Data & AI Consultant for Defence

Job Title: Data & AI Consultant for Defence

Reporting to: Head of Front Line Commands, UK Industry and Head of Special Projects

Job Type: Permanent

Location: No permanent workplace

Salary range: £60,000 - £80,000 per annum

Methods Analytics, founded in 2011 as a Data and AI Consultancy, has been working across the UK Defence Sector since 2016 to support all Data and AI needs, helping the UK Defence landscape achieve its strategy to make the world safer and enabling the UK MOD to make better decisions with their Data.

As a Data & AI Consultant, you will work within our skilled Data & AI Consulting Practice. The team acts as strategic advisors supporting clients on their journey to derive business value from Data & AI.

You will be innovative, outcome-driven, and passionate about enabling enterprise-wide improvement in the use of Data & AI. You are able to operate at a senior level and are experienced in identifying, developing, and deploying AI to solve business problems and bring value to organisations.

You will work closely with clients acting as a trusted advisor, combining business consulting experience with Data & AI expertise to help clients innovate and become data-led and AI-assisted.

Key Tasks:

• Responsible primarily for client delivery with contribution to business development and collaboration within the Data & AI Practice and Front Line Command, UK Industry and Special Projects Business Unit.
• Leading the delivery and supporting the growth of client engagements, supported by a multi-disciplinary team of Consultants from across our practices of Business Analysis, Delivery Management, Engineering, Architecture, and Data Science.
• Collaborating with clients to understand their business processes and objectives, identifying high-value Data & AI use cases, providing guidance and recommendations on solutions, and advising stakeholders on data governance and responsible AI.
• Actively exploring trends in data, analytics, ML and AI to shape strategic advice to clients, keeping abreast of emerging opportunities, funding mechanisms, competitor moves, shifting priorities, and pain points in target public and private sector domains.
• Educating executives on data & AI technologies, techniques, market offerings to empower leadership decisions.
• Advising C-suite teams on comprehensive enterprise data strategies, ensuring robust data foundations before AI implementations.
• Guiding data-driven initiatives and building tailored Data & AI strategies spanning detailed plans and business cases to roadmaps.
• Supporting clients to grow a lasting data & AI capability by leading on data literacy, mentoring, and knowledge sharing.
• Articulating and quantifying the value proposition of the consultancy’s data and AI capabilities to prospects across public and private sectors.
• Working within the practice to build offers, provide thought leadership, training, and mentoring.
• Understanding how to deliver projects and the management of them from start to finish.

Essential Skills and Experience:

• Experience setting strategic direction for the use of Data & AI, shaping and supporting delivery of impactful solutions spanning business strategy, transformation, and operations.
• Confidence conveying complex technical concepts of AI and ML to a wide range of stakeholders, including technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to assess relevant techniques for a use-case, decide on an appropriate evidence-based approach, and communicate and justify that approach to stakeholders.
• Understanding of data governance and ethics principles, including security, privacy, and risk control metrics.
• Strong stakeholder management and leadership experience, proactively identifying clients, building rapport, and identifying opportunities.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.
• Experience identifying and implementing Data & AI initiatives and use cases to improve business processes and outcomes.
• Appetite and evidence of continuous learning and improvement in the area of Data & AI.
• Strong foundational knowledge of Data & AI with hands-on experience of data and AI during your career, applying analytical and statistical methods within business or academic fields.
• Knowledge of recent innovations such as GenAI, MS Copilot, and Microsoft Fabric and/or certifications with leading cloud providers around topics of data science, AI, and ML.

Desirable Skills and Experience:

• Knowledge and experience of the Defence Sector, including Front Line Commands, UK Defence Industry, and Defence procurement practices.
• Experience in management consulting or large organisational data strategy delivery, with engagement up to executive level.
• Experience in developing winning proposals, bids, and value propositions to identify client needs, nurture executive relationships, drive new business pipeline, and expand market share.
• Experience and awareness of recognised data governance and management practices such as data strategy, data maturity assessments.
• Recognised industry standard data management qualification, such as DCAM or CDMP, and understanding of data governance and maturity assessments.
• Working knowledge of use cases and application of different AI technologies including Computer Vision, ML, Gen AI, etc.
• Technical background with an undergraduate or advanced degree (Masters, MBA, PhD, etc.) in a technical field (sciences, computer science, mathematics, engineering, data science) or equivalent experience.

This role will require you to have or be willing to go through Security Clearance. As part of the onboarding process, candidates will be asked to complete a Baseline Personnel Security Standard; details of the evidence required to apply may be found on the government website Gov.UK. If you are unable to meet this and any associated criteria, then your employment may be delayed or rejected. Details of this will be discussed with you at interview.

Methods Analytics is passionate about its people; we want our colleagues to develop the things they are good at and enjoy.

By joining us you can expect:

• Autonomy to develop and grow your skills and experience
• Be part of exciting project work that is making a difference in society
• Strong, inspiring, and thought-provoking leadership
• A supportive and collaborative environment

As well as this, we offer:

• Development access to LinkedIn Learning, a management development programme, and training
• Wellness 24/7 Confidential employee assistance programme
• Social – Breakfast Tuesdays, Thirsty Thursdays, and Pizza on the last Thursday of each month as well as commitment to charitable causes
• Time off 25 days a year
• Pension Salary Exchange Scheme with 4% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution
• Discretionary Company Bonus based on company and individual performance
• Life Assurance of 4 times base salary
• Private Medical Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)
• Worldwide Travel Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)