Responsible AI Lead

Pontoon is an employment consultancy. We put expertise, energy, and enthusiasm into improving everyone's chance of being part of the workplace. We respect and appreciate people of all ethnicities, generations, religious beliefs, sexual orientations, gender identities, and more. We do this by showcasing their talents, skills, and unique experience in an inclusive environment that helps them thrive.

Job Title: Responsible AI Lead

Location: London / Bristol / Leeds / Edinburgh

Contract Type: 6 months - possibility for extension

Role Overview

At an exciting stage of scaling artificial intelligence across the organisation, we are seeking a Responsible AI expert to join a central AI Centre of Excellence within the Data & Analytics function.

This is a hands-on senior role focused on enabling the responsible adoption of AI across the business. The successful candidate will play a key role in shaping the organisation's Responsible AI governance, assurance frameworks, and risk mitigation strategies while supporting high-impact AI initiatives.

The role will work closely with product teams, platform teams, and risk functions to ensure that AI solutions are developed and deployed safely, ethically, and in alignment with regulatory expectations. A core part of the position will involve translating responsible AI principles into practical, repeatable governance patterns that can be applied across multiple AI use cases.

This role will also contribute to building organisational capability in responsible AI, helping develop AI literacy and best practices across the business.

Key Responsibilities

Responsible AI Leadership

• Provide leadership on AI governance, ethics, and responsible AI practices.
• Help shape and evolve the organisation's Responsible AI framework and assurance approach.
• Act as a subject matter expert advising senior stakeholders on ethical and regulatory considerations in AI deployment.

AI Risk & Governance

• Partner with AI product teams and business stakeholders to support the responsible development of high-profile AI use cases, including emerging technologies such as AI agents.
• Identify and mitigate AI-related risks, ensuring compliance with internal governance and regulatory expectations.
• Develop repeatable governance and risk management patterns that can be reused across multiple AI initiatives.

Embedding Responsible AI Practices

• Work with technology, data science, and risk teams to embed responsible AI approaches into development workflows and governance processes.
• Collaborate with first- and second-line risk functions to ensure robust oversight and assurance of AI systems.

Responsible AI Enablement

• Contribute to a Responsible AI enablement and literacy programme across the organisation.
• Promote best practices and foster a culture of ethical and safe AI adoption.

Skills & Experience

Required

• Demonstrated experience developing or overseeing AI systems with strong ethical and governance standards.
• Deep knowledge of Responsible AI principles, including fairness, transparency, accountability, and model governance.
• Strong understanding of the UK regulatory and legislative landscape relating to AI and financial services.
• Experience working closely with AI product teams, data scientists, or machine learning engineers.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence senior leadership and guide strategic decision-making.
• Strong communication and engagement skills across both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience building or contributing to AI governance frameworks or AI assurance models.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in Responsible AI, AI governance, or AI risk management.

Preferred

• Experience working in financial services or other highly regulated industries.

Please be advised: if you haven't heard from us within 48 hours, then unfortunately your application has not been successful on this occasion. We may, however, keep your details on file for any suitable future vacancies and contact you accordingly.

We use generative AI tools to support our candidate screening process. This helps us ensure a fair, consistent, and efficient experience for all applicants. Rest assured, all final decisions are made by our hiring team, and your application will be reviewed with care and attention.