AI Solutions Lead

Building a Brand Starts with a Story FIRST is a leading global brand experience agency providing Content, Creative, Digital Technology, Management & Delivery, and Data & Insights services. For 30 years, we have utilized three flexible delivery models: Embedded teams, Corporate Campus operations, and a Full-Service Agency. Managing over 37,000 events & projects annually across 110 countries, FIRST serves 130+ brands, specializing in Fortune 500 companies within the Financial Services, Technology, Healthcare, Media, and Professional Services sectors. FIRST is part of the broader Encore family of companies. Encore is a global leader in event production and technology. Consistently recognized for excellence, recent honors include 2026 Chief Marketer Agency of the Year, the Ad Net Zero Award for sustainability, and more. Learn more at www.firstagency.com What You Would Get To Do FIONA, FIRST's Innovation and AI unit, exists to establish the company as an intelligence-driven partner. The AI Solutions Lead is a hands-on builder role within FIONA's new AI Innovation Studio: someone who designs and personally builds working AI solutions, then scales what works across the company. The role bridges business, product, and technology by turning ambiguous problems into working prototypes using modern AI-assisted development, then driving adoption so proven solutions spread beyond their first use case. As FIONA continues to grow, this role is expected to take on direct line management of technical staff. Your Contributions Bridge business, product, and technology: run discovery workshops and translate ambiguous, multi-stakeholder problems into clear, actionable technical briefs. Build and design AI solutions and tools: use agentic workflows and AI coding tools to go from concept to a working proof of concept, hands-on, with lean resourcing. Scale what works: take AI solutions that prove out and drive their adoption across other teams and use cases at FIRST, rather than leaving them as one-off builds. Own solution design for AI Innovation Studio initiatives, staying close enough to the build to keep designs practical and buildable rather than theoretical. Contribute to foundational data/AI governance (e.g., responsible use, data-rights clarity) relevant to what gets built. Prioritize speed and pragmatic delivery over exhaustive engineering polish, consistent with FIONA's early-phase, momentum-building mandate. As the Studio grows, take on direct management of technical staff. What We Are Looking For 5-8 years of relevant experience AI Agentic & Coding Tools (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT Codex, etc) Database and cloud technologies Python 5+ years in a role blending hands-on technical building with business analysis or solution design, comfortably running discovery workshops and working directly with cross-functional or client stakeholders. Strong, demonstrable fluency with agentic workflows and AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor). A track record of personally building and shipping working AI or data prototypes, not just specifying them for someone else to build. Working knowledge of data governance practices. Evidence of mentoring, informal leadership, or leading workstreams. Formal line-management experience is not required now, but this role is expected to take on direct reports as the team scales. Strong communication skills — able to translate technical work for both technical and non-technical audiences. At FIRST, we believe that the passion, creativity, and commitment of our teams drive our success. That's why we offer a range of benefits and perks to support your personal and professional growth Private Medical Insurance with BUPA from day one 28 Days Annual Leave PLUS Bank Holidays Personal Volunteer Day 20 Days of Sick Pay each Year Enhanced Parental Leave (Maternity & Paternity) Wellness Stipend Complimentary access to Headspace, Rocket Lawyer & Maven Life Insurance Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Cycle to Work Scheme Se…