Job Specifications
Head AI & Data
Location: Bristol, Hybrid, in office 2 days every 3 weeks
Salary: £100,000 - £115,000 + Share Options
Reporting to: VP of Technology
About us
Duel is a SaaS company on a mission to make Brand Advocacy the industry standard philosophy for building brilliant retail brands. It was founded by world record-breaking adventurer and former brand ambassador Paul Archer. We exist to show that companies built for advocacy can change the world. In today's hyper connected world in which social media is now twice the size of all other media channels combined and entirely user-generated, the most successful brands are the ones investing in people and in community, not in ads.
The Duel Brand Advocacy Solution allows enterprise brands to do just that. We have onboarded over 60 influential brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Charlotte Tilbury, Spanx, Victoria’s Secret, LUSH and Elemis. The Duel team's global presence includes offices in New York City & London. Our team of 60+ is composed of psychologists, brand experts and community builders, combining cutting-edge brand expertise with seasoned SaaS experience.
Backed by top European VCs, Duel recently announced a $16 million Series A, which will accelerate growth in the US from our base in New York, and bring our entirely AI-driven product vision to life to equip brands with the solution needed to drive growth through thousands of advocates, customers, creators and brand ambassadors.
The Role
We’re looking for a Head of AI & Data to lead our data pod: you will lead a talented, distributed team (Data Engineer, Data Scientist, Product Data Analytics Manager) with a mandate to scale the AI function further in 2026.This role sits at the intersection of Duel technology, strategy, and product delivery.
You will shape Duel’s data vision, evolve our modern data stack for scale, and make sure we get the maximum value from data across our internal operations and customer products. You’ll work closely with teams across Engineering, Product, and Senior Leadership to define and deliver data driven outcomes that move Duel forward.
We are evolving toward large scale data systems, modern streaming capabilities, and advanced AI/ML pipelines that support both internal teams and customer facing product
We’re Looking for Someone Who Will…
Step in as the architect of Duel’s entire AI and Data ecosystem. You’ll hold the keys to our Advocate First data model, the engine that powers everything we do and define the metrics that tell us whether we’re winning. This is where your strategic vision becomes the compass for the whole company.
Design the blueprint for everything from data foundations to advanced ML applications. You’ll set the tempo for how fast we innovate and how far we can go.
AI Innovation
Bring an AI-native mindset and turn it into real, shipped intelligence. You’ll blend classical ML and modern LLM techniques, weaving together RAG/GraphRAG, model distillation, fine-tuning (PEFT/LoRA), and agentic workflows. Your work won’t sit in a notebook, it will live inside the product, shaping how brands interact with their advocates in ways they’ve never experienced before.
Data Architecture
Own our Snowflake data warehouse like a master builder. You’ll design systems that evolve with us, ingesting signals from AWS and streaming technologies like RedPanda/Kafka. As our data grows, your architecture will ensure it remains fast, intuitive, and always ready to support the next breakthrough feature.
Product Collaboration
Sit shoulder-to-shoulder with Product and Engineering to embed intelligence into the Duel platform itself. Every feature you help shape will be smarter, more predictive, and more impactful. You’ll ensure the data model scales not just with our needs, but with our ambition.
Security & Compliance
Be the guardian of trust. You’ll design our authentication frameworks (RBAC, RLS), uphold our ISO27001 standards, and lead us toward ISO42001 — helping Duel become one of the first truly AI-governed platforms. Your work will reassure customers that innovation and responsibility can coexist.
Lead, Mentor, and Grow a High-Performing Team
Guide a team of 6+ talented data engineers, scientists, and analysts. You’ll shape their growth, push their curiosity, and build a team that thrives on shared momentum — a group that’s proud of the problems they solve together.
Own the Evolution of Our Data Platform
Build for reliability, scale, and speed. As data volume, variety, and velocity grow, your platform will remain the calm, powerful engine beneath it all.
Your decisions will shorten time-to-insight, sharpen decision-making, and unlock new ways for teams across Duel to move faster and think smarter.
Create clarity, consistency, and trust across every dataset and pipeline. When someone reaches for data at Duel, they’ll know it’s reliable because you made it that way
Partner Across the Business
From Product to Marketing to the C-suite, you’ll collaborate w