The Head of Innovation is a senior, high-profile leadership role with responsibility for setting the strategic direction for innovation, data, AI and automation across the council. You''ll work at the heart of the organisation, helping to embed intelligence-led decision-making, encourage curiosity and experimentation, and ensure innovation is applied in a purposeful, ethical and value-driven way. Joining at a formative moment, you''ll have genuine scope to shape both the role and its impact. We''re not looking for someone to arrive with a fixed blueprint; instead, we want a leader who can horizon-scan, challenge assumptions, and help the organisation think differently about where change sits and how it should be delivered. You''ll work closely with established technical teams across data engineering, analytics and AI, allowing you to focus on identifying the right problems, building momentum and scaling innovation across services, partnerships and the wider system. You''ll provide strategic leadership on data governance, ethical AI and compliance, ensuring robust guardrails are in place while still enabling pace, creativity and learning. This role is as much about influence and communication as it is about strategy. You''ll act as an advocate for insight-led decision-making, building confidence and capability among senior leaders, elected members and the wider workforce, and helping to embed a culture where data, evidence and innovation are central to how decisions are made.