AI and Innovation Lead

Job role: AI and Innovation Lead

Location: Office-based at 12 Dorset Street (5 days a week)

Reporting to: Investment Director

About Dominus

Dominus is a leading real estate investor, developer, owner and operator specialising in hotels and student living across central London and in key UK cities. Founded in 2011, we have built a £3 billion asset pipeline through investing our own equity and co-investing alongside institutional joint venture partners.

As a fully integrated business, we create value across the entire project lifecycle. Our teams span investment, planning, development, finance, legal and asset management. Our portfolio of hotels is managed by Dominus Hospitality, our dedicated operating platform, and operate under Hilton and Marriott brands.

The role is based in our London head office, a team of 60, with a further 380 colleagues working across our hotel portfolio.

Role Description

As we continue to implement AI across the business, we require an AI and Innovation Lead to lead the AI function across the business. The successful candidate will work closely with our Senior Leadership Team and will take ownership of ambitious plans for integrating AI into the business. The role spans two tracks: (i) AI adoption and enablement, training and supporting teams across the business in the effective, safe and accountable use of AI tools and automated workflows; and (ii) the development of a connected suite of internal applications, including oversight of external software development partners and the supporting infrastructure.

The role includes leading end-to-end automation of existing workflows, using new and existing technologies to enhance deal sourcing, underwriting and transaction processes, and overseeing the creation and management of dedicated software for each team covering both new acquisitions and the management of existing assets in the portfolio. The successful candidate will take a hands-on approach to work across the business to understand each function’s workflows and implement new AI initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Continue and improve upon the existing automation workflows across investment, development, finance and operations, using the full suite of AI applications and building on the existing AI infrastructure to optimise existing workflows
• Lead the strategy and oversee the development of new tech initiatives
• Lead the structured AI training and enablement programme across all teams, including training sessions, best practices and the creation of new workflow automations
• Own AI governance across the business, including usage policies, data-security boundaries and the principle of human accountability for AI-assisted outputs
• Manage external software development partners and vendors, including scoping, commercial terms and delivery oversight for the internal application suite
• Track and report adoption, productivity outcomes and workstream progress to the Senior Leadership Team on a regular basis
• Contribute to wider business planning decisions and strategy meetings
• Take a “continuous improvement” approach to the continued AI & tech enablement of the business

Required Experience

• Demonstrable experience deploying AI tooling or automation within a professional environment, from individual workflows through to team-wide adoption
• Experience across the full suite of LLMs, including agentic coding tools such as Codex and Claude Code
• Working knowledge of Python, HTML and general scripting
• Proficiency across the Microsoft Office suite
• Experience within investments, asset management or advisory in any capacity. Real estate experience, particularly hotels, PBSA or other operational asset classes, is preferred but not essential.
• An understanding of underwriting, deal structuring and transaction processes

Key skills and attributes

• A team player who can work collaboratively across the business
• An entrepreneurial attitude; someone who takes the initiative on new and existing workstreams
• The ability to work under pressure and be flexible with hours around delivery deadlines
• The ability to manage competing priorities across multiple concurrent projects
• Exceptional attention to detail
• Strong commercial and strategic acumen, ideally with exposure to real estate
• Able to present information clearly and concisely

Benefits

We offer a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package: a performance-related bonus, pension, training allowance, private medical insurance, and 24 days' annual leave plus bank holidays, and a 3-day Christmas shutdown. You'll also enjoy hotel discounts worldwide and up to 3 free nights a year in Dominus hotels.

If you have any queries regarding this role, please email diahann.wicks@dominus.co.uk.