Head of AI Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Head of Artificial Intelligence
UK > UK excluding London

The median Head of Artificial Intelligence salary in the UK excluding London is £100,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 19 September 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 620 529 635
Rank change year-on-year -91 +106 -
Permanent jobs requiring a Head of AI 55 10 8
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.065% 0.029% 0.014%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.069% 0.033% 0.015%
Number of salaries quoted 54 9 8
10th Percentile £85,000 £82,243 £90,875
25th Percentile £94,375 £85,000 £96,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £100,000 £90,000 £105,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -14.29% -
75th Percentile - £95,000 £115,688
90th Percentile £140,625 £113,750 £128,925
UK median annual salary £100,000 £108,500 £102,500
% change year-on-year -7.83% +5.85% -28.07%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 79,445 30,717 52,808
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.34% 89.30% 95.21%
Number of salaries quoted 55,076 17,484 30,834
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £38,620
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £58,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +6.36% - -8.33%

Head of AI
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Head of AI' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Head of AI job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Head of AI
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for Head of AI job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Salary distribution trend for Head of AI job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Head of AI
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Head of AI in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 19 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Head of AI in the UK excluding London

Head of AI
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Head of AI within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 19 September 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North of England -49 27 £100,000 +11.11% 19
North West -6 18 £100,000 +11.11% 14
South East -41 10 £112,500 - 16
Yorkshire - 9 £100,000 - 3
Midlands -40 8 £90,000 - 8
East Midlands - 6 £90,000 - 5
Scotland - 6 £100,000 - 1
Wales - 3 £100,000 - 2
West Midlands -44 2 £120,000 - 3
East of England - 1 £100,000 - 3
Head of AI
UK

Head of AI Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 19 September 2026, Head of AI job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Head of AI in the job title.

1 48 (87.27%) AI
2 23 (41.82%) LLM
3 17 (30.91%) Data Science
4 12 (21.82%) Machine Learning
4 12 (21.82%) Roadmaps
5 11 (20.00%) Azure
6 7 (12.73%) AI Transformation
6 7 (12.73%) Analytics
6 7 (12.73%) AWS
6 7 (12.73%) Stakeholder Management
7 6 (10.91%) Data Governance
7 6 (10.91%) Databricks
7 6 (10.91%) Python
7 6 (10.91%) SQL
8 5 (9.09%) Agile
8 5 (9.09%) Azure Machine Learning
8 5 (9.09%) Data Engineering
8 5 (9.09%) E-Commerce
9 4 (7.27%) Asset Management
9 4 (7.27%) Azure AI
9 4 (7.27%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (7.27%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 4 (7.27%) Data Architecture
9 4 (7.27%) Data Development
9 4 (7.27%) Decision-Making
9 4 (7.27%) Line Management
9 4 (7.27%) Microsoft
9 4 (7.27%) Migration
9 4 (7.27%) Problem-Solving
9 4 (7.27%) Regulatory Compliance

Head of AI Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Applications
1 1 (1.82%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 3 (5.45%) Magento
1 3 (5.45%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 11 (20.00%) Azure
2 7 (12.73%) AWS
3 5 (9.09%) Azure Machine Learning
4 4 (7.27%) Azure AI
4 4 (7.27%) Azure Synapse Analytics
4 4 (7.27%) Snowflake
5 3 (5.45%) Anthropic Claude
5 3 (5.45%) SaaS
5 3 (5.45%) Zapier
6 2 (3.64%) GCP
7 1 (1.82%) Cloud Computing
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (7.27%) Azure SQL Database
1 4 (7.27%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (1.82%) Yeoman
General
1 10 (18.18%) Finance
2 5 (9.09%) Banking
2 5 (9.09%) Manufacturing
2 5 (9.09%) Retail
3 4 (7.27%) Social Skills
4 1 (1.82%) Advertising
4 1 (1.82%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (1.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
4 1 (1.82%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.64%) PyTorch
1 2 (3.64%) TensorFlow
2 1 (1.82%) CSS
2 1 (1.82%) HTML
2 1 (1.82%) NumPy
2 1 (1.82%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 16 (29.09%) AI Agents
2 3 (5.45%) Credit Risk
3 1 (1.82%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (1.82%) Life Science
3 1 (1.82%) Virtual Team
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (87.27%) AI
2 23 (41.82%) LLM
3 17 (30.91%) Data Science
4 12 (21.82%) Machine Learning
4 12 (21.82%) Roadmaps
5 7 (12.73%) AI Transformation
5 7 (12.73%) Analytics
5 7 (12.73%) Stakeholder Management
6 6 (10.91%) Data Governance
7 5 (9.09%) Agile
7 5 (9.09%) Data Engineering
7 5 (9.09%) E-Commerce
8 4 (7.27%) Asset Management
8 4 (7.27%) Data Development
8 4 (7.27%) Decision-Making
8 4 (7.27%) Line Management
8 4 (7.27%) Migration
8 4 (7.27%) Problem-Solving
8 4 (7.27%) Regulatory Compliance
8 4 (7.27%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 6 (10.91%) Python
1 6 (10.91%) SQL
2 1 (1.82%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 1 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
1 1 (1.82%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (5.45%) Accessibility
System Software
1 4 (7.27%) Virtual Machines
Vendors
1 6 (10.91%) Databricks
2 4 (7.27%) Microsoft
3 3 (5.45%) OpenAI