AI Adoption Community Lead

AI Adoption Community Lead

Department: IT & Change

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Manchester, UK

Description

We are building Arrow’s AI Adoption team from the ground up, and this is the role that sets it in motion. As AI Adoption and Community Lead, you will own the design and delivery of Arrow’s AI democratisation programme — the strategy, training, community, governance, and communications that will take AI from a tool available to a few to a capability embedded across the whole organisation.

You will be the first senior hire into this team, which means you will shape it: defining how the programme is structured, recruiting and managing a Programme Coordinator, and working across Arrow’s group functions and platforms to land real, measurable change. This is not a change management role that sits at the edge of AI; it is a role that sits at the centre of it, requiring genuine enthusiasm for the technology, the judgement to govern it responsibly, and the credibility to bring people along.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to‑end delivery of Arrow's AI adoption programme, from strategy through to execution, ensuring on‑time, high‑quality delivery with measurable organisational impact.
• Recruit, manage and develop a Programme Coordinator, providing clear direction and the conditions to deliver effectively.
• Build and maintain a robust programme plan, including quarterly OKRs, milestones, risk and dependency tracking, and governance rhythms for senior stakeholders.
• Design and deliver Arrow's AI Academy, a tiered training programme from foundational literacy through to advanced champion and builder tracks, in partnership with external suppliers, L&D, and an AI engineer.
• Ensure the training programme meets EU AI Act compliance requirements for all relevant staff, including the board, within agreed timelines.
• Build and run Arrow's AI community of practice, along with a best practice repository covering approved workflows, training resources, and use case guidance.
• Recruit, train, and coordinate a Champions network to support colleagues, run team‑level training, and feed use cases into the innovation pipeline.
• Work with Compliance, Risk, and IT to implement Arrow's AI governance framework, including acceptable use policy and tool access controls.
• Own the adoption dashboard, reporting usage rates, compliance completion, progression, and champion engagement to senior leadership.
• Act as a senior point of contact for AI adoption across group functions and platforms, including regular European sharing sessions on governance and best practice.
• Drive Arrow's AI adoption narrative, developing materials for investors, PR, and industry events, and building a bank of success stories and outcomes.
• Codify programme playbooks, onboarding materials, and repeatable frameworks, while feeding bottom‑up use cases and insights into the innovation pipeline.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Substantial experience in programme delivery, organisational change, L&D, or a related discipline, with a track record of delivering complex, cross‑functional programmes that changed how people work, not just what tools they have access to.
• Genuine understanding and enthusiasm for AI, with working fluency in tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, or n8n, and serious thought given to how these tools change the way knowledge work gets done.
• Demonstrable experience owning a programme end‑to‑end, covering planning, stakeholder management, risk, reporting, and delivery, rather than just coordinating activity.
• People management experience, including setting direction, supporting development, and holding a team member accountable with care.
• Strong stakeholder management across levels, from operational staff through to executive sponsors, with the confidence to hold a position and the judgment to know when to flex.
• Community‑building or engagement experience, such as running networks, managing online communities, or building champion or advocate programmes at scale.
• Clear, structured written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to write for multiple audiences, from a staff digest to a board update to an investor story.
• Comfortable building from scratch, able to make decisions quickly without waiting for everything to be fully defined.
• Experience in the financial sector or fund management (desirable).
• Experience with data and analytics (desirable).
• A pragmatic, action‑oriented approach to ambiguity, balancing structure with the flexibility needed in a fast‑evolving programme.
• Ability to translate complex or technical AI concepts into practical guidance for non‑specialist audiences across the organisation.

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