Responsibilities
Purpose of this role
This role leads the strategic application of AI and automation to transform the Commercial Group's operating model, sales effectiveness, and advertiser product capabilities.
The Senior Manager will design and execute the AI transformation roadmap across commercial workflows - driving measurable productivity gains, unlocking new revenue streams, and strengthening competitive advantage. The role sits within Business Intelligence & Transformation and serves as the AI innovation engine supporting commercial strategy and performance.
The role operates across the Commercial Group, partnering Sales, Commercial Planning, Marketing Solutions, BI, and Digital teams.
Key Scope Includes
- Designing the AI-enabled commercial operating model
- Re-engineering sales and pre-sales workflows through automation
- Developing AI-powered advertiser products and monetisable solutions
- Building AI-driven market and competitor intelligence capabilities
- Leading AI program delivery from blueprint to deployment
- Embedding AI adoption across commercial teams
This role leads cross-functional initiatives and vendors, while aligning closely with the broader BI & Transformation roadmap.
Key Responsibilities & Challenges
Commercial AI Blueprint, Sales Transformation & Productivity
- Develop and own the AI & Automation Blueprint for Commercial, outlining how the end-to-end sales lifecycle (prospecting pitching pricing campaign measurement renewal) evolves over the next 3 to 5 years
- Conduct structured audits of commercial workflows to identify inefficiencies, automation opportunities, and capability gaps
- Redesign pre-sales and sales support processes using AI (eg. market research automation, proposal drafting, solution mapping, pitch deck generation, insight summarisation)
- Build and prototype tools that improve seller productivity and reduce turnaround time
- Quantify and track measurable outcomes such as sales cycle reduction, revenue per seller uplift, margin improvement, and cost-to-serve optimisation
- Drive structured change management to embed AI-enabled workflows into day-to-day commercial operations
- Align AI transformation initiatives with the broader BI & Transformation data strategy and governance framework
AI-Powered Advertiser Product Innovation
- Conceptualise, prototype and launch AI-enabled advertiser-facing products (eg. audience intelligence tools, predictive campaign optimisation, automated creative insights, advanced measurement capabilities)
- Translate AI capabilities into commercially viable offerings with clear monetisation models and revenue contribution targets
- Partner with Commercial Planning, BI and Sales teams to validate product-market fit, pricing models and go-to-market approach
- Develop business cases, revenue forecasts and scaling roadmaps for AI-enabled products
- Ensure AI-driven solutions strengthen competitive differentiation and advertiser value proposition
AI-Driven Market & Competitive Intelligence
- Design and implement AI-enabled systems to continuously monitor competitor pricing and packaging, industry innovation, advertiser demand shifts, and emerging ad-tech capabilities
- Automate insight generation and executive dashboards to support data-driven commercial decision-making
- Apply predictive analytics and advanced modelling to identify revenue growth opportunities and market white spaces
- Provide forward-looking strategic insights to Commercial Leadership to guide planning and investment priorities
Internal AI Champion - Training, Enablement & Adoption
- Serve as the Commercial Group's internal AI champion, driving awareness, capability-building and responsible adoption of AI tools and practices
- Develop and deliver structured AI training programmes tailored to different commercial roles (e.g., Sales, Planning, Marketing Solutions)
- Create practical playbooks, use-case libraries and best-practice guides to support real-world application of AI in commercial workflows
- Partner with team leads to embed AI competencies into performance expectations and ways of working
- Establish feedback loops to continuously refine tools based on user experience and adoption challenges
- Promote responsible AI usage aligned with enterprise data governance, compliance and ethical standards
- Foster a culture of experimentation and innovation while ensuring alignment with business priorities and measurable impact
Enterprise AI Program Leadership
- Lead end-to-end AI initiatives from concept to deployment, ensuring alignment with commercial objectives and technical feasibility
- Define scalable solution architecture in partnership with Data Engineering and IT
- Oversee POCs, vendor evaluation, implementation governance and performance monitoring
- Establish standards for model performance, risk management, data security and operational sustainability
Ensure AI solutions are scalable, secure and integrated into enterprise systems
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Business Analytics, or related discipline
- Postgraduate qualification (MBA, Data Science, AI, or Strategy) preferred but not mandatory
- Professional certifications in AI/ML, Cloud Architecture, or Data Analytics (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure, or equivalent) advantageous
- 8 to 12 years of experience in AI/ML, data strategy, automation, or digital transformation roles
- Demonstrated experience applying AI to commercial, sales, or revenue-generating functions
- Proven track record of leading cross-functional initiatives from concept to deployment
- Experience building prototypes and scaling solutions into production environments
- Exposure to media, advertising, ad-tech, or platform businesses preferred
- Experience engaging senior leadership and translating technical concepts into business impact
