We are Uisce Éireann. Every day, we are responsible for the delivery of secure, safe, and sustainable water services for the people of Ireland. As Ireland’s national regulated water utility, our vision is a sustainable Ireland where water is respected and protected, for the planet and all the lives it supports.

Our purpose at Uisce Éireann is to rise to the challenge of delivering transformative water services that enable communities to thrive. That means we are proud to take on the responsibility of protecting our water supply and passing on a safe and secure water system to a rapidly growing population and empowering Ireland’s social and economic growth.

We are passionate about empowering our people, enabling them to make a positive impact on communities across Ireland. We are guided by a shared vision and purpose, grounded in values that define who we are and shape how we work, where we deliver for customers and communities, we work better together, we do the right thing, we aim high, and we keep each other safe. Our behaviours define how we interact, communicate, and succeed together. These values and behaviours apply to each one of us, across every role, location, and level.

Our goal is to attract and develop skilled and talented people from diverse backgrounds, who bring a dynamic range of expertise and insights to our work. With a strong, values-driven workforce, we ensure Uisce Éireann can continue advancing Ireland’s water services and meeting the needs of the communities we serve for generations to come.

The Role:

Uisce Éireann IT (UÉ IT) provides IT services and support to the wider Irish Water business, and across the Local Authority user base. Reporting into the AI Delivery Senior Manager, the AI Vendor, Performance & Governance Manager plays a critical role in ensuring that all third‑party AI solutions delivered into Uisce Éireann are safe, compliant, high‑quality, and aligned to organisational standards and legislative requirements.

The role provides central oversight of external AI vendors, ensuring their solutions meet enterprise architecture patterns, responsible‑AI principles, cybersecurity controls, and emerging regulatory obligations such as the EU AI Act.

Acting as the primary interface between vendors and internal teams across IT, Cyber Security, Data Governance, Legal, and Business units, the role ensures that AI initiatives are delivered responsibly, transparently, and in line with Uisce Éireann’s governance frameworks. The position strengthens organisational assurance by coordinating compliance reviews, risk assessments, performance monitoring, and documentation quality across all vendor‑supplied AI systems.

Through strong governance leadership, proactive risk management, and consistent engagement with internal stakeholders, the role safeguards Uisce Éireann from technical, operational, and legislative risks while enabling the organisation to adopt AI technologies in a secure, standardised, and scalable manner. The role also contributes to the ongoing development and enhancement of AI governance frameworks, vendor performance models, and enterprise standards to uplift AI maturity across the organisation.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

Lead the end‑to‑end management of third‑party AI vendors, ensuring contracted services meet agreed SLAs, KPIs, quality standards, and regulatory obligations.
Coordinate vendor onboarding, compliance checks, risk assessments, and ongoing performance reviews to ensure alignment with Uisce Éireann’s AI strategy and technology standards.
Monitor delivery of AI solutions, escalating risks, delays, or non‑compliance where required, and driving corrective action with vendors and internal teams.
Ensure all vendor‑supplied AI systems follow approved enterprise patterns, architectures, and governance frameworks.
Ensure all vendor‑delivered AI solutions comply with Uisce Éireann’s governance frameworks, including responsible‑AI principles, IT security standards, privacy requirements, data governance controls, and NIS‑D obligations.
Interpret emerging AI legislation (e.g., EU AI Act), assess vendor compliance impact, and guide vendors and internal teams to ensure adherence.
Maintain oversight of risk assessments, AI impact assessments, security assessments, and compliance reviews across all vendor AI initiatives.
Review and approve vendor‑provided documentation, model transparency evidence, data handling controls, and audit‑readiness artefacts.
Act as the primary liaison between AI vendors and UÉ IT, Cyber Security, Data Governance, Legal, and Business stakeholders to ensure aligned expectations and compliant delivery.
Manage all project and finance governance associated to AI delivery
Support business teams in understanding vendor AI capabilities, constraints, risks, and governance requirements to enable informed decision‑making.
Communicate AI governance requirements to vendors clearly, providing guidance and challenge where needed to ensure standards are met.
Prepare governance updates, performance reports, and risk summaries for senior IT leadership.
Conduct oversight of vendor adherence to secure deployment practices, model maintenance, data protection requirements, and operational monitoring expectations.
Support audits, assurance checks, and quality reviews of vendor-delivered AI systems to verify that operational, security, and regulatory controls are embedded.
Ensure vendor solutions integrate correctly with enterprise platforms and follow defined architecture and engineering standards.
Contribute to the development of AI governance frameworks, assessment processes, compliance playbooks, and vendor performance models.
Identify opportunities to enhance vendor performance, strengthen governance controls, and improve delivery consistency across AI initiatives.
Promote standardisation and prevent shadow IT by ensuring only approved AI tools, platforms, and methodologies are used across vendor engagements.
Assess vendor‑driven risks across security, data quality, model integrity, ethical use, and regulatory compliance.
Ensure mitigation plans are identified, implemented, and tracked, with escalation where appropriate.
Safeguard Uisce Éireann through strong oversight of vendor compliance with cyber‑security requirements and secure model/data handling practices.
Collaborate with key internal stakeholders across UÉ to support organisation‑wide AI maturity and capability uplift.
Perform additional duties as required to support the safe, compliant, and effective delivery of AI solutions.
Other duties as required from time to time

General Duties and Responsibilities

Collaboration with key internal stakeholders across the UÉ business
Responsible for promoting and delivering health and safety commitments across UÉ and its supply chain, reinforcing positive behaviours and delivering health and safety objectives and requirements to the highest industry standards
Support the delivery of the Uisce Éireann Transformation Programme, driving results required within the Directorate and supporting organisation-wide objectives
Conducts duties and responsibilities in accordance with Uisce Éireann’s Information Security policies, standards, processes and controls to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of UÉ business information and delivery of critical services, in accordance with the NIS Directive and any other relevant cybersecurity regulation
Other duties as required

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

Relevant third level degree or equivalent with at least three years’ relevant experience, ideally with a company in a related sector e.g. utilities, telecommunications, financial services.
Experience in the water industry is desirable.
Proven ability to evaluate and govern third‑party suppliers delivering AI solutions
Experience managing SLAs, KPIs, documentation quality, and service compliance within regulated or complex multi‑vendor environment.
Working familiarity with AI solution delivery patterns, data management principles, secure deployment practices, and enterprise architecture standards, enabling collaboration with the Solution & Data Architecture Manager and AI Engineering Manager.
Understanding of secure data handling in line with GDPR legislation.
Experience working with multidisciplinary stakeholders — IT, Cybersecurity, Data Governance, Legal, and Business units.
Ability to translate organisational AI strategy into practical vendor requirements and ensure alignment with enterprise standards and internal technical roles.
Strong communication skills to articulate governance requirements, risk findings, and solution constraints to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
Excellent analytical and problem‑solving skills with the ability to identify gaps, propose mitigations, and escalate issues appropriately.
Demonstrated ability to convert strategic regulatory and governance priorities into operational processes that uplift AI maturity across the organisation.
Commitment to maintaining specialised knowledge in AI governance, security, compliance, and vendor management — essential in an evolving landscape influenced by EU AI Act, cybersecurity trends, and AI engineering practices.
Desire to maintain specialised knowledge through association with defined professionals.

The closing date for receipt of applications for this vacancy is 22/05/2026.

Please note that applications submitted after this closing date will not be accepted.

*Please be advised that if successful you will be placed on the salary range based on your skills and experience. Please note the Market reference point (midpoint) of the range is generally the upper end of the offer where someone is deemed to be fully competent to take on the duties of the role, and leaves room for the employee to progress through the pay range as their experience develops further.

Uisce Éireann is an equal opportunities employer.

We are committed to providing a diverse and inclusive place of work and have a robust strategy and framework called ibelong to enable this. We are an equal opportunity employer and through our recruitment process we welcome and encourage applications from interested and suitably qualified individuals regardless of gender, age, racial or ethnic origin, membership of the traveller community, religion or beliefs, family or civil status, sexual orientation/gender identity or disability.

AI Vendor, Performance & Governance Manager

Job Description