AI & Automation Lead

We’re one of the UK's most successful holiday companies, specialising in escorted coach, river and rail tours across Europe. We know our stuff as we’ve been selling holidays for over 40 years. We've been so successful that we’re now equipping our business for significant growth!

We are hiring an AI & Automation Lead to embed AI and workflow automation into the day-to-day operations of our business. This is a hands-on, commercially focused role — not a research or theoretical position. The person in this role identifies where time and effort are being wasted, deploys the right tools to fix it, and ships measurable improvements in weeks, not quarters. Success is measured in hours saved, processes shipped to production, and the operational gains those changes create — not in the number of tools evaluated or pilots run.
This role works in close partnership with an AI Adoption Lead, who owns training, change management, and rollout. The Implementation Lead owns the build; the Adoption Lead owns the human side. Together they form the AI delivery function reporting into the executive team.
AI is going to reshape how every part of this business operates over the next two to three years. The companies that win are not the ones with the most pilots or the loudest announcements — they're the ones that quietly ship dozens of small, useful improvements and compound them into a real operational edge. This role owns that work.
The successful candidate is most likely to come from one of:

• RevOps, Business Systems, or Sales Operations.
• Automation engineering or RPA delivery.
• Product Operations or Process Improvement.
• A consulting transformation practice (efficiency / automation focus).

This is not a research role or a Head of Data role. It is a builder's role with a commercial brain.
Your Compensation & Working Pattern

• Base salary £60,000 depending on experience.
• Performance bonus tied to (a) hours saved across the business and (b) processes live in production after a 90-day stability check — not to projects started or pilots run.
• Office-based at our Rotherham office, 5 days a week. This is a deliberate choice — the role depends on being visible, embedded with teams, and present when issues arise.
• Standard benefits package per company policy.

Your Key Responsibilities
1. Set the AI & Automation Roadmap

• Work with department heads across Customer Operations, Marketing, Finance and Administration to identify high-impact manual processes.
• Build and maintain a prioritised roadmap of AI and automation opportunities tied to commercial outcomes.
• Stress-test ideas before they become projects — kill anything that won't deliver clear ROI.
• Report progress, projected impact and realised impact to the executive team monthly.

2. Implement AI & Automation Solutions

• Deploy and configure off-the-shelf AI tools into live workflows.
• Build automations using low-code platforms and native CRM/contact-centre workflow tools.
• Integrate AI capabilities into existing systems — CRM, contact centre, marketing automation, finance tooling.
• Create & Manage prompt libraries, agents, and any custom GPTs/assistants used across the business.
• Ensure all deployments meet security, data protection and compliance standards (UK GDPR).

3. Partner with Adoption

• Work hand-in-glove with the AI Adoption Lead on every rollout.
• Provide technical input into playbooks, training materials and FAQs.
• Run technical office hours alongside the Adoption Lead's enablement sessions.
• Fix issues quickly when teams flag them — adoption depends on things working.

4. Measure and Report Impact

• Establish a measurable baseline for each process before automation.
• Track and report time saved, processes live in production, error rates, throughput, and cost-per-task.
• Run a regular review of live automations — retire or rebuild anything that has stopped delivering value.

5. Tooling Choices & Management

• Own the AI tooling stack — selection, contracts, licences, renewals.
• Keep tooling spend under control and tied to measurable use.
• Maintain a watch on the market for tools worth bringing in (and the ones that aren't).

Key Deliverables (First 6 Months)

• Process discovery completed across at least three core functions, with a prioritised roadmap delivered to the executive team within 60 days.
• 4–6 live automations or AI workflows in production by month six, each with a documented baseline and measured impact.
• 15–25% reduction in admin/manual workload in at least two functions, evidenced by before/after data.
• AI tooling stack consolidated, documented, and operating within a defined budget.
• Working partnership with the Adoption Lead established, with a shared roadmap, shared metrics, and shared rituals.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Has personally shipped 5+ live AI or automation workflows that are still in production and used daily — specific examples expected at interview.
• Strong working knowledge of at least two low-code automation platforms and at least one CRM or contact-centre workflow engine.
• 18+ months of daily, hands-on use of leading AI tools in a work context.
• Comfortable reading API documentation and delivering integrations without a developer team behind them.
• Strong commercial instincts — can size effort, calculate ROI, and say no.
• Excellent stakeholder management — credible with department heads and front-line staff in equal measure.

Desirable

• Experience inside a contact centre, customer operations, or B2C services environment.
• Background in RevOps, Business Systems, or Process Improvement.
• Familiarity with UK GDPR and data-handling considerations for AI tooling.
• Experience working alongside or managing an external implementation partner.

Agency applications are not invited at this time.

Benefits:

• Additional leave
• Company events
• Employee discount
• Free or subsidised travel
• Free parking
• Sick pay

Work Location: In person