AI Director

About NEXT.io

NEXT.io is the leading events and media business in iGaming. Headquartered in Malta, with team members across Europe and North America, we operate two flagship conferences (NEXT Valletta and NEXT NYC), a daily news portal, a podcast, an investigative content team, and an SEO affiliation business.

In 2026 we are launching NEXTPredict, our new media brand for the prediction markets industry. We are 50 people today, scaling toward 100, and we have grown rapidly and consistently for the past several years.

The Role

NEXT.io is hiring an AI Director, a senior, executive-level appointment for a systems thinker who can shape how a fast-growing media and events business operates in an AI-led world.

The AI Director will design and lead the architecture, standards, and tooling that allow NEXT.io to operate at the frontier of what is possible in a modern media and events business, as the organisation strives to become AI native. We want to build a coherent system where research, knowledge, market intelligence, and operational outputs accumulate as a company asset and lift the work of every team.

The AI Director will own this from concept through to delivery. The role sits on the executive team and reports to the COO. It is one of the most strategic appointments we will make this year, with a clear path to major impact on business success.

Areas of Ownership

• Design the system that connects our tools, data, and people. Define how information flows, where it lives, and how AI reads and writes against it. Choose the right tools and retire the wrong ones.
• Establish company-wide standards for the use of AI: prompt design, agent patterns, file structure, naming conventions, safety, and data policy. Make it easy for everyone in the company to do high-quality work without needing to be technical.
• Build, or commission, a central system. Ensure that research, contacts, market data, internal knowledge, and operational outputs aggregate into something the whole company benefits from.
• Own the internal AI stack end to end. Make our systems work together in a way that creates real leverage, not just convenience.
• Capability building. Lead AI fluency across the company. Coach department heads. Help teams understand what to automate and what to keep human. Run regular demonstrations and elevate the collective skill level.
• Help us decide what to build next, and what to leave alone. Bring product thinking to where AI can change the business model itself, not just make it more efficient.
  
  

Who We Are Looking For

The technical capability is the easier half. The harder half is finding someone who understands the work that we do.

• Industry instinct. You have ideally worked in events, media, marketing, networking, conferences, content, or a closely adjacent industry — or you have an instinct for those things in the way a great product person has an instinct for users. You understand why a sponsorship deal closes, why a delegate fills out a form, why a partner needs a personal touch and not an automation. Without that, every system you design will miss the mark.
• Systems architect. You have architected real systems. You have taken complex environments and made them coherent. You can read code, you can pick the right tool over the trendy one, and you can speak fluently with engineers.
• Builder mindset. You think like a builder. You have shipped from scratch. You are comfortable with first-principles thinking. You do not require a manual to begin.
• You can teach. You enjoy bringing people along and you do not hold knowledge protectively.
• You are senior. This is an executive-level role. You will sit on the leadership team and contribute to company strategy, not only execute it.
  
  

Who This Role Is Not For

• A pure researcher. We need building, shipping, and ownership.
• A strict engineer with no business context. The role is half technical, half organisational.
• A consultant. We are looking for someone embedded in the company.
• Someone who needs a fully formed brief. Comfort with ambiguity is part of the job.
  
  

What's In It For You?

• Private health insurance after probation.
• Employee Assistance Programme: support for mental health, finances, legal advice and more, also available for your family.
• Retail discounts platform.
• Flexible working hours and remote-friendly setup.
• Access to our Malta HQ office with snacks, coffee, and team socials.
  
  

Why Join Us

At NEXT.io, you'll be part of a fast-moving, collaborative team that values ownership, clarity, and impact. In this role, you'll sit at the heart of our operations, shaping how the company runs day to day and helping us stay structured, capable, and ready for growth.

If you thrive on systems thinking, ambiguity, and making things work better across teams, you'll find NEXT.io a place where your work truly makes a difference.