AI Solutions Specialist

Job description

Learning changes lives - and we're here to drive that change.

We support people wherever and however they want to learn, so they can achieve their learning goals and uncover new possibilities.

Today, we reach more learners than ever, in more ways than ever.

And we're just getting started.

About the Role

Join our Education Division's AI Lab and help shape the practical application of artificial intelligence across educational publishing. Working closely with Product teams, you will identify, validate, and deliver AI solutions that primarily address our operational needs across publishing and editorial workflows, while supporting customer-facing opportunities as and when required. You'll play a key role in translating business challenges into innovative AI-enabled solutions, while helping the organisation explore and realise the potential of emerging technologies.

As part of this role, you will design, prototype, test, deploy, and support AI applications within locally supported environments. You'll take ownership of AI use cases from initial discovery through to implementation and ongoing optimisation, gathering requirements, evaluating performance, and continuously improving solutions based on feedback and usage data. You'll also explore the capabilities of evolving AI technologies, including large language models, to assess their suitability for educational publishing challenges and opportunities.

Working collaboratively with colleagues across the Division, you will act as a hands-on technical partner, helping teams identify opportunities for AI-enabled improvements and supporting the responsible adoption of AI tools and workflows. The role combines technical delivery with experimentation, quality assurance, governance, and knowledge sharing, ensuring that AI solutions are reliable, effective, and aligned with organisational standards while contributing to the longer-term development of scalable AI capabilities across the business.

We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office.

About You

Essential:

• Experience developing and implementing AI or machine learning solutions to solve real business problems.
• Hands-on programming experience, particularly Python, and familiarity with relevant AI/ML frameworks, large language models (LLMs) and architectures such as RAG systems and vector databases.
• Experience taking technical solutions from concept through to delivery, evaluation, and continuous improvement.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to turn complex challenges into practical solutions.
• Ability to evaluate options, make evidence-based recommendations, and balance innovation with business value.
• Experience gathering requirements and working closely with users and stakeholders to understand their needs.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Collaborative approach, with experience working across multiple teams, products, or business functions.
• Commitment to responsible, secure, and ethical use of AI technologies.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, evolving environment where priorities and requirements may change.

Desirable:

• Experience or interest in educational publishing, content development, or digital publishing workflows.
• Experience assessing and comparing different AI models, platforms, or technical approaches.

Benefits

We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days' holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect to working patterns, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies.

We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 12%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts.

This role comes with the added benefit of a discretionary annual payment.

Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.

Queries

Please contact [email protected] with any queries relating to this role.

We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.