Director of Technology and AI

We are Hiring!

We have an exciting new opportunity at Scope for a Director of Technology and AI to join our team! 

We are looking for people who can connect their own personal vision and values into some of what we do at Scope. 

Our vision as a company is to become a leading force in Eyecare, with people at our core.

The Compensation & Benefits for this role include (but not limited to):

• Performance related bonus 
• 24 days annual leave (pro rata).
• Healthcare allowance beginning post probation and increasing at 2 and 5 years service.
• Pension contributions through Zurich beginning post probation and increasing at 2, 5 and 8 years service.
• Company sick pay scheme
• Further Education policy
• Professional Membership

Please read below the full job description for the role and if this is something that you would be interested in, please click apply and a member of the Scope team will be in touch regarding your application.

Director of Technology and AI

Please note, this role can be based across the UK, Ireland or the US.

The Director of Technology & AI will build and lead Scope Technology, the new function that brings Scope’s software, data and AI together under one roof for the first time. Reporting to the CEO and sitting on the Scope Leaders Forum, you will own the technology, data and AI agenda end to end: one trusted data backbone, software products with real ownership behind them, and AI put to safe, measurable use in every part of the business. This is a build role in a regulated business, so you will set the strategy and the standards for governance, delivery and validation, and grow a strong team around an experienced in-house systems team. Your job is to make technology one of the reasons Scope leads its market rather than follows it.

Technology, data and AI will be central to how we deliver on our strategy, so this role will give Technology & AI a seat at the senior table at Scope. Scope Technology will lead 3 teams: Business Systems, Data & Platform; Product & Emerging Technology; and AI & Automation, creating a connected technology capability that supports teams across the business and advances Scope’s own digital products.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy and leadership

• Set and own Scope’s technology, data and AI strategy in line with the long-range plan, and review it every three to six months rather than once a year, because technology and AI move too fast for a fixed annual roadmap.

•  Build the function in a sensible sequence: hire the Product & Emerging Technology and AI & Automation leads, develop the Business Systems, Data & Platform team, and add capability as the agenda grows.

•  Own the technology budget, vendor strategy and supplier portfolio, and move from undirected outsourced support to directed partnerships and in-house capability.

•  Set the operating rhythm, governance and reporting for technology so the leadership team can see what is being delivered, what it costs and what it returns.

•  Contribute as a member of the Scope Leaders Forum, translating technical choices into commercial consequences the leadership team and Board can act on.

Business Systems and data

•  Consolidate parallel data operations into one governed backbone, covering warehouse, pipelines and business intelligence tooling, with one agreed source of truth the business trusts.

•  Set a clear split of responsibility: the platform prepares and serves data, the business interprets it, and AI builds on top of it.

•  Broaden the remit of the existing information systems team from support into the integration backbone of the business, with clear development pathways for the people in it.

• Define the target architecture and the standards, patterns and controls that new systems are built to.

Product and delivery

•  Install real product ownership across Scope’s software products, including the Optase MX2 platform and our Optase Connect & Scope Connect products, and consolidate them onto a shared platform.

•  Move development from a closed, bespoke toolchain to an open, modern and AI-assisted approach owned by the team, removing single points of dependency on individuals or small suppliers.

•  Bring proportionate delivery discipline so that development is predictable, visible and reportable, and the speed of change goes up.

•  Work alongside R&D on the software within Scope’s device products. Device engineering itself stays with R&D.

Artificial intelligence

•  Run AI as a governed service to the whole business, turning scattered activity into deployed, measured value across commercial, medical, regulatory, quality, supply chain and operational teams.

•  Set AI governance, guardrails and responsible-use standards that stand up in a regulated environment, including GDPR, the EU AI Act and US privacy requirements.

•  Build on the AI readiness programme already under way and lead company-wide AI capability building with Talent & Learning Development, so everyone at Scope learns to use AI well.

•  Keep the leadership team informed on where AI, including agentic tools, creates real advantage for Scope and where it does not.

Quality, validation and risk

•  Own technology’s obligations under Scope’s ISO 13485 quality management system, including computer system validation for systems affecting product, quality or regulatory records.

•  Make sure new platforms, data pipelines and AI tools are designed to be validated from the outset rather than retrofitted.

•  Own information security, cyber resilience and data protection at a strategic level across Ireland, the UK and the US.

•  Partner with the Quality and Regulatory functions, who retain ownership of the quality management system and regulatory compliance, so that technology supports their standards.

Investment discipline and due diligence

•  Make build-versus-buy a formal discipline so that technology investment is deliberate, evidenced and proportionate.

•  Provide technical due diligence for business development, in-licensing and acquisitions, assessing whether Scope can build, integrate and support the technology involved.

•  Keep a clear decision record for technology investment, including the decisions not to proceed.

Specific Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Qualifications

•         A degree in computer science, engineering, information systems or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience is required 

•         A postgraduate or professional qualification in technology leadership, architecture, information security, data or AI is desirable 

Knowledge and Experience

•         Senior technology leadership as a Director, Vice President, Head of Technology or CTO, with full ownership of a technology function 

•         A record of building or substantially reshaping a technology function, creating structure where little existed.

•         Consolidating a fragmented estate, bringing previously separate codebases, platforms or data operations together and seeing the change through.

•         Deploying and governing AI in a business, including current generative and agentic tools, beyond research or proof of concept.

•         Owning software products and turning round under-performing or dated technology.

•         Building data as an asset: warehouse, business intelligence, governance and one source of truth.

•         Building and hiring a technology team, including senior appointments, and developing the people already in it.

•         Owning a technology budget and supplier portfolio, including decisions to stop investing.

•         Delivering technology within a regulated quality system, such as medical devices, pharmaceuticals or healthcare, including validation of systems affecting product or quality records.

•         Growing or lean organisations where resources are tight, not only large enterprises is desirable

•         Software operating alongside hardware or connected devices, working with device engineering teams is desirable

•         Technical due diligence for acquisitions or in-licensing, and integrating acquired technology and teams is desirable

•         Operating across Ireland, the UK and the US, including EU and US data protection requirements is desirable

•         Consumer healthcare, eyecare or other businesses that sell through healthcare professionals is desirable

Skills and attributes

•         Diagnoses before building, and can hold that position under pressure to deliver visible change quickly.

•         Pragmatic on build versus buy, and comfortable defending a well-reasoned view on what to build, buy or retire.

•         Commercially literate: explains technology choices as commercial consequences for a non-technical leadership team and Board.

•         Influences without authority across Commercial, Medical, Regulatory, Quality, Supply Chain and Operations.

•         Clear, concise written and verbal communication, including board papers.

•         Brings people with them. This function is built by elevating an existing team rather than replacing it, and the right person will develop a strong number two.

•         Comfortable with a strategy that is re-pointed regularly, energised by pace and by working directly with the CEO.

•         A problem-solving mindset, and an approach that puts technology to work enabling strategy.

•         Lives the Scope values: Authentic, Creative, Driven and The Craic.

•         High standards of confidentiality and integrity.

•         Willing and able to travel regularly between Scope’s sites in Ireland, the UK and the US (approx. 20–25%).

Scope provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.