WMUK Platform Lead – Data & AI

About Us

Rothschild & Co is a leading global financial services group with seven generations of family control and a history of over 200 years at the centre of the world's financial markets.

Our expertise, intellectual capital and global network enable us to provide a distinct perspective that makes a meaningful difference to our clients, communities and planet.

We have 4,600 talented specialists on the ground in over 40 countries around the world, enabling us to deliver a unique global perspective across four market-leading business divisions – Global Advisory, Wealth Management, Asset Management and Five Arrows.

As a family-controlled business built on relationships, we place a huge emphasis on our people and finding the right colleagues to take our business forward.

Rothschild & Co is committed to an inclusive and supportive environment where different perspectives are valued. We are focused on the attraction and recruitment, development and retention and progression of high calibre talent to ensure we and our clients benefit from the value of difference.

Rothschild & Co – Wealth Management UK, Business Applications 

At Rothschild & Co Wealth Management, we offer an objective long-term perspective on investing, structuring and safeguarding assets, to preserve and grow our clients’ wealth. We provide a comprehensive range of private wealth services to some of the world’s wealthiest and most successful families, entrepreneurs, foundations and charities. In an environment where short-term thinking often dominates, our long-term perspective sets us apart. We believe preservation-first is the right approach to managing wealth.

We formed the Business Applications Team in 2023 to support the UK Wealth Management (WMUK) business to define, build and run new IT Services to meet rapidly evolving business needs and support business growth.

The Platform Lead – Data & AI role will report into the WMUK Head of Business Applications and will work closely with the key business stakeholders across Wealth Management UK as well as the wider WAM division, Group IT and local IT teams in our other locations. 

Role Overview

We are seeking a talented and experienced Data & AI Platform Lead to join our Business Applications function to manage, develop, and optimize our use of the WAM data platform and AI initiatives. As a Platform Lead, you will play a critical role in the development, support, and continuous improvement of our data platform and AI solutions to support the optimisation of our business operations and growth ambitions. You will work closely with stakeholders across all parts of the business to understand their data needs, and lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing team that will configure and customize the system to meet these needs and deliver high-quality solutions while ensuring strong adherence to data accuracy and integrity guidelines.

You are pragmatic and able to balance business needs and complexity. You keep pace with technology trends in the data platform and AI arena and foster a culture of continuous improvement - learning from past challenges and being able to suggest and lead innovations in the data platform and AI space. You will also work closely with Business and IT teams across the division and wider group, ensuring the WAM data platform and AI solutions are maintainable and supportable.

The role is based in London, but occasionally you may be expected to travel to other locations as the role demands.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Define and execute the strategic vision for data & AI products within WMUK, aligning with group and business goals and ensuring maximum value creation from solutions. Collaborate with stakeholders to secure buy-in and sponsorship for data initiatives.
• Data Governance: Work closely with established group teams to adopt and enforce approved data governance frameworks, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and internal policies. Oversee data quality, privacy, and lifecycle management within WMUK.
• Product Development: Oversee the end-to-end development of data & AI solutions, from requirement scoping to deployment. Working closely with the WMUK business lead for data & AI ensure that products meet business needs and adhere to centrally governed standards.
• Continuous Improvement: Drive continuous improvement initiatives, leveraging feedback loops and performance metrics to enhance solution operations, data product quality, and AI product performance.
• Performance & Monitoring:
• Ensure adequate monitoring for each solution is in place, and that the necessary processes and procedures are in place to respond to alerts and incidents.
• Ensure that environments are sized correctly, and end user solutions perform within accepted parameters.
• Vendor Management:
• Ensure any third party vendors are managed closely and deliver on their contractual obligations.
• Apply updates and patches as necessary.
• Collaboration and Communication:
• Working closely with the Central Data Platform and AI teams to ensure that standards are met and that we operate in conjunction with other federated teams across wealth and asset management
• Ensure that the change portfolio for the Data Platform and AI initiatives is communicated to the necessary stakeholders.
• Provide status updates for use in monthly reporting.
• Work with other teams from across the division and group in geographically dispersed locations
• Ensure adequate monitoring for each solution is in place, and that the necessary processes and procedures are in place to respond to alerts and incidents.
• Ensure that environments are sized correctly, and end user solutions perform within accepted parameters.
• Ensure any third party vendors are managed closely and deliver on their contractual obligations.
• Apply updates and patches as necessary.
• Working closely with the Central Data Platform and AI teams to ensure that standards are met and that we operate in conjunction with other federated teams across wealth and asset management
• Ensure that the change portfolio for the Data Platform and AI initiatives is communicated to the necessary stakeholders.
• Provide status updates for use in monthly reporting.
• Work with other teams from across the division and group in geographically dispersed locations

Experience & Skills

• Experience in a Private Banking or Wealth Management desirable
• Proven experience as a Platform Lead working in both Data and AI, with a balanced focus on data engineering, data governance, and AI use case implementation.
• Experience enabling data-driven decision-making in business workflows.
• Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle.
• Strong working understating of the tools and technologies used in the data and AI arena.
• Leading cross-functional teams (data engineers, AI specialists, business analysts)
• Experience with data integration and migration.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.

Personal Attributes

• Ability to interact professionally with the full spectrum of stakeholders
• Self-motivated, determined and focussed to get the job done properly, using his/ her own initiative when a situation demands it
• A process-oriented individual, with strong management skills, who has the flexibility to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic organization with high levels of technical complexity
• Detail oriented yet also pragmatic and able to balance conflicting and changing demands
• Ability to learn quickly with a “can do” attitude to turn challenges into opportunities
• Effective communicator who can adjust communication style to fit the audience and message. Providing timely information to help others across the organisation. Encourages the open express of diverse ideas and opinions
• Ability to work with stakeholders to develop initially ambiguously defined needs into real solutions
• Commercial awareness and knowledge of what is happening in the external market and how to make Technology a differentiator
• Emotional and Cultural Awareness in an international, distributed organisation.