AI tooling Governance and Adoption Manager

OFA Group is scaling its use of AI tooling LLMs like Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT and the growing ecosystem of AI SaaS platforms across every function in the UK, France, and Spain. As adoption accelerates, so does the need for clear governance, cost discipline, standardised ways of working, and confident policy communication. We're creating a new role, AI Tooling Governance & Adoption Manager, to own this end-to-end. Reporting to the Head of Operational AI, you will define how OFA governs, adopts, and scales its AI tooling from policy and vendor management through to training, adoption metrics, cost, compliance and security controls. This is a foundational role that will shape OFA's IT and operational readiness for large-scale AI transformation, working hand-in-hand with IT Security, Legal, Compliance, Finance, HR, and every business function across the group. You will not be building AI products or features that sits with our Product and Engineering team. Your remit is the operating model that ensures the AI tools we license are used safely, cost-effectively, consistently, and to their full potential. Job Responsibilities: 1. AI Tooling Governance & Policy

• Own the end-to-end governance model for AI tooling policy, standards, tooling selection and the AI use case lifecycle from intake and pre-approval through pilot, scale, review, and retire, with an auditable trail at each stage.
• Manage and maintain the approved AI tools catalogue, permitted-use guidance, and prohibited-use boundaries, with communications tailored to each function.
• Act as policy owner and liaison to Legal, Compliance, Data Protection, and IT Security, translating requirements into practical day-to-day guardrails.
• Own the process to define and deliver AI system controls alongside Security, Compliance, Legal and IT to continually evaluate and improve controls and monitoring whilst balancing AI risk and business productivity.
• Keep the policy library current as UK/EU regulation (EU AI Act, GDPR) and the vendor landscape evolve.
2. Cost Control, Budget & Vendor Management
• Manage the AI tooling budget with the Group CISO and Finance forecasting, licence rationalisation, and entitlement management across LLMs and AI SaaS.
• Manage AI SaaS vendors and their account managers on roadmap, feature adoption, benchmarking, and renewals not just invoices.
• Run a quarterly vendor review cadence and support build-vs-buy decisions with clear cost, risk, and adoption evidence.
• Perform RFPs and other supplier selection requirements to select and onboard new tooling as needed with business stakeholders and our project management office
3. Adoption, Training & Enablement
• Partner with HR and external training vendors to co-design AI tooling training pathways across the group tailored by function, seniority and region.
• Track adoption metrics (active users, coverage, feature usage, quality of use) by function and country, and drive targeted uplift where adoption lags.
• Build a champion/power-user network and own the AI communications strategy - cadence, channels, tone so employees know what's approved, what's changing, and where to get help.
• Lead identification of new training needs working with senior stakeholders in the business and external sources to identify risks and gaps to be addressed to support the changing AI landscape and business needs.
4. Standardisation & Process Excellence
• Author and maintain the OFA "how we use AI" playbook standard workflows, prompt patterns, prompt libraries, and function-specific guidance.
• Reduce fragmentation across teams and countries by driving common patterns without stifling function-specific experimentation.
• Partner with the Head of Operational AI to productionise successful pilots, and continuously refine intake and approval processes based on user feedback and volume.
5. Risk, Security & Compliance Partnership
• Act as operational bridge to the Group CISO's team on AI tooling data classification, cloud permissions, access reviews, and incident response.
• Coordinate DPIAs and risk assessments for higher-risk use cases with the DPO and Legal, and provide governance input into third-party risk and procurement for new AI vendors.
• Maintain a live AI risk register with clear ownership, mitigations, and review dates.
6. Reporting, Metrics & Executive Communication
• Own the monthly AI tooling governance dashboard spend, adoption, active use cases, risk posture for the Head of Operational AI & Group CISO.
• Prepare quarterly deep-dives for the AI Selection Committee and ELT, and set/evolve the KPIs measuring whether AI tooling at OFA is safe, adopted, valuable, and cost-controlled., You are a governance-first operator with a genuine appetite for adoption and enablement. You believe the value of AI comes from how consistently, safely, and confidently people use it - and you want to be the person who makes that happen at scale. You are as comfortable in a Legal review as you are in a training design session, and you can move between the two without losing pace.
You don't need to be a data scientist or an engineer - those capabilities sit elsewhere in the business. Your strength is in operating models, cross-functional orchestration, and the discipline of making a fast-moving space feel calm, coherent, and controlled. You are excited by the prospect of shaping how a 1,000-person business, spanning three countries, uses AI - and you see this role for what it is: a foundational, high-visibility opportunity to build something that will scale.

Must Have
• 6+ years in IT governance, SaaS operations, technology programme management, or a comparable role involving cross-functional policy, adoption, and vendor ownership.
• Demonstrable track record owning the lifecycle of enterprise tooling (intake, adoption, standardisation, cost, retirement) in a mid-to-large organisation.
• Working knowledge of the enterprise AI landscape - LLM vendors and AI SaaS ecosystem - and the governance and security implications each brings.
• Comfortable operating across IT Security, Legal, Compliance, Data Protection, Finance, HR, and business functions, and translating between them.
• Numerate and analytical - able to manage a budget, build a cost model, and interpret adoption analytics.
• Exposure to change management, L&D programme design, or internal communications at scale.
• Experience contributing to executive or board-level reporting.
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English, with a talent for turning policy into practical, human guidance.
Nice to Have
• Working proficiency in French or Spanish.
• Prior experience in a supply chain, compliance, or B2B SaaS environment.
• Relevant certifications such as CIPP/E, ISO 27001 lead auditor, ITIL, or PRINCE2.
• Hands-on familiarity with the Microsoft 365 stack for AI governance Copilot admin, Purview, Entra ID.
• Hands-on familiarity with deploying and monitoring AI controls within leading platforms, ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Copilot
  
  As well as a career in a fast paced environment within a expanding business, we also offer the below benefits as standard:
• Wellness fund or Private Medical Insurance (dependent upon role)
• Pension
• Life Assurance x 3
• 25 days holiday plus 8 Bank Holidays
• Ongoing continual professional development (CPD)
• Holiday purchase Scheme up to 5 days
• 1 paid and 1 unpaid volunteering day
• 24/7 and 365 Days Employee Assistance Programme
• Team and company offsite events
• Specsavers eye care voucher
• Free Tea, Coffee and fruit every week - Basingstoke office