AI Manager, Value Creation

Role: AI Manager Reporting to: Value Creation Practice Lead Location: London or Oxford (hybrid). Right to work in the UK is mandatory. About Palladium Palladium Digital is an innovative and fast-growing digital consultancy specialising in the Private Equity space, with a growing corporate client base. We are award-winning practitioners, recognised for the quality of our Digital Due Diligence, Digital Transformation and Commercial strategy work, and recently acquired by Inspirit Capital and PCB Partners, backing our next phase of growth as we build on our leadership position in digital and technology advisory for the PE sector. Our work spans two connected practices: Transaction Advisory Services, which provides digital and technology due diligence to PE investors; and Value Creation, which helps PE-backed and corporate businesses define opportunities and execute on their growth potential. All of this is underpinned by deep functional expertise across our practitioner-led centres of excellence: commercial and market strategy; tech-enabled sales, marketing and service acceleration; AI and data landscape navigation, solution design and deployment; and rapid technology solution design and deployment for complex problems. We value entrepreneurship, adaptability, and creative problem solving. There are real opportunities here to shape how we work, not just do the work. About the Role We are looking for a Manager to join the Value Creation practice and lead AI transformation engagements for our clients. This is a high-impact, client-facing role that sits at the intersection of commercial consulting and applied AI, helping clients navigate where AI can drive measurable business value, and leading the work that turns that potential into reality. This role sits within the Value Creation practice, working closely with our AI and data centre of excellence alongside the practice's AI Lead, and drawing on the wider team of commercial, technology, and delivery practitioners. You'll play a key part in shaping how we take AI to clients, contributing to proposition development, leading engagements from discovery through to delivery, and helping build a repeatable, scalable capability within the practice. The ideal candidate brings credible hands-on experience in AI transformation: not necessarily as an engineer, but as someone who has played a role in scoping, designing, and delivering AI-enabled change in real organisations. You'll be as comfortable in a client workshop as you are reviewing a solution design, and you'll be translating complex AI concepts into language that lands with a CEO or CFO. What You'll Do: Client leadership and commercial development * Lead AI transformation engagements end-to-end, from problem framing and solution design through to delivery and value realisation * Build trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders, acting as a credible thought partner on AI strategy, process redesign, and digital change * Support business development: proposals, pitches, and responses to tenders, and contribute to identifying and shaping new opportunities Applied AI and solution design * Assess the suitability of AI technologies, including GenAI, agentic systems, and automation, for specific client use cases, recommending approaches grounded in commercial logic and delivery reality * Lead discovery and solution design phases, helping clients define the business problem clearly before jumping to a technology answer * Stay current with the evolving AI landscape and bring informed, opinionated views on what is production-ready versus experimental * Work alongside technical delivery teams to ensure solutions are designed for reliability, scalability, and business integration, not just proof of concept Programme delivery * Manage delivery across multiple workstreams simultaneously, maintaining quality, pace, and client confidence throughout * Navigate ambiguity and manage risk proactively * Maintain commercial discipline across engagements, managing scope, budget, and margin Practice and capability development * Contribute to building Palladium's AI transformation capability, including developing frameworks, playbooks, and repeatable approaches * Mentor junior team members and help grow the practice's collective AI acumen * Participate in internal knowledge-sharing, training, and proposition development What We're Looking For: Essential * Proven experience in a consulting or technology practice, with a track record of leading AI transformation or digital transformation programmes in client-facing environments * Strong applied AI acumen: able to shape solutions, manage technical teams, and challenge delivery decisions * Hands-on experience with GenAI, agentic AI systems, or AI-enabled automation in a commercial context, including understanding of what makes solutions production-ready * Excellent client-facing skills: confident with C-suite audiences, skilled at workshop facilitation, and able to translate technical complexity into clear business language * Strong commercial instincts: able to identify value, shape scopes, and contribute to winning work * Solid project management skills managing multiple engagements at once, scope, budget and quality of work * Outstanding listening and empathy skills, strong stakeholder management and workshop facilitation skills * Degree-level education or equivalent professional experience * Proactive and resourceful with an entrepreneurial spirit, excited by the opportunity to help scale Palladium’s AI capability * Technical knowledge of AI platforms, LLM tooling, RAG architectures, or orchestration frameworks, even if not at an engineering depth Desirable * Familiarity with the Private Equity landscape, portfolio company dynamics, or PE-backed transformation contexts * Experience contributing to proposition development or practice building within a consultancy Company Overview Please visit https://palladiumdigital.co.uk/ for more information