AI Data Project Manager ( US or Canada)

Defined.ai•,

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Defined.ai is seeking an AI Data Project Manager responsible for planning, scoping, costing, and operationally designing customer projects involving AI and data services. This role requires close collaboration with Sales, Operations, Supplier Management, and customers to translate requirements into project plans, delivery models, staffing needs, pricing, and execution strategies. It's a cross-functional, individual-contributor position for someone with experience in AI data services, data collection, data annotation, transcription, translation, data evaluation, machine learning operations, or a similar technology-enabled services environment. The focus is on project scoping, operational solution design, costing, customer requirements, and delivery planning, not software or systems architecture.

Requirements

3+ years of experience in project management, program management, operations, solutions, or consulting within the AI data services industry.
Experience managing projects involving multiple stakeholders, teams, suppliers, or external partners.
Strong understanding of project planning, requirements gathering, resource planning, and execution.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Experience working with budgets, costing, pricing, staffing, or resource planning.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to manage multiple opportunities and projects simultaneously.
Strong attention to detail and organizational skills.
Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.
Ability to translate ambiguous customer requirements into structured project plans.

Nice To Haves

Experience in AI data services
Data annotation
Data collection
Data labeling
LLM evaluation
Speech or language data
Transcription
Translation
Human-in-the-loop AI
Crowdsourcing
AI model evaluation
Content moderation
Data operations
Experience at companies providing AI data, localization, crowdsourcing, BPO, or technology-enabled data services is particularly valuable.

Responsibilities

Review customer requirements and translate them into clear, executable project plans.
Work with Sales and customers to understand project objectives, scope, deliverables, timelines, quality requirements, and constraints.
Determine the resources, skills, languages, geographies, suppliers, and operational capabilities required to execute projects.
Develop project assumptions, dependencies, risks, milestones, and execution plans.
Identify gaps or ambiguities in customer requirements and work with stakeholders to resolve them.
Ensure proposed project approaches are operationally feasible before commitments are made to customers.
Develop project cost models based on labor requirements, geography, supplier rates, quality requirements, project complexity, and operational assumptions.
Develop staffing and capacity models for customer projects.
Support the development of customer pricing and commercial proposals.
Analyze different delivery approaches to identify the optimal balance of cost, quality, scalability, and timeline.
Work with Sales, Finance, Supplier Management, and Operations to validate project economics.
Have a strong understanding of AI data-service workflows, including data collection, image and video annotation, audio and speech data, transcription, translation, LLM and AI evaluation, data validation and quality assurance, and human-in-the-loop AI workflows.
Determine the appropriate operational approach for different project requirements.
Understand how project specifications affect staffing, cost, timeline, quality, and delivery risk.
Stay current with emerging AI data-service methodologies and industry practices.
Partner with Sales teams during customer discovery and opportunity development.
Participate in customer calls to understand requirements and explain proposed delivery approaches.
Translate customer requirements into clear internal execution requirements.
Support development of proposals, Statements of Work, RFP responses, and RFI responses.
Prepare project scopes, methodologies, timelines, staffing models, assumptions, and pricing inputs.
Serve as a key point of contact between Sales and delivery organizations during the presales process.
Work with Supplier Management to identify appropriate suppliers and contributor pools for customer projects.
Define required supplier capabilities, geographic coverage, language capabilities, capacity, and rates.
Validate supplier availability and costs against proposed project requirements.
Coordinate with Operations and Project Management teams to ensure proposed approaches can be successfully delivered.
Support transition of awarded projects from presales into production.
Identify operational risks and develop mitigation strategies.
Develop project plans, execution methodologies, and operational approaches for RFPs, RFIs, and other customer requests.
Contribute to technical and commercial proposals.
Develop assumptions, staffing models, quality approaches, timelines, and pricing inputs.
Coordinate information across Sales, Operations, Supplier Management, Finance, and other internal stakeholders.
Ensure customer commitments are aligned with operational capabilities.
Coordinate multiple stakeholders to move opportunities from requirements through solution definition and delivery handoff.
Track open questions, decisions, dependencies, and risks.
Communicate project requirements clearly across technical, operational, commercial, and customer-facing teams.
Drive timely resolution of issues that could affect scope, cost, quality, or delivery.
Maintain accurate project documentation and ensure key assumptions are captured.