Are you looking for an AI Operations Lead role in a fast-growing business where people are at the heart of everything we do?
Would you like to work within a socially conscious organisation that is making a real impact in the education sector?
The Key Group serves school leaders and trusts across the UK providing authoritative guidance and intuitive tools that support school leadership.
We work across the full diversity of schools and locations, from small rural and coastal primaries to the largest trusts and local authorities in the country.
We recognise that each school and trust is on a journey and school leaders need to identify their specific context, their own path and the next step in that journey. This process requires more than just shared values in a school, it requires the knowledge, data, context and confidence to bring others with you in effecting change.
That's why we're here. We put the power back in the hands of those leading our schools and trusts, by equipping them with remarkable products & services. The Key Group is home to 5 brands, each the leading provider in its category including Arbor, ScholarPack, Integris, The Key and GovernorHub. Nearly 600 colleagues deliver our award-winning services and serve 19,000 schools.
At The Key Group, we are accelerating our digital transformation by embedding enterprise AI into the heart of our operations. We are seeking an AI Operations Lead to act as the central operational hub for our enterprise AI platforms, gateway administration, workflow automation and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations.
Rather than a pure software development role, this position balances operational agility with strict governance. You will bridge technical engineering, risk functions, and end-users—ensuring our AI technologies deliver safe, cost-effective and measurable value across the enterprise.
If you don’t meet all of the above but have a genuine interest in joining our team please get in touch - we’d be very happy to chat.
You will play a pivotal role in shaping how AI is safely and effectively operated across our organisation. This individual contributor role offers broad organisational reach, allowing you to drive key process automation projects, manage vendor relationships and lead an internal culture of AI adoption.
We place huge importance on caring for and developing our people. If you join us you can expect a good work-life balance and the training and support you need to succeed in your role and continue to progress. We are a socially conscious company, but one that also likes to have fun. We offer a generous holiday allowance, flexible hours, buying and selling holiday, enhanced maternity pay, free breakfast, fruit, and drinks, regular socials and much more.
The pace of change in education means there is no shortage of theory, opinion and advice on what leaders need to do and what they need to know. Leaders themselves are under huge pressure to make a difference with little time to plan, prioritise and learn. In a world like this, ambitious and aspiring education leaders are in constant need of reliable, relevant and authoritative knowledge that’s ready to use.
The Key cuts through the noise to provide up-to-the-minute sector intelligence and resources that empower education leaders with the knowledge to act.
We draw upon a strong social purpose, deep expertise in education and a relentless desire to stay ahead of a vibrant and fast-changing landscape. Our community of members - more than 100,000 leaders of schools and multi-academy trusts from across the country - share our belief that true leadership is about putting theory into practice; that real change happens when leaders can take meaningful action.
Since our founding as a government pilot, we’ve grown into a can-do collective of experts, writers, researchers and technologists who are deeply committed to serving the needs and championing the perspective of education leaders across the country. Our vision is to be an indispensable partner to education leaders determined to make a difference.
