Lead Program Manager- Generative AI Data Operations

About this role

About Welo Data Welo Data, a Welo Global brand, is the multilingual data and evaluation partner for foundation labs and enterprises deploying GenAI systems globally. They deliver the human judgment, data infrastructure, and evaluation systems that ensure AI models perform reliably across languages, cultures, and real-world contexts, at every stage from training through deployment.  Its global network of 500,000+ vetted experts spans 300+ languages and locales, enabling high-quality multilingual data creation and structured model evaluation across the full spectrum of modern AI applications — from large language models and voice and speech systems to agentic workflows and robotics and embodied AI. This breadth of linguistic, cultural, and domain expertise enables Welo Data to address critical AI development challenges, including safety, bias, inclusivity, and cross-lingual reliability. A unified global operating model, led by specialized program and quality experts and grounded in assessment-driven talent selection, localized rubrics, and continuous calibration, ensures consistent performance across languages, domains, and modalities. Underpinning all of this is NIMO™ (Network Identity Management and Operations), Welo Data's proprietary identity and fraud-prevention framework. Built to maintain data integrity and workforce trust across a global contributor base, NIMO combines advanced verification, continuous monitoring, and structured QA to ensure every dataset is accurate, traceable, and culturally grounded. welodata.ai    Job Reference: #LI-JC1   ROLE OVERVIEW   Leads a program of AI training data projects at scale. Owns program-level strategy and delivery, manages a cross-functional team, and is the primary owner of the client relationship for the program. Partners closely with the Lead Quality Manager to keep quality consistent and drive continuous improvement across high-volume operations.   Key Responsibilities-   Program strategy & planning: Define program goals, roadmap, milestones, and operating model across multiple projects and vendors.   Team management: Lead a delivery team (PMs, Coordinators) with clear goals, capacity plans, coaching, and performance feedback.   Client ownership: Act as the day-to-day executive contact; run governance, planning, and QBR-style reviews; align scope, priorities, and change.   Quality partnership: Co-own quality outcomes with the Manager of Quality; align on guidelines, audits, acceptance criteria, and corrective actions.   Scale & throughput: Plan and secure rater/annotator capacity; optimize shifts, handoffs, automation, and tooling to meet high-volume targets.   Financial stewardship: Build and manage budgets, margins, and change orders; ensure commercial and delivery commitments stay aligned.   Risk, issue & change control: Maintain program RAID; lead root-cause analyses and remediation; escalate high-impact items with options and impact.   Process improvement & automation: Standardize SOPs, templates, and dashboards; pilot and scale automation with Ops Tech.   Compliance & security: Ensure policy adherence for data handling, privacy, and platform access across the program.   Stakeholder management: Coordinate with Sales/Account, Quality, Operations, and Vendor Management to meet client and business goals.   Requirements   Education- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in business, operations, data/engineering, or a related field.   Experience-   5-8 years leading large or multi-workstream delivery in AI data, content review, labeling/annotation, or adjacent domains.   Proven program-level experience in high-volume environments, including vendor management and capacity planning.   Record of managing client relationships and running governance cadences.   Skills-   Program planning and portfolio governance across multiple projects. Team leadership: goal setting, coaching, delegation, and performance feedback. Strong communication with senior client stakeholders and internal leaders. Solid use of spreadsheets, PM/task boards, and BI dashboards; familiarity with SQL/ETL concepts is a plus. Quality mindset with practical use of SOPs, QA gates, and acceptance criteria. Sound judgment on scope, time, cost, and quality; confident negotiation and escalation. Comfortable working with global, distributed teams (advanced English).   Scope & Autonomy-   Manages a single program/team end-to-end, setting operating rhythms and standards within agreed policies and budgets.   Makes day-to-day and tactical strategic decisions for the program; escalates only non-standard or high-impact items.   Direct line management for PMs/Coordinators and dotted-line influence over cross-functional partners.   Owns the client relationship for the program and partners with the Lead Quality Manager on outcomes.    

Skills & domains

• ai-training
• linguistics
• expert