Senior Manager of AI Centre of Excellence, Checkout.com
3+ days a week in office
Payment services to power performance
Be an early applicant
Payment services to power performance
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
3+ days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help businesses thrive in the digital economy.
Role
Who you are
- 4+ years of experience in related leadership roles, with a strong background in AI/ML initiatives and technical strategy
- Strong technical foundation with hands-on coding skills (e.g., Python, APIs, LangChain, HuggingFace, OpenAI APIs, TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar frameworks)
- Proven ability to prototype solutions and work closely with engineering, data, InfoSec, and support teams
- Experience building and leading high-performing teams, ideally in a newly established or scaling function
- Strong understanding of AI risks and controls, including data protection, model governance, and secure use of MCPs
- Skilled at tight stakeholder engagement, aligning business leaders on priorities, value measurement, and adoption of AI use cases
- Demonstrated ability to work with Information Security and Compliance teams to deliver secure, governed technology solutions
- Experience collaborating with Support or Operations teams to build scalable support paths and ensure long-term maintainability
- Skilled at developing training programs, playbooks, and communications that drive adoption
- Strong storytelling and influencing skills, able to engage both technical and business audiences
- A balance of strategic leadership and hands-on execution — equally comfortable in executive meetings and at the keyboard
What the job involves
- We are seeking a Senior Manager to lead our AI Centre of Excellence (COE). This is a pivotal role within the Global Technology & Security Office, reporting directly to the CISO & VP of IT
- The AI COE is responsible for establishing governance, policy, and best practices for AI use across Checkout.com, while also identifying, prototyping, and delivering AI use cases that create measurable business value
- This role is both strategic and hands-on: part governance leader, part product owner, part technical practitioner
- You will define our approach to responsible AI adoption, prototype and test solutions, communicate the vision across the organisation, and ultimately build and lead a growing AI COE team
- Build and scale the AI COE: Establish the vision, structure, and roadmap, and grow the team into a world-class capability
- AI Governance: Define and enforce policies, frameworks, and guardrails for safe, ethical, and compliant AI use
- Collaborate with Information Security: Partner closely with InfoSec to define secure, governed use of AI tools and platforms (e.g., managed MCP environments, access controls, data protection, auditability)
- Hands-on Prototyping & Coding: Develop proof-of-concepts, write scripts, and evaluate AI/ML models and APIs to validate solutions before scaling
- Product Ownership: Act as product owner for AI initiatives, from idea intake and prioritisation through to delivery and adoption
- Use Case Development & Stakeholder Engagement: Partner with stakeholders across Technology, Product, Operations, Risk, Legal, and other business functions to identify, prioritise, and deliver high-value AI use cases. Ensure alignment on how success and business value will be measured
- Support Enablement: Work with Support teams to design scalable support models, documentation, and escalation paths for AI-powered solutions
- Operational Readiness: Ensure AI use cases are production-ready with monitoring, resilience, and ongoing support baked in
- Enablement & Education: Create training materials, playbooks, and enablement programs to upskill employees on responsible AI use
- Communications: Serve as the central voice for AI at Checkout.com, shaping narratives, sharing success stories, and ensuring visibility of progress
- Change Management: Drive adoption of AI solutions by embedding them into business processes, in partnership with HR, Comms, and L&D
- Executive Influence: Regularly brief and influence senior leaders to ensure AI initiatives align with business priorities and risk appetite
- Metrics & Outcomes: Define and track KPIs for AI adoption, value delivery, and risk reduction, demonstrating measurable impact across the business
- Risk & Compliance Alignment: Ensure AI activities comply with evolving regulations (e.g., GDPR, DORA, PCI DSS, EU AI Act)
- Industry Awareness: Monitor emerging AI technologies, vendor solutions, and regulatory trends to inform strategy
Salary benchmarks
Our take
The payments industry has exploded in the last decade as eCommerce continues to grow as the use of cash falls. Checkout.com is building the go-to platform for all things related to payments, such as accepting transactions, processing them and detecting fraud. Its secured a steady stream of funding from top investors like Tiger Global Management, and is the strategic payments partner for some of the best known fast-moving brands globally such as Patreon, Dashlane, Udacity, Wise, Sony Electronics, and Klarna.
It focuses on large merchants and try to make its product as customisable as possible, so that companies integrate Checkout.com as an infrastructure partner in their product. This increases the stickiness of the product and creates many opportunities for the company to generate revenue.
Checkout.com has high quality proprietary technology (its platform has been designed from the outset so it can easily deliver incremental services as it expands its offering) and claim to offer the most comprehensive cross-border payment solution for digital commerce.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Employee endorsements
People of all backgrounds are welcomed
"DEIB is where Checkout.com takes it to the next level. This company is excellent at building a sense of belonging and celebrating people from all..."
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Jan 2022
$1bn
SERIES D
Jan 2021
$450m
SERIES C
Total funding: $1.8bn
Company values
- Aspire: With big dreams and a long-term focus, we embrace ambition, driving our Aspire value
- Excel: By constantly pushing ourselves and each other to do our best work, we embody the spirit of Excel
- Unite: We come together as one team, rallying to make wins happen, forming the foundation of our Unite value
Company HQ
London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Guillaume Pousaz
(Founder & CEO)Previously founded NetMerchant, which sold European currencies to US merchants. Background in mathematical engineering.
People progressing
First joined as a Software Engineer, was promoted to Senior Software Engineer after 1.5 years and was then promoted to Engineering Lead 6 months later. Ignas is now a Senior Engineering Manager.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Checkout.com
- Our IT Infrastructure Engineer, Sheryl Lingachetti, spoke to Zoë Schulz from myGwork - LGBTQ+ professionals & allies about trans rights in Mauritius, allyship and the support she has found in her workplace community 🏳️⚧️👇 https://www.attitude.co.uk/life/business/it-engineer-sheryl-on-coming-out-at-work-support-improves-productivity-for-everyone-442696/
- CTRL-ALT-CONNECT is Tech's latest community 🔥 We've partnered with our friends at Wise to create an inclusive community for people in tech to connect over conversation, networking and drinks. Last week we hosted our first panel discussion in our London office, which centred on the topic of Growth. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/checkout_tech-community-activity-7071841326060720129-qDOt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
- Our Pride Community provides a safe and welcoming space for our LGBTQIA+ colleagues and allies to connect, learn, and advocate for change. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/checkout_lifeatcheckout-activity-7074738991102611457-u7v5?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
- Our Pride Community spoke with Adel Naamneh, VP of Solutions Engineering to learn about their experiences of being a member of LGBTQIA+ community and the importance of having corporate responsibility on hiring a diverse work force: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0e9WUmNdVk&t=561s
- Read an interview hosted by The Black Young Professionals Network with the leaders of our Black Community: https://byp-network.com/news/314821
- Read more about the 'FinTech for all' charter, of which we were a founding signatory. The charter aims to create a speak up culture across FinTech, eliminating harassment and bullying: https://fintech.inchorus.org/
- Read this inspiring interview hosted by SheCanCode and one of our female QA Engineers: https://shecancode.io/blog/victoria-santiago-qa-engineer
- Our Principal Product Manager Yasmin, also sat down with SheCanCode on two inspiring articles: https://shecancode.io/blog/meet-yasmin-christie-checkout-principal-product-manager-an-inspirational-tech-career-journey and https://shecancode.io/blog/14-pieces-of-practical-product-management-guidance-from-checkout-part-2
- Plus, our Senior Engineering Manager Marina tells her story with SheCanCode: https://www.shecancode.io/blog/how-to-get-the-best-from-your-team-and-your-own-career-from-one-of-checkouts-engineering-leads
- And finally, our Graduates share some insights too: https://www.shecancode.io/blog/grad-programme-insider-tips-from-checkout
- Find out more information at our Diversity and Inclusion webpage: https://www.checkout.com/diversity-and-inclusion
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