Vice President Data & AI

Perm, Munich / Berlin, Hybrid

Vice President Data & AI Engineering (m/f/d)

About the Opportunity

Our client is a rapidly growing, private-equity-backed technology and digital transformation platform operating across Europe. Following significant investment and continued expansion, the business is building its next generation leadership team to scale its Data & AI capabilities and drive enterprise transformation initiatives for a diverse portfolio of clients.

This is a unique opportunity for an experienced Data & AI leader to join during a period of accelerated growth, influence the strategic direction of the business, and play a key role in building a market-leading AI and Data Engineering practice.

The Role

As Vice President Data & AI Engineering, you will be responsible for shaping the firm's technology strategy, scaling engineering capabilities, and overseeing the delivery of complex Data and AI programmes.

You will work closely with executive leadership to drive innovation, build high-performing teams, and establish the technical foundations required to support continued growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic development and expansion of the Data & AI Engineering capability.

• Own the architecture and delivery of large-scale data, cloud, and AI platforms.

• Define the technology roadmap across modern data ecosystems, cloud infrastructure, AI applications, LLM solutions, and agent-based architectures.

• Ensure architectural decisions translate into scalable, secure, and production-ready solutions.

• Establish engineering standards, best practices, governance frameworks, and reusable solution architectures.

• Drive innovation across AI, Generative AI, automation, and emerging technologies.

• Partner with senior stakeholders and executive leadership on business growth initiatives and strategic client engagements.

• Support commercial activities including solution design, proposals, and executive presentations.

• Help attract, develop, and retain top engineering talent while building a world-class technical organisation.

What We're Looking For

• Degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline.

• Significant leadership experience within Data Engineering, AI Engineering, Cloud Engineering, or Software Engineering environments.

• Deep expertise in distributed systems, modern data platforms, cloud-native architectures, and enterprise-scale technology solutions.

• Proven experience designing and deploying production-grade AI systems, including Generative AI, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and agent-based architectures.

• Strong hands‑on technical background with Python and modern backend engineering principles.

• Track record of leading high-performing engineering teams and delivering complex transformation programmes.

• Strong commercial awareness and the ability to operate effectively within a fast-growth, entrepreneurial environment.

• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills.

• Fluent English required; additional European languages are advantageous.

What's on Offer

• Join a private-equity-backed growth story with significant investment and ambitious expansion plans.

• Opportunity to influence strategy and shape the future direction of a rapidly scaling technology platform.

• Direct exposure to senior leadership and involvement in key business decisions.

• Clear progression opportunities as the organisation continues to grow internationally.

• Highly competitive compensation package including performance-based incentives and long‑term value creation opportunities.

• Flexible and hybrid working environment.

• Access to cutting‑edge AI, data, and digital transformation programmes across multiple industries.

• International, entrepreneurial culture with a strong focus on innovation, collaboration, and professional development.