AI recruitment UK · VS Recruitment

The hiring pain is real, and it is not a sourcing problem.

AI recruitment in the UK is noisy. Job titles are invented weekly. CVs now list tools the way they once listed Microsoft Office. The useful hire is still the person who can sit inside a real business — built sector operations, a performance team, a transformation programme — and make something work. That person is rarely answering a job advert. They are reached.

AI recruitment in the UK is full of job titles and thin on people who can ship a change inside an operating business. Viktorija searches through her network for roles that sit between product, data and operations — including digital transformation next to the built sector and performance teams she already knows.

£450 opens a named search. She will say if the brief is theatre. She will not harvest profiles that added a tool to LinkedIn and call that a shortlist.

Credentials she vets

What actually gets checked.

Whether they have shipped a process or a product, not only a proof of concept
Whether they can talk to operations, not only to other specialists
Honesty about tools versus outcomes — prompts are not a department
Fit to a UK business that already has customers, constraints and a board

Typical searches

Roles she is asked to find.

AI and automation roles inside operating businesses
Digital transformation leads
Product and operations hybrids
Specialists who can work with performance, data or the built sector — not only a lab

The brief

What a workable AI brief contains.

The process, not the technology

Name the process that needs to change — quoting, scheduling, document review, reporting, customer service triage — and who runs it today. The hire should be measured on whether that process gets faster, cheaper or more reliable, not on how many tools are deployed. A brief that starts with a model or a vendor tends to attract people who want to experiment; a brief that starts with a process attracts people who want to deliver.

Who they will work with

AI work in a UK SME usually stalls at the interfaces: operations, IT, data owners, finance and whoever handles data protection. Say who the hire will report to, who signs off changes and who maintains what they build. Candidates who have delivered before will ask these questions early. If nobody owns the data or the decision, fix that before the search, or the best hire will struggle.

Evidence to ask for

Ask for a change they shipped and the people who used it, how they judged whether the output was good enough, what they did when it failed and how they documented decisions for the people who would run it after them. Look for plain language about trade-offs, cost and risk. Confident vocabulary with no users, no measurement and no failures is the pattern to be wary of.

Questions

FAQs

Which AI roles do you recruit?

AI and automation roles inside operating businesses, digital transformation leads, product and operations hybrids, and specialists who can work with built sector, performance marketing or data teams. The brief is a process that needs to change, not a research lab.

How do you tell real AI delivery experience from tool familiarity?

Ask what they shipped, who used it, what changed in the process and what went wrong. People who have delivered can describe users, data, testing and the decision to stop or continue. Tool familiarity sounds like a list of products with no outcome attached.

Do AI hires need to understand UK data protection?

Anyone building or running systems that use personal data has to work within UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and the ICO publishes guidance on AI and data protection. Test whether a candidate has worked with privacy colleagues or completed a data protection impact assessment, rather than taking a claim on trust.

Should we hire an AI specialist or train someone who knows the business?

It depends on the gap. If you already have someone who understands the operation, an external hire may be a lead who can work with them and set standards. If nobody internally can scope or test the work, the brief is different. Viktorija will say which search fits before it starts.

What does the £450 fee cover?

It opens a named, network-only search: a tightened brief, confidential approaches through Viktorija’s network and a shortlist she will stand behind. It is not a listing charge or payment for a batch of unsolicited CVs. If the brief is not a fit, she will say so before anyone pays.

A short note is enough. If it is not a fit, she will say so.

Start a search

AI recruitment UK: hire the person who can ship the change.