AI Lab Manager

Who we are

Sumitomo Mitsui Finance Dublin Limited (SMFD) is a wholly owned subsidiary of SMBC and is growing rapidly as a Centre of Excellence for the bank’s universal banking business across EMEA. It provides a range of technology and operational support services, aligned to SMBC’s growth, innovation, and transformation strategies.

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced AI Lab Manager at Vice President level to manage the organisation’s AI Lab in partnership with an external vendor. The role will oversee a secure, governed environment where business and technology teams can experiment with AI, validate ideas, collaborate with external technology partners and progress successful concepts into the wider delivery factory.

The successful candidate will own the Lab as a product and service, shaping its operating model, controls, use-case pipeline and engagement model. They will combine strong programme and stakeholder management with sufficient technical depth to engage credibly on cloud platforms, APIs, solution architecture, software delivery and integration. They will also build demand across the organisation, coordinate external vendors and technology partners, and demonstrate measurable value through adoption, experiments, decisions and outcomes.

The anticipated salary range for this role is €72,000.00 – €134,000.00, with the final offer determined based on the candidate’s skills, experience, role scope, location, and relevant market factors. In addition to base salary, the role may be eligible for a discretionary incentive award and a competitive benefits package, including core benefits such as pension provision.

Key Accountabilities and Responsibilities

AI Lab strategy and operation

• Manage the ongoing operation of the AI Lab in partnership with an external vendor, including its roadmap, service model, environments, access model and user journey.
• Define and implement clear pathways for experimentation, proofs of concept, evaluation and transition of viable solutions into the wider delivery factory.
• Establish practical standards, templates and controls that allow teams to experiment at pace while meeting security, data, architecture, AI governance and third-party risk requirements.
• Define and own the Lab roadmap, capacity, budget, service health, risks, dependencies and management reporting.

Use-case pipeline and experimentation

• Design and implement a transparent pipeline of AI opportunities from intake and triage through experiment design, execution, evaluation and closure.
• Define the business problem, hypothesis, success measures, data needs, risks and acceptance criteria in partnership with sponsors before work begins.
• Oversee multiple experiments simultaneously, maintaining momentum, clear ownership, timelines, decisions and documented outcomes.
• Facilitate evidence-based go, pivot or stop decisions, distinguishing experimentation from production delivery.
• Package successful experiments, artefacts and lessons learned so that delivery teams can industrialise them efficiently.

Engagement, adoption and internal evangelism

• Build trusted relationships across business, technology, architecture, security, risk, data and engineering teams to generate a strong pipeline of relevant use cases.
• Embedded Promote the Lab and its capabilities through briefings, demonstrations, workshops, showcases and success stories.
• Chair planning and discovery sessions, translating business needs into structured technical conversations and experiment briefs.
• Communicate technical concepts, constraints and outcomes clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Represent the Lab confidently across the organisation and build consensus among complex stakeholder groups.

Vendor and ecosystem management

• Act as the primary operational relationship owner for the Lab’s technology providers and coordinate effective delivery, support, roadmap alignment and service performance.
• Lead onboarding and collaboration with fintechs, AI providers, strategic vendors and partners participating in Lab activity.
• Align vendor expectations and delivery activity with internal architecture, security, procurement, legal, risk and governance requirements.
• Provide informed challenge on technical options, integrations, delivery estimates, commercial dependencies and platform capabilities.

Product, value and governance management

• Own the Lab as a product, prioritising investment and experiments against strategic relevance, business value, feasibility, risk and delivery readiness.
• Track utilisation, adoption, throughput, experiment outcomes, delivery conversion, benefits, cost and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Produce clear management reporting and use evidence to improve the Lab’s proposition, operating model and platform utilisation.
• Ensure experiments comply with information security, data protection, records management, model and AI governance, change and audit requirements.
• Promote responsible AI practices, including transparency, data minimisation, access control, output validation and appropriate human oversight.

Essential Experience

• Substantial experience managing an innovation lab, technology platform, product, portfolio or cross-functional innovation programme in a complex enterprise.
• Proven programme and stakeholder management experience, coordinating business sponsors, vendors, security, architecture, data and engineering teams from concept through decision and hand-off.
• Experience building demand, promoting a platform or service, running demonstrations and workshops, and developing a pipeline of use cases.
• Experience managing external technology partners and coordinating successful onboarding, collaboration and delivery across multiple vendors.
• Sufficient practical technical knowledge of cloud platforms, APIs, Git repositories, software delivery, solution architecture and integrations to engage credibly with technical stakeholders and challenge vendors.
• Experience defining success measures, assessing experiment outcomes and communicating the value delivered by an innovation platform or technology portfolio.
• Proven delivery within a controlled enterprise environment, with a sound understanding of security, data, resilience, third-party, change and audit requirements.
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to translate between business and technical audiences and build consensus across complex stakeholder groups.

Technical and Platform Capability

AI Lab platform

• Understanding of AI innovation platforms, digital sandboxes or comparable experimentation environments.
• Ability to oversee environments, user access, vendor workspaces, approved data, tooling, usage and service performance.
• Understanding of the controls required to separate experimentation from production and to transfer successful work into governed delivery.

Technology and integration

• Working knowledge of public cloud services, APIs, authentication, connectors and common enterprise integration patterns.
• Familiarity with Git repositories, source control, software development lifecycles, testing, CI/CD and environment promotion.
• Ability to understand how code and APIs are used in solutions, interpret high-level architecture and identify integration or delivery dependencies early.
• Comfort discussing generative AI, retrieval, agents, data platforms, model services, observability and human-in-the-loop controls without needing to be the lead engineer.

AI, data and controls

• Broad understanding of generative AI, machine learning, intelligent document processing, retrieval and agentic AI use cases.
• Ability to assess proposed use of enterprise data, models and external services against confidentiality, privacy, security classification, retention and access requirements.
• Understanding of responsible AI controls, including grounding, testing, transparency, output validation, human oversight, auditability and risk-based approval.
• Ability to translate business requirements into technical questions, identify constraints early and bring the right specialists into the experiment.

Desirable Experience

• Experience with a digital sandbox, fintech marketplace, AI experimentation platform or regulated innovation environment.
• Experience in banking, capital markets, corporate banking or another highly regulated industry.
• Experience operating an AI or innovation portfolio and establishing routes from experimentation into production delivery.
• Knowledge of Azure, Microsoft 365, data platforms, identity and enterprise architecture patterns.
• Experience working with procurement, legal, operational risk, compliance, information security, architecture and internal audit stakeholders.

Leadership and Personal Attributes

• Visible and engaging leader who can build trusted relationships and create enthusiasm for the Lab across business and technology communities.
• Strong ownership mindset, able to manage and continuously improve a reliable, well-governed and valued organisational capability.
• Pragmatic judgement and the ability to balance experimentation speed, business value, technical feasibility, operational risk and regulatory expectations.
• Confident facilitator and communicator who can challenge constructively, resolve ambiguity and maintain momentum across diverse stakeholders.
• Structured, analytical and outcome-focused, with high standards of documentation, reporting and delivery discipline.

Competencies

What we offer

For all the expertise and experience you bring to help us make a difference, it’s only sustainable if we support you to build your career and be your best self so we offer competitive company benefits, centred around promoting positive well-bring and work-life balance. We also believe in fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment, where all team members perspectives and contributions are valued. Initiatives in place which promote a diverse and inclusive culture and healthy work life balance include hybrid working, Sport & Social Clubs and Diversity and Inclusion networks.

As an employee of SMBC you have access to a host of both useful and exciting benefit offerings. See below some of the benefits on offer to you:

• Hybrid and flexible working
• Competitive paid leave days
• Benefits to support your physical wellbeing, including private medical insurance and life and invalidity insurance
• Various policies to support your mental wellbeing, including a robust behavioural health network with counselling and coaching services
• Access a wide range of learning and development opportunities and career progression opportunities
• Ambitious remuneration package

So, if you like a challenge and want to continuously grow and develop in a role where you will be supported along the way by a dynamic and diverse team, apply today!!