VP AI & Platform

VP, AI & Platform | NRW | €180 - 200K+ Base | C1 German AI Futures has been engaged to find a VP of AI & Platform for a leading publisher - a media group with print, digital, audio, and content marketing operations reaching millions of readers, and a leadership team committed to AI as a core strategic pillar for the next decade. The company A leading German publishing group with operations nationwide - known for editorial independence, brand strength, and a growing investment in data and AI infrastructure. The company is building its ML/AI Platform capability from scratch, sitting within a broader data organisation of around 20 practitioners. This is a genuine opportunity to own that build - to set the direction, not inherit someone else’s architecture - at a business where AI has direct impact on product quality, reader experience, and commercial performance. The role You will be the VP responsible for AI and Platform across the group - combining strategic ownership, team leadership, and hands-on architectural influence in a single remit. This is not an operational coordination role. You will define how AI is built and deployed across editorial, product, and commercial functions; own the platform and tooling that make it possible; and lead a team you will grow. You will work at the intersection of engineering, product, and business - and your decisions will shape how the organisation uses AI for years. You will report into senior leadership and sit at the table where product, technology, and commercial strategy converge. The ML/AI Platform team is new. You will build it. What you’ll do - Own the strategic direction of the group’s ML/AI Platform - defining standards, selecting tooling, and setting the architectural vision for how AI is built and operationalised across the business - Build and lead a high-performing, specialised team - developing people, creating the conditions for strong technical work, and fostering close collaboration with Data Science, Product, Engineering, DevOps, and editorial departments - Drive AI transformation across the group - identifying high-impact use cases in reader products, content intelligence, and advertising; prioritising what gets built and in what order - Establish the ML/AI Ops platform: scalable, secure, and enabling - so that data scientists and product engineers can move from model to production without unnecessary friction - Define how the organisation works with LLMs, RAG architectures, and agentic AI - selecting tooling (MLflow, Vertex AI, vector databases) and governing how these capabilities are integrated into products and workflows - Act as a strategic partner to product, commercial, and editorial leadership - translating AI capability into business outcomes and communicating clearly across technical and non-technical stakeholders - Represent the function internally and, where relevant, externally - shaping how the group engages with the broader AI and media technology landscape What you’ll bring - A track record of senior leadership across AI, platform engineering, or product and technology in a media, publishing, or digital content business - you have owned a remit at this level and delivered at scale - Experience leading AI or engineering transformation - not just maintaining what exists, but building new capability, changing how teams work, and driving adoption across an organisation - Strong commercial and strategic instincts alongside genuine technical depth - you understand LLMs, MLOps, and platform architecture; you don’t need to be shielded from the detail - Experience building and developing teams - you create structures without micromanaging, develop people with genuine intent, and earn credibility through your own technical engagement - Fluency in how AI intersects with advertising, content, and audience intelligence - whether from publishing, ad tech, or a closely adjacent environment - The ability to operate at board and C-suite level: presenting strategy, making the case for investment, and engaging peers in product and commercial leadership as an equal Desirable - Prior experience in programmatic advertising, audience data, or publisher monetisation - understanding the commercial context in which AI decisions are made - Hands-on familiarity with GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform, and the broader MLOps toolchain - Active perspective on the AI transformation of knowledge work - how AI changes what engineers do, not just what systems do - German language skills; Hamburg or Berlin based Location & Package NRW - hybrid with flexibility €180 - 200K+ total compensation (fixed + performance bonus) Senior leadership role · Competitive benefits package AI Futures have been engaged exclusively for this search. If this sounds like an exciting challenge to you please apply below. AI Futures | Filling the AI Skills Gap ®