How You'll Help Us Keep Climbing (Overview & Key Responsibilities)
The Manager Data &AI Delivery provides leadership and oversight for all Virgin Atlantic Data &AI initiatives delivered from the Delta Technology Hub (DTH) in Bengaluru. Acting as the primary conduit between UKbased Data &AI teams and Indiabased Data Engineering, Analytics, Data Science and MLOps squads, the postholder ensures that crossfunctional teams deliver robust data platforms, BI & reporting products, machinelearning and GenAI solutions, and performant APIs that embed insights across digital channels and enterprise applications.
Delivery is executed through Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) with a strong emphasis on datalifecycle best practice (CRISPDM, MLOps, LLMOps) and close collaboration with Digital and Technology teams. The role combines people leadership, Agile coaching, and technical delivery management to realise value from data and AI at scale.
Key responsibilities span recruitment, performance management, Agile execution, stakeholder engagement, risk management, and acting as the VTH escalation point for Data &AI delivery issues.
Key Responsibilities
Communicating and Influencing
- Act as the primary liaison between UK Data &AI leadership and Virgin DTH squads, ensuring transparent communication of priorities, progress and risks.
- Represent Data &AI teams in local forums, architecture councils and leadership discussions.
- making.
- Evangelise data and AI best practices through showcases, demos and communities of practice.
Leadership and People Management
- Lead and mentor multidisciplinary Data &AI squads, fostering high performance and continuous development.
- Oversee recruitment, onboarding and career progression for data engineers, scientists, analysts and MLOps engineers.
- Champion an inclusive, datadriven culture that rewards experimentation and learning.
- Provide coaching, feedback and performance reviews; ensure team wellbeing and policy compliance.
Data & AI Delivery and Agile Execution
- end delivery of data platforms, analytical products and ML/LLM solutions through Agile ceremonies.
- Facilitate iterative development, backlog refinement, estimation and sprint planning for Data &AI workstreams.
- Ensure robust data governance, quality and security throughout the lifecycle.
- facing applications.
- Drive adoption of MLOps/LLMOps pipelines for continuous training, monitoring and model governance.
Stakeholder Engagement and Communication
- Translate strategic goals into prioritised Data &AI roadmaps with business stakeholders.
- Provide regular reporting on delivery KPIs (velocity, throughput, value delivered) and modelperformance metrics.
- Proactively surface and mitigate risks, dependencies and blockers impacting data initiatives.
Operational and Local Hub Management
- Ensure squads have access to modern data tooling, cloud resources and secure environments.
- Partner with Facilities and IT to maintain productive, hybridfriendly working practices.
- Lead continuousimprovement initiatives, leveraging retrospectives and datadriven insights.
- Track and optimise resource utilisation, cost and quality metrics for Data &AI delivery.
Innovation and Continuous Improvement
- tuning) and assess applicability to Virgin Atlantic use cases.
- concept to accelerate learning and innovation.
What You Need To Succeed (Minimum Qualifications)
- The Manager position requires a BS / MS degree in a technical or scientific field with 12+ years of overall relevant experience.
- Proven experience leading Agile Data &AI delivery teams across data engineering, BI/analytics, data science, ML and LLM product development.
- DM, MLOps/LLMOps) and traditional SDLC.
- centric integration patterns.
- Demonstrable expertise in Scrum, Kanban and SAFe; Agile certification (CSM, PSM, SA, etc.) preferred.
- location/global settings.
- Experience delivering BI & reporting solutions (e.g., Power BI, Tableau) and operationalising ML models via APIs or interactive applications.
- solving abilities.
- Experience in Team Leadership: Managed, mentored, coached and developed teams, fostering a collaborative and creative work environment
- Experience in Resource Allocation, Capacity Planning & Resource utilization
Behavioral Competencies
- Ability to champion a collaborative environment by empowering team members, demonstrating resilience, being inclusive and building a culture of trust.
- Ability to build and sustain robust networks across internal and external stakeholders.
- Being a coach/mentor/advisor to drive continuous team development and growth.
- Use systemic thinking to drive business results and strategic decisions that enhance organizational outcomes.
- Ability to advocate for customer-focused innovations, model empathy in decision-making, inspiring others to approach problems from the customer's perspective and decisions that reflect an uncompromising commitment to customer safety, fostering trust and loyalty.
What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)
- Previous airline experience
