Sr. Manager, Supply Chain (Data Operations)

SpaceX•Palo Alto, CA

19h

About The Position

SpaceXAI is seeking a leader to grow and manage its data operations team. This team is responsible for defining the strategy for sourcing high-quality data to train their model and rapidly expanding the data pipeline. The team will focus on working with external partners to source evaluations and specialized research datasets that power the training, validation, and continuous improvement of their model. The role involves defining overall sourcing and category strategies, growing and managing a global network of data suppliers and partners, aligning targets with engineering roadmaps and objectives, upholding data quality standards, and delivering high-signal datasets at the cost, quality, and speed required. The ideal candidate is an experienced people leader with deep expertise in data operations or technical sourcing and a track record of delivering results in fast-moving environments.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 6+ years of experience working in one or more of the following; or 10+ years of experience working in one or more of the following in lieu of a degree: Business, Supply chain, Engineering, Procurement, Strategy and operations, Technology
U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Nice To Haves

Technical understanding of AI training data, including annotations, evaluations, research datasets, and how dataset quality affects model performance
Experience in fast-paced AI, ML, or data infrastructure environments
Background building or managing global supplier networks for services, data, or other high-variability commodities
Strong leadership, negotiation, analytical, and cross-functional skills
Proven ability to secure supply and manage cost, quality, and delivery against aggressive targets
Experience with data analysis, spend analysis, and performance metrics
Ability to tackle complex and ambiguous problems with high ownership

Responsibilities

Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing sourcing team focused on high-quality data acquisition across major taxonomy categories (e.g., agentic tool use, coding)
Define category strategies in partnership with engineering and model performance teams and come up with creative strategies to build a strong pipeline of exclusive and proprietary enterprise datasets
Oversee the global supplier network and end-to-end sourcing and supplier qualification to meet aggressive acquisition and delivery targets
Negotiate major agreements focused on pricing, volume, quality, exclusivity, and reliable delivery, committing budget only to datasets that meaningfully improve model performance
Continuously improve, standardize, and scale sourcing processes, workflows, tools, and planning systems
Track team and category KPIs; provide regular updates and recommendations to senior leadership