Executive Director, AI Transformation

The CEO Office supports the evolution and maintenance of the company’s strategy and owns the performance metrics. In this context, it monitors business and technology trends which may impact the company’s business, and steers innovation research and experimentation efforts. The CEO Office is responsible for determining and implementing the global communications marketing strategy across all external audiences and leads public policy efforts. It provides the secretariat function for CLS-internal governance bodies and facilitates the company’s decision-making processes.

The Executive Director, AI Transformation plays a central role in steering and facilitating transformative cross-departmental activities around the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at CLS. They will shape the organization’s AI strategy and facilitate organizational transformation activities in view of wider AI usage. The successful candidate is expected to establish and lead the firm’s AI Center of Excellence of ~2-3 FTEs, plus stand up and mobilize ~10 AI Champions embedded into various functions and teams (not a direct reporting line).

The Executive Director, AI Transformation will be responsible for:

• Building and leading a multi-disciplinary AI Center of Excellence which owns AI governance & processes and drives firm-wide AI adoption across business functions.
• Defining and implementing the firm’s AI strategy and multi-year roadmap, in view of the evolving AI landscape in financial services and aligned with the CLS mission and broader business objectives.
• Identifying opportunities where AI can create measurable business value, and associated challenges and risks.
• Prioritizing AI use cases and bringing them to life by driving them through the project management lifecycle, coordinating across cross-functional design & delivery teams and through associated project management governance processes.
• Defining firm-wide KPIs and monitoring performance.
• Leading AI change management across the organization - coordinating training, communications and adoption campaigns with HR and AI Champions embedded in key functions, and proactively providing executive briefings and guidance.
• Providing direct advice to the C-suite and senior leadership on AI strategy, governance, and practical implementation.
• Maintaining awareness of AI trends (e.g., novel use cases, emerging opportunities and threats) and proactively supporting the firm in addressing them.

• Experience in leading large-scale AI and digital transformations within the financial sector.
• Minimum of 10 years’ experience in innovation or technology governance roles, preferably within financial services.
• Proven track-record of leading diverse teams, and ability to coordinate and influence cross-functional teams
• Creative and innovative thinking with an ability to see the bigger picture.
• Excellent time management skills, with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple/competing deadlines.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, to collaborate effectively with different teams and divisions across CLS.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a demonstrated ability to deliver high-quality work with precision and accuracy, ensuring attention to detail in all aspects of execution.
• Familiarity with model risk management (MRM) or operational risk frameworks in a regulated institution
• Experience operating within or designing programmatic delivery governance

Professional qualifications / certifications

• Bachelor’s degree in finance/economics, law or information technology, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Project or change management certifications (e.g. PMP, Agile)
• Demonstrated fluency with AI/ML concepts and tools

At CLS, we celebrate inclusion and consider this to be one of our strongest assets. We are committed to fostering an environment in which everyone feels comfortable to be who they are, and inclusion is valued. All employees have access to our inclusive benefits, including:

• Holiday - UK/Asia: 25 holiday days and 3 ‘life days’ (in addition to bank holidays). US: 23 holiday days.
• 2 paid volunteer days so that you can actively support causes within your community that are important to you.
• Generous parental leave policies to ensure you can enjoy valuable time with your family.
• Parental transition coaching programmes and support services.
• Wellbeing and mental health support resources to ensure you are looking after yourself, and able to support others.
• Employee Networks (including our Women’s Forum, Black Employee Network and Pride Network) in support of our organisational commitment to embrace and always be learning more about inclusivity.
• Hybrid working to promote a healthy work/life balance, enabling employees to work collaboratively in the office when needed and work from home when they don’t.
• Active support of flexible working for all employees where possible.
• Monthly ‘Heads Down Days’ with no meetings across the whole company.
• Generous non-contributory pension provision for UK/Asia employees, and 401K match from CLS for US employees.
• Private medical insurance and dental coverage.
• Social events that give you opportunities to meet new people and broaden your network across the organisation.
• Annual flu vaccinations.
• Discounts and savings and cashback across a wide range of categories including health and retail for UK employees.
• Discounted Gym membership - Complete Body Gym Discount/Sweat equity program for US employees.
• All employees have access to Discover - our comprehensive learning platform with 1000+ courses from LinkedIn Learning.
• Access to frequent development sessions on a number of topics to help you be successful and develop your career at CLS.

CLS is the trusted party at the centre of the global FX ecosystem. Utilized by thousands of counterparties, CLS makes FX safer, smoother and more cost effective. Trillions of dollars’ worth of currency flows through our systems each day.

Created by the market for the market, our unrivalled global settlement infrastructure reduces systemic risk and provides standardization for participants in many of the world’s most actively traded currencies. We deliver huge efficiencies and savings for our clients: in fact, our approach to multilateral netting shrinks funding requirements by over 96% on average, so clients can put their capital and resources to better use.

CLS products are designed to enable clients to manage risk most effectively across the full FX lifecycle - whether through more efficient processing tools or market intelligence derived from the largest single source of FX executed data available to the market.

Our ambition to make a positive difference starts with our people. Our values underpin everything that we do at CLS and define our working environment:

• Pivotal purpose
• Trusted guardian
• Targeted innovation
• Facilitate connections
• Delivering excellence
• Inclusive culture