Head Of AI - PEM EU

Head of AI - PEM EU

Status: Permanent

Reports to: Managing Director, PEM EU

Role Description: This role will be a senior leader responsible for AI strategy and execution within PEM Europe, reporting to the Managing Director of PEM Europe. A greenfield AI mandate with full ownership and direct executive visibility. A small team embedded within the business operation and a clear central support function with defined SLAs for IT, data, and vendor unblocks. The opportunity to define how AI gets done at one of the world’s leading precision manufacturers.

Position Overview:

The Head of AI for the Business Unit is the senior leader responsible for PEM Europe’s AI strategy and execution, with a mandate to convert AI capability into measurable business performance. Reporting to the Managing Director, this role owns the business's AI roadmap end-to-end: from mapping the business's processes, to scoring automation opportunities by ROI and feasibility, to building and deploying AI-powered solutions, to driving adoption and measuring the resulting business impact across productivity, quality, speed, margin, and decision-making.

This is a hands-on leadership role. The Head of AI manages a small team of Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) embedded in the BU’s departments, partners with the central AI Enablement function at corporate for platform support, and engages with the company-wide AI Steering Committee on cross-BU patterns. We are looking for a leader senior enough to be credible with the BU President and to operate a function independently but hands-on enough to spend meaningful time on the shop floor, in the data, and in front of users.

Key Responsibilities:

Own the business unit’s AI roadmap, accountable to the BU President (MD) for measurable business impact across growth, margin, productivity, quality, speed, and decision-making

Lead the business unit’s end-to-end process mapping effort building the complete inventory of departmental processes that serves as the funnel for AI applications

Score and prioritise automation candidates by ROI, feasibility, adoption readiness, data availability, and business criticality; defend prioritisation decisions to business leadership

Build and deploy AI applications using Claude and other approved tools; design measurement frameworks to track impact per application, including baseline, expected benefit, user adoption, and realized business impact

Drive enterprise AI tool adoption across the business unit; serve as the local champion and trainer

Partner with the central AI Enablement function (corporate IT) for tools, data access, vendor agreements, governance, cybersecurity, and responsible AI standards escalating blockers through the company’s Unblock queue

Represent the business in the company-wide AI Steering Committee on cross-BU patterns, shared learnings, and structural improvements

Track and report against KPIs: percent of business processes mapped, percent automated by milestone, business impact per deployed application, adoption by target users, Finance-validated business impact, and scalability of deployed application

Qualifications:

5–10+ years of progressive experience in technology, operations, or strategy roles

Demonstrated success in operational improvement or transformation programs Lean, Six Sigma, BPM, or equivalent with experience building business cases, measuring ROI, and sustaining adoption after implementation

Hands-on familiarity with modern AI/ML technologies, especially large language models (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini) and their practical applications to business processes, including workflow automation, knowledge retrieval, decision support, and productivity improvement

Track record of leading teams in cross-functional environments

Comfort and credibility across all levels of an industrial organisation from shop floor operators and department managers to executives. Multinational/Global business experience preferred.

Minimum bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, operations research, industrial engineering, or a related technical field, Master’s/NFQ level 9 or equivalent preferred.

Prior experience as a Forward Deployed Engineer, applied AI engineer, or solutions architect at a leading AI or analytics company

Manufacturing or industrial operations background ideally aerospace, automotive, electronics, or fasteners - with exposure to commercial, engineering, quality, supply chain, or plant-floor workflows

Familiarity with ERP environments (SAP, Oracle, Epicor) sufficient to know where data lives and how to extract it

Prior P&L responsibility, product ownership, or general management experience

Skills:

Initiative: Comfortable taking ambiguous problems, defining solutions, and shipping with limited supervision.

Highly Productive: The ability to take rough solutions in production/manufacturing environment and convert them into impactful changes.

Relationship Building: The ability to build rapport with stakeholders at all levels and ensure high engagement.

Cross Collaboration: Can present to a board and debug a workflow on the shop floor, working with stakeholders and colleagues in the business unit and across other units to find mutually beneficial solutions.

Practical: Focused on practical applications with measurable ROI and business impact.

Change Management: Able to create trust, drive adoption, and help teams change how work gets done by demystifying new technologies for the employee base.

Operational Approach: Thinks with an operational mindset, focusing on processes, metrics, and unit economics.

Benefits:

Healthcare and Dental

Company pension

Quarterly Bonus

Educational Sponsorship Programme

Employee Assistance Programme

Bike to work scheme

Company events

On-site parking

If you are interested in this role, please forward your CV onto Catherine in HR (cconnolly@pemnet.com ) before the 10 of July.

Benefits:

Bike to work scheme

Company events

Company pension

Employee assistance program

On-site parking

Private dental insurance

Private medical insurance

Work Location: In person