AI Transformation Lead (m/f/d)

Did you learn in consulting or transformation how change works, but rarely saw what became of your concepts? Do you want to be responsible for AI transformation, not just recommend it?

My client is a PE-financed, rapidly growing European group of companies with several thousand employees and a clear buy-and-build strategy. over 150 partner companies at more than 100 locations. Supported by two renowned private equity investors, the group pursues a clear buy-and-build strategy and is deliberately transforming itself into a technology- and AI-driven broker and underwriter. The mission: to build Europe's leading AI-driven insurance broker, with AI solutions that make the group's companies more productive, enable better decisions, and offer customers tangible added value.

To achieve this, a completely new, central AI team with direct COO reporting is currently being established. Parallel to this role, Forward Deployed AI Engineers are being sought, with whom you will collaborate. For the investors, AI is not a cost factor, but a central value driver, and accordingly, budget and support from the entire management board are in place.

You will be responsible for the AI transformation of an entire business unit, end-to-end: either in the brokerage or the underwriting business of the group. You will regularly travel to the companies, speak with the local managing directors, understand their processes, and drive the transformation forward from there. You will analyze processes, rethink them with AI, and ensure that solutions are not only built but actually used. The role requires someone who thinks structurally, moves people, and is equally comfortable at the managing director level and in daily operations.

Honestly: Many things are just beginning here, structures, standards, rules of the game. If you're looking for finished processes, this isn't for you. If you want to build them, it is.

Tasks

• End-to-End Responsibility: You will identify, prioritize, and implement AI use cases for your business unit, from the initial idea through stakeholder management to productive deployment and organizational embedding.
• Rethinking Processes: You will analyze existing business processes, critically question them, and redesign them with AI from scratch, not just to be more efficient.
• Strategic Partner: You will manage the relationship with local managing directors and department heads, acting as their primary point of contact for AI transformation and driving the organizational embedding of solutions.
• Engineering Coordination: You will coordinate the Forward Deployed AI Engineers who will technically implement your prioritized use cases, ensuring that solutions are adopted in daily operations.
• Group-wide AI Strategy: You will actively shape the AI strategy of the entire group and contribute experiences from your area to the central roadmap.

Qualifications

• Education and Experience: Completed Bachelor's or Master's degree or comparable qualification, plus at least 4 to 6 years in transformation, management consulting, project management, or a start-up environment.
• Project Management: You have demonstrably managed complex projects with multiple stakeholders and know how to balance interests without losing sight of the goal.
• Process Analysis and Design: You know how to systematically analyze, evaluate, and redesign processes, and translate this into prioritized, actionable roadmaps.
• Technical Understanding: You are comfortable navigating LLMs, interfaces, and modern AI architectures sufficiently to work at eye level with AI Engineers without needing to code yourself.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset and Communication: You communicate confidently at all levels up to C-level and think in results rather than responsibilities.
• Languages: Native-level German, fluent English for international units, investors, and external partners.

Benefits

• Key Role: The AI transformation of an entire business unit within one of Europe's largest brokerage and underwriting groups, with genuine entrepreneurial scope for action.
• Direct Access: Close collaboration with the group's C-level and the managing directors of individual companies, including short decision-making processes.
• Execution Power: Dedicated engineers who build what you prioritize, instead of recommendations that get filed away.
• Environment: A highly motivated, entrepreneurial team that rewards fast learning and independent action.
• Flexible Working: Hamburg preferred, alternatively Cologne, Frankfurt, or Munich; 3 to 4 days remote possible; regular presence at the group's companies.
• Attractive Salary Package with approx. 15-20% variable component, free choice of hardware, and a individually tailored benefits package.

What else shapes the role

• Functional, not disciplinary leadership: Engineers, external partners, and virtual project teams are led towards a common goal – without formal authority, even towards the managing directors of the companies.
• Impact through Business Case: No one is forced to implement from above. Persuasion happens through dialogue and data. Those who still resist are not fought – the approach shifts to the next company. In cases of genuine standstill, the Group Management Board provides support.
• Presence at the Companies: Regular travel, initially increased. Credibility is built on-site.
• Hands-on Component: Deep coding is not required, but working at eye level with engineers and ideally the ability to set up an MVP yourself – due to the pace.
• Tact: Efficiency gains mean that for increased business, more staff will not automatically be hired. This must be communicated fairly and comprehensibly.

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