PE-backed or portfolio-wide? See private equity Chief AI Officer search →
Boards of venture-backed businesses increasingly want AI on the plan, with a budget and an owner, and many have nobody senior who owns it yet. HMN Capital runs Chief AI Officer and Head of AI searches for venture-backed businesses across the UK and Europe, as part of our AI leadership practice.
Our venture AI mandates have so far run through product leadership: a first CPO with machine-learning depth, hired from the US
How the seat usually emerges.
AI in the product
Engineers ship AI features, and ownership sits with the CTO or CPO.
AI on the board agenda
The board wants AI in the plan, with a budget and an owner. The first Head of AI or Chief AI Officer often arrives here.
AI across the operation
AI moves from the product into finance, operations and customer service, and needs governance.
Pre-exit
A buyer will ask what the AI is worth and what it risks. Someone has to own that answer.
A strategy that separates signal from noise
Where AI creates value in this business, and where it does not.
Governance
Data, model and regulatory controls that will stand up to diligence.
Delivery
Getting AI out of pilots and into the product and the operation.
The team
Heads of AI, machine-learning engineers and data leaders beneath the role. Roles we place
Our AI leadership practice
AI searches run through a dedicated practice, because the market is small and credibility is easy to claim and hard to test.
Commercial credibility
We look for AI leaders who are credible with the board and the commercial team, as well as with engineers.
Packages and equity
We benchmark salary, bonus and equity for the seat against live market data, so the offer reflects what the seat pays in the market today.
Chief Product Officer
VC-backed AI and data products. A first CPO with genuine AI and machine-learning depth. When the domestic market came up short, the search widened to the United States.
Hired from the US
Chief AI Officer
PE-backed business information group, UK and DACH. A single leader to set AI strategy and governance across the portfolio and give the sponsor a defensible view of where AI would create value.
First CAIO for the group
Head of AI
PE-backed logistics software, DACH. A hands-on Head of AI to turn a portfolio-level AI mandate into shipped product, with real machine-learning delivery credibility.
AI product delivery
Further reading: The Chief AI Officer gap · AI leadership practice
Do we need a Chief AI Officer or a Head of AI?
At Series A or B, usually a Head of AI reporting to the CTO or CPO. A Chief AI Officer makes sense once AI is a board-level line in the plan across the business.
How do you test AI credibility?
Through what candidates have shipped and governed, and how they explain it to a non-technical board, as well as their technical depth.
Do you advise on equity?
Yes. We benchmark salary and options for the seat against live market data.
