Head of Commercial-AI & Innovation

Main purpose of job:

Based at the British High Commission in New Delhi the job holder will have a key leadership role in the creation and management of a newly established team for Commercial AI & Innovation to help the United Kingdom’s (UK) Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

The Team will be a part of the FCDO’s wider Commercial Directorate and report into the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Commercial Team located in the UK. The role of the New Delhi DDaT AI & Innovation Team will be to lead and operate the Commercial AI & Innovation Hub to support DDaT and FCDO key stakeholders across the organisation.

The Head of Commercial AI & Innovation, New Delhi, will lead, manage and coordinate a team of commercial specialists who will work closely with the rest of the DDaT Commercial team in the UK and other regions. The role will be line managed from the UK within DDaT Commercial.

The jobholder will be accountable for developing and delivering AI & Innovation Commercial insights, gathering and sharing market intelligence with the business and commercially assessing and capturing value and benefits from AI & Innovation to support FCDO. They will have responsibility leading and managing the team’s overall workload, setting priorities and providing a point of coordination for interacting with the Commercial team in the UK. The jobholder will be expected to oversee, coach and mentor their team.

Due to the remote management aspect of the role the job holder will require strong communication, interpersonal, and supervisory skills to lead their team and interact with colleagues, customers and suppliers in the UK.

We reserve the right to review, revise or amend the roles and responsibilities from time to time reflecting the changing needs of business.

Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve:

Reporting to the Head of Commercial - DDaT in the UK, the jobholder will have responsibility for management and leadership of the Commercial AI & Innovation Hub based in New Delhi

• The primary responsibility of the jobholder will be leading and overseeing the strategic delivery of the Commercial AI & innovation Hub. Facilitate the increase of knowledge and sharing of third party advancements on AI in a global / international scale, and assessing other innovative technology
• Facilitate cross UK Government AI knowledge sharing
• Strategic oversight of Market Intelligence sharing with the business e.g. supplier insights, and cross government approach,
• Leading and developing the team to become AI Commercial Advisors within FCDO,
• Commercially partnering with FCDO dedicated in-house team for disruptive innovation and operational technology R&D (referred to as FCDOx).
• Strategically assessing and capturing the commercial value and benefits from AI/Innovations.
• Supporting the business with AI Commercial insights e.g. differing commercial models that are used.
• Working with Commercial Directorate to explore UK cross government AI funding routes that can support FCDO’s ambitions.
• Strategically assess the Commercial risks associated with AI.
• Ensuring compliance: Monitor adherence to internal and external policies, including regulatory requirements.
• Stakeholder management, work with the Senior Strategic Relationship Manager to ensure information is captured and reported as required.
• Lead on people and capability development of the team
• Continuous improvements, lessons learning and best practice
• Working with key stakeholder across FCDO to capture and help refine business requirements
• Other duties as required

As part of their day-to-day role the jobholder will need to:

• develop relationships with senior stakeholders FCDO stakeholders such as Information, Digital and Data Directorate (IDD) (the IT Department of the FCDO) to promote commercial best practice with regards to AI & Innovation, especially with FCDOx, Digital, and Data teams.
• build relationships with other teams and spend categories across the FCDO
• coach the team in developing their knowledge and development of AI & Innovation category strategy’s

The job holder will be expected to provide overall leadership, guidance and support to their team to:

• share best practice through lessons learnt exercises and collaborative working across Commercial Directorate
• challenge how we do things to ensure a culture of continuous improvement
• ensure the team’s performance is tracked and managed
• working with the UK capability teams to identifying development/training needs and solutions and professionally develop their team
• Building/maintaining an inclusive and positive environment for their team and behave in a way that supports the FCDO cultural statement acting as a role model for the team.
• Identify and document commercial savings, including necessary approvals of benefits in line with FCDO Commercial savings policy.
• Capture, manage and report commercial data

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):

Line management of 1 X SEO (Deputy Head – Commercial AI & Innovation) & Quality Assurer for 2 HEOs (Senior Adviser - Commercial AI & Innovation)

Essential on arrival:

Candidates should note that the FCDO operates within a regulated sector for procurement and that training will be provided on the UK’s legal framework for conducting public sector procurement.

• Bachelor’s degree in business or related field
• Minimum 7 years of relevant work experience in the required domain
• Demonstrate knowledge of AI & Innovation
• Experience of activities within the commercial and procurement lifecycle
• Able to articulate complex concepts, present, gain buy-in from senior stakeholders (internal and external).
• Demonstrable line management experience of managing a Commercial team. Experienced in leading and managing internal stakeholders
• Able to demonstrate the value of commercial activities to internal stakeholders,
• Working Internationally: previous experience in working in a global organisation in either a commercial or AI/Innovation capacity
• Evidence of the ability to identify potential improvements and successfully manage changes that deliver beneficial commercial outcomes
• Experience in coaching and mentoring to build capability at all levels of a commercial function, including a team and direct reports
• Commercial Technical Skills: previous experience in leading on complex commercial situations and leading teams

Desirable:

• Formal qualification in Procurement or Commercial or Project discipline (Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply CIPS or its equivalent)
• Experience & knowledge of Hindi language

Last Date of Application submission: 25 August - 23:55 hrs IST