Senior Manager, Operations – Robotics Lab & Physical AI Operations

Welocalize

1d•Onsite

About The Position

This Senior Manager role leads multi-team robotics lab operations and physical AI data programs at scale. The position owns end-to-end operational strategy and execution across lab environments, ensuring high-quality, safe, and efficient data collection and evaluation. It drives operational excellence through standardization, analytics, and technology, while maintaining strong client relationships and developing high-performing teams, and partners closely with Quality and Safety leadership for consistent performance in complex, real-world environments. Welocalize is a leading technology-enabled provider of translation, localization, and AI-driven content solutions, helping businesses communicate, innovate, and grow globally. Specializing in complex and regulated industries, Welocalize delivers precise, scalable multilingual content through a powerful combination of advanced AI technologies and expert human talent. At the core is Welocalize’s AI-enabled OPAL platform, which transforms translation workflows by integrating machine translation (MT) and large language models (LLMs) to provide fast, accurate, and culturally relevant content in over 300 languages. With a commitment to excellence, Welocalize holds 7 ISO certifications and is headquartered in New York with offices all over the globe.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in business, operations, engineering, robotics, or a related field.
5–8 years in operations or program delivery in robotics, physical AI, AI data operations, or adjacent domains.
4–6 years in operations leadership, managing managers and multi-team environments.
Experience running onsite or lab-based operations involving hardware, data collection, or real-world testing environments.
Proven track record driving standardization, analytics, tooling/automation, and vendor performance at scale.
Program and portfolio planning across complex, multi-team environments.
Strong people leadership: goal setting, coaching, delegation, and performance management.
Clear communication with senior stakeholders, engineers, and frontline teams.
Strong analytical mindset; ability to translate data into operational decisions.
Experience with spreadsheets, PM tools, and dashboards.
Strong quality and safety mindset with practical application of SOPs, QA frameworks, and compliance standards.
Sound judgment across scope, time, cost, quality, and safety tradeoffs.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with robotics systems (sensor data, telemetry, ROS concepts).

Responsibilities

Translate business and engineering goals into operating plans, OKRs, and execution models across robotics lab environments (humanoid, teleoperation, motion capture, simulation).
Build and implement SOPs, lab playbooks, and workflows to reduce variability and drive consistent performance across teams and sites.
Define and own core dashboards and KPIs (throughput, quality, utilization, safety); translate data into actionable improvements.
Partner with Ops Tech and Engineering to improve tooling, lab systems, and automation (e.g., workflows, integrations, data pipelines).
Co-own operational excellence with Quality and Safety Leads; align on guidelines, audits, incident prevention, and continuous improvement.
Plan and optimize staffing across lab environments; manage shifts, coverage, onboarding, and certification for operators and analysts.
Set expectations and SLAs across vendors; monitor performance, drive improvements, and support scale decisions.
Support executive-level governance, planning, and reviews; ensure delivery aligns with scope, quality expectations, and evolving requirements.
Build and manage budgets, forecasts, margins, and change orders; align commercial models with operational delivery.
Own operational risk management; ensure adherence to safety standards, data handling policies, and audit readiness.
Manage L1 managers and senior ICs; hire, coach, and build a strong leadership bench to support scaling operations.
Coordinate across Engineering, Quality, Safety, Ops Tech, and Vendor Management to deliver against client and business goals.