Discovery Pipeline Manager

Role: Discovery Pipeline Manager - Defence AI

Location: London (up to 1 day per week on site - Tuesday)

Contract: Until , with potential extension

IR35: In scope

Day rate: £450 - 466 (umbrella)

This is a strategic role at the heart of the Defence AI portfolio, owning the end-to-end Discovery Pathway and ensuring that AI demand across Defence is captured, structured, and converted into clear, decision-ready opportunities that genuinely support war-fighter needs and wider strategic outcomes.

What you would be leading

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• Owning a single, authoritative pipeline of AI opportunities and requests across Defence.
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• Ensuring all demand is captured, tracked and aligned to agreed prioritisation frameworks.
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• Providing transparent reporting on pipeline health, volume and flow into prioritisation, commissioning and delivery.
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• Designing and operating structured intake, triage and prioritisation processes in line with team operating procedures.
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• Translating fragmented or ambiguous demand into coherent themes and clear problem statements.
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• Reducing low-value, duplicative or mis-routed requests entering the pipeline.
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• Leading continuous improvement of the Discovery Pathway, with clear entry criteria and robust discovery outputs.
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• Managing hand-offs from discovery into prioritisation, commissioning and delivery so that problems entering delivery are well-defined and evidence-based.
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What our client is looking for

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• Active SC Clearance strongly prefffered.
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• Proven experience in pipeline, portfolio or demand management within complex organisations.
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• Track record of designing and running structured intake and discovery processes.
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• Ability to convert ambiguous or fragmented demand into clear, decision-ready problem statements.
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• Experience working across engagement, insight and delivery functions.
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• Strong stakeholder management skills, including interaction with senior leaders.
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• Confidence applying prioritisation frameworks and supporting evidence-based decision-making.
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• Awareness of AI and its applications is desirable, but not expected to be in-depth.
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Why this could be interesting for you

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• Direct influence on how AI demand is shaped and prioritised across Defence.
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• High-visibility role interfacing with senior stakeholders, shaping a growing and strategically critical portfolio.
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• Long-term contract with stability through to at least March 2027, plus extension potential.
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• Hybrid working with limited on-site requirement (maximum one day per week in London).
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Inclusive hiring

Our client participates in disability-confident and armed forces covenant schemes. If you qualify for a guaranteed interview scheme, please mention this when you reply so it can be clearly highlighted in the process.