooling decisions are grounded in architecture fit, security, data governance, and commercial sense - not just functionality.
• Oversight of AI deliveryAI initiatives are running across multiple divisions, and external partners are actively involved in delivery. This role provides the technical oversight that ensures quality, protects Howden's IP, and prevents the organisation from becoming dependent on third parties for capability it should own internally. This isn't a hands-off review role - it requires enough depth to challenge, guide, and take accountability for outcomes.
• Technical enablementSet and maintain technical standards for how AI is built across the business - covering areas like agent development, knowledge retrieval, prompt engineering, and evaluation. Support colleagues and divisional AI leads who are building or deploying AI, and translate technical constraints into practical guidance that people can actually use.
• Technical partnership to the Head of AIProvide the technical grounding that allows the Head of AI to make well-informed decisions quickly. This means flagging risks, pressure-testing proposals, and being a genuine thought partner - not just an executor. The function is small and the relationship needs to work closely.

Background and experience

Essential

• Hands-on experience with large language models, retrieval systems, and agent frameworks
• Exposure to insurance or another regulated industry
• Cloud-native AI architecture experience
• Experience with enterprise AI platform governance
• Track record writing architecture or security design documentation
• Familiarity with AI evaluation and quality assurance approaches
• Ability to assess AI vendors and tooling rigorously and independently
• Experience overseeing third-party AI delivery
• Strong communication - equally comfortable with engineers and senior leaders
• Previous work in an architecture review or governance context
• Intellectually curious, low-ego, and comfortable moving fast in ambiguous conditions
• Experience in a small, high-output team

What good looks like

• Over the first year, success in this role means:
• Architecture governance runs smoothly - new tools are assessed, documented, and reviewed without creating bottlenecks or risk
• A repeatable vendor assessment process is in place and being used consistently
• Technical oversight of external delivery partners is formalised and effective
• AI standards and best practices are being adopted across the business, not just documented
• Howden is demonstrably building internal AI capability rather than outsourcing it
• The Head of AI has a technical partner who make