Head of GenAI Architecture

Head of GenAI Architecture

Salary: London: Circa £150k / Regional: Circa 130k

Location: London, Birmingham, Bristol, Norwich, York, Eastleigh, Glasgow or Perth

This is a great job for someone who is passionate about shaping how Artificial Intelligence transforms a large, customer-focused organisation. You may already be leading AI, cloud, data or enterprise architecture teams and be looking for an opportunity to influence strategy at the highest level. You'll enjoy balancing innovation with responsibility, helping teams adopt emerging technology safely while delivering meaningful outcomes for customers, colleagues and the business.

A bit about the job

As Head of GenAI Architecture, you'll define and lead the enterprise architecture strategy for Generative AI, Agentic AI and emerging AI technologies, ensuring Aviva adopts these capabilities safely, responsibly and at scale. You'll establish the long-term vision, technology roadmaps, architectural standards and governance frameworks that enable innovation while maintaining security, resilience, compliance and responsible AI practices.

Working across the organisation, you'll partner with senior technology, data, security, risk and business leaders to identify opportunities where AI can deliver meaningful customer, colleague and commercial outcomes. You'll provide architectural leadership across areas such as enterprise AI platforms, large language models, AI orchestration, agentic systems and emerging technologies, helping to turn experimentation into scalable, reusable business capabilities. You'll also shape how AI integrates with Aviva's wider technology, data and cloud ecosystem, ensuring solutions are built on trusted foundations and aligned to our long-term strategic objectives.

You’ll monitor developments across the rapidly evolving AI landscape, assess new technologies and help guide investment decisions that will influence Aviva's future direction. Alongside leading a high-performing AI architecture capability, you'll mentor and develop architecture talent, create reusable patterns and best practices, and help build the organisational capability needed to accelerate AI adoption across the business. Through your leadership, you'll play a critical role in helping Aviva unlock the full potential of AI while delivering better outcomes for our customers, colleagues and communities.

Skills and experience we're looking for

• Significant experience leading enterprise architecture strategy within a large and complex organisation, with a proven track record of defining technology roadmaps and delivering large-scale transformation initiatives.
• Deep expertise in Generative AI and emerging AI technologies, including large language models (LLMs), enterprise AI platforms and modern AI architecture patterns, with the ability to translate innovation into scalable business outcomes.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with experience advising executive leaders and communicating complex technical concepts in clear, business-focused language.
• A strong understanding of security, privacy, governance, resilience and risk management, ideally gained within a highly regulated environment such as financial services, insurance or banking.
• Experience building and developing high-performing architecture teams and communities of practice. Knowledge of Responsible AI frameworks, AI governance models and enterprise cloud or data platforms would be advantageous.

What you’ll get for this role: 

Our purpose - with you today, for a better tomorrow – is a promise we make to our colleagues too.  And one of the ways we live up to that promise is by investing in you.  We have so much to offer when it comes to being an Aviva colleague.  

·       Starting salary London: Circa £150k / Regional: Circa 130k (depending on location, skills, experience, and qualifications)

·       Bonus opportunity 25% – actual amount depends on your performance and Aviva’s

·       Generous pension scheme e.g. if you put in 8%, Aviva adds 14% in. 

·       29 days holiday plus bank holidays, and you can choose to buy or sell up to 5 days 

·       Aviva-funded Private Medical Benefit to help you get expert support when you need it 

·       Make your money go further - Up to 40% discount on Aviva products, and other retailer discounts 

·       Up to £1,200 of free Aviva shares per year through our Matching Share Plan and share in the success of Aviva with our Save As You Earn scheme 

·       Brilliantly supportive policies including parental and carer’s leave  

·       Flexible benefits to suit you, including sustainability options such as cycle to work  

·       Make a difference, be part of our Aviva Communities and use your 3 paid volunteering days to help others 

·       We take your wellbeing seriously with lots of support and tools 

Take a look to learn more.  Put a salary into this calculator to see what your total Aviva Reward could be. 

Aviva is for everyone: 

We’re inclusive and welcome everyone – we want applications from all backgrounds and experiences. Excited but not sure you tick every box? Even if you don’t, we would still encourage you to apply. We also consider all forms of flexible working, including part time and job shares. 

We flex locations, hours and working patterns to suit our customers, business, and you. Most of our people are smart working – spending at least 50% of their time in our offices every week - combining the benefits of flexibility, with time together with colleagues. 

To find out more about working at Aviva take a look here 

We'd love it if you could submit your application online. If you require an alternative method of applying, or if you have any queries in relation to the vacancy, please give Chloe Nettley a call on 07795207964 or send an email to chloe.nettley@aviva.com