AI Manager

About Markel International

The AI Centre of Enablement (CoE) is a new, high-impact team at Markel International, created to accelerate responsible AI adoption and deliver tangible outcomes across every division. We operate with a dual mandate: AI Business Partnering, which involves educating, advising, coordinating, and governing AI usage; and AI Engineering, focused on delivering strategic builds. Joining at this formation stage, you will help drive uptake, shape standards, set up communities of practice, and partner with business AI leads, IT, and Change Delivery to turn priority use cases into production outcomes. This is a rare opportunity to influence AI strategy and execution across the entirety of Markel International.

We’re all about people | We win together | We strive for better | We enjoy the everyday | We think further

Who We Are

The International Portfolio Analytics (IPA) team at Markel is a dynamic, multi-functional group that operates with creativity, autonomy, and empowerment. Embedded within the underwriting business and represented in senior leadership forums, the team supports all divisions of Markel International. Its core focus lies in the key areas essential to driving profitability and performance for a specialty lines insurer: Portfolio Management, Pricing Transformation, Advanced Analytics, and Catastrophe & Exposure Management.

You’ll collaborate closely with the rest of the International Portfolio Analytics team, who use innovative advanced analytics, data management, business intelligence, and technical pricing implementation to deliver market-leading programmes and technologies.

Part of Markel Group (NYSE – MKL), a Fortune 500 company with over 60 offices in 20+ countries, is a holding company for insurance, reinsurance, specialist advisory, and investment operations around the world.

What You’ll Be Doing as an AI Manager

Advisory

• Be an in-house consultant on AI, able to advise on a diverse range of business requests.
• Help divisions turn AI ideas into outcomes by clarifying problem statements, defining success metrics, and expected benefits.
• Lead vendor engagement by staying informed on the insuretech/tech space; prepare shortlists and comparison grids for defined use cases, documenting pros, cons, and trade-offs.
• Deliver Copilot development support for builds of varying complexity: from prompt design and agent creation to agentic system development, to enable scalable AI adoption.

Education

• Promote and share use cases across Markel International, showcasing wins and reusable solutions that can scale across divisions.
• Curate and maintain communities of leadership and practice, from Business AI leads (top-down) to super-user networks (bottom-up).
• Collaborate with the Learning and Development team to build and deliver impactful AI training for underwriting, claims, operations, and core functions.

Governance

• Work with compliance and legal teams to develop and maintain a Markel International AI governance framework to meet internal policies and external regulations (e.g., EU AI Act).
• Design and maintain the central AI inventory to ensure visibility and traceability of all AI assets, including third-party tools and Copilot integrations.
• Embed responsible AI practices through guidance and compliance training for day-to-day operations.

Coordination

• Provide project oversight for smaller AI initiatives: tracking timelines, deliverables, and dependencies to ensure projects stay on course and risks are flagged early.
• Facilitate effective communication between business units, IT, data teams, and the AI Centre of Enablement to promote efficient delivery and alignment.

Key Skills for an AI Manager

• Business Partnering: Ability to build positive relationships across divisions, understand business priorities, and act as a bridge between technical teams and commercial objectives.
• AI and Technology Expertise: Understand how varying large language models (LLMs) work (e.g., architecture basics, fine-tuning, prompt engineering) and their limitations (bias, hallucination, compliance risks).
• Copilot: Familiarity with modern AI tools and concepts (e.g., Microsoft Copilot, Copilot Studio, prompt design, agents, agentic systems) and a willingness to learn and adapt as technology evolves.
• Governance Approach: Understanding of compliance, ethical standards, and regulatory frameworks (e.g., EU AI Act), with experience embedding controls into business processes.
• Influencing and Communication Skills: Confidence in engaging senior stakeholders, simplifying technical concepts, and driving cultural change through education and advocacy.
• Collaboration and Co-ordination: Skilled at connecting teams, leading dependencies, and providing light-touch project oversight to keep initiatives aligned and on track.
• Change Leadership: Ability to inspire adoption, build communities of practice, and champion responsible AI use across diverse business areas.
• Strategic and Analytical Thinking: Ability to turn complex business challenges into clear AI opportunities, balancing innovation with risk and ROI.

What’s In It For You?

A great starting salary plus annual bonus & strong benefits package…

• Up to 16% company pension scheme
• Private medical and dental cover
• Menopause plan, emergency care benefit (children/Pets/dependants)
• Income protection, Life assurance, electric car scheme, travel insurance
• 25 days paid holiday plus Bank Holidays, with the opportunity to buy/sell extra leave

As well as other great benefits on offer there are countless opportunities to learn new skills and develop in your career!

Are You Ready to Play Your Part?

If you’re looking for a place where you can make a meaningful difference, you’ve found it. The work we do at Markel gives people the confidence to move forward, reach their full potential and seize opportunities. You’ll find your fit amongst our diverse global community of optimists and problem-solvers. We’re always pushing each other to think further because we believe that when we strive for better and realise our potential, we can help others reach theirs.

Join us and play your part in something special!

Choose ‘Apply Now’ to fill out our short application, so that we can find out more about you.

At Markel we are all about the people, celebrating the value of a diverse workforce that brings experience and expertise from a wide variety of backgrounds and life circumstances. Whatever your background, if you feel you meet the requirements of this role then we want to hear from you. We are also happy to consider candidates who are looking for flexible working patterns.

We will ensure that individuals are provided with any reasonable accommodations to be able to participate in the job application or interview process and to perform essential job functions if successful. Please contact us via email at rec@markel.com or call us at 0161 507 5827 to request any accommodations or adjustments that may be needed, including alternative formats of documents or information on how to apply offline.

#PlayYourPartUK

Key skills/competency

• AI Strategy
• AI Governance
• Large Language Models (LLMs)
• Prompt Engineering
• Microsoft Copilot
• Business Partnering
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Project Oversight
• Ethical AI
• Regulatory Compliance (EU AI Act)