Lead - Human Data

Vahan.ai; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 2,000,000 - 3,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Vahan.ai in Bangalore is seeking an innovative leader to build and own the Human Data business from the ground up. The role involves collaborating with leading AI labs, designing data collection programs, and scaling contributor operations across India. Candidates should possess strong commercial instincts and experience in managing distributed workflows.

You will define success by building high-quality contributor operations, ensuring data quality, and creating a repeatable business line within Vahan. This is a unique opportunity to lead a groundbreaking business initiative in the AI sector.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in turning ambiguous opportunities into functioning businesses.
• Experience with enterprise customers for business scaling.
• Ability to design and run contributor workflows effectively.

Responsibilities

• Build and own Vahan’s Human Data business from the ground up.
• Work directly with AI labs to understand data requirements.
• Design and operationalize data collection and annotation workflows.

Skills

Experience building or scaling a 0-to-1 business

Strong commercial instincts

Operational depth in distributed workflows

High ownership and hands-on execution

Job description

What You’ll Do

This is a true 0-to-1 charter.

You will build and own Vahan’s Human Data business from the ground up. From identifying customer demand to delivering high-quality datasets and evaluation programs for leading AI companies.

Scope of role includes:

• Working directly with frontier AI labs and model companies to understand data and evaluation requirements
• Translating ambiguous customer needs into scalable products and delivery workflows
• Designing and operationalizing: Data collection programs, Annotation workflows, RLHF / SFT pipelines, Evaluation frameworks, QA and audit systems, Contributor training and onboarding
• Building contributor networks across India, especially regional language and distributed worker cohorts
• Owning pricing, project scoping, SLAs, and delivery quality
• Driving execution personally in the early stages before scaling the team
• Hiring and building the Human Data organization over time

This role sits at the intersection of AI, operations, marketplace building, and enterprise problem-solving.

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for someone who can take an ambiguous opportunity and turn it into a functioning business.

You should have

• Experience building or scaling a 0-to-1 or early-stage business/function
• Strong commercial instincts and the ability to work with sophisticated enterprise customers
• Operational depth in designing and running distributed contributor workflows
• High ownership and comfort being hands-on in execution

Strongly preferred experience

• RLHF, SFT, model evaluations, or AI data annotation workflows
• Human-in-the-loop systems or large-scale data operations
• India-specific contributor ecosystems, especially regional language operations
• Experience at or with companies such as Scale AI, Mercor, iMerit, Invisible, or Karya

What Success Looks Like

• Vahan becomes a trusted human data and evaluation partner for frontier AI companies
• High-quality contributor operations are built across India at scale
• Repeatable systems for data quality, evaluation accuracy, and delivery are established
• A new AI infrastructure business line is successfully built within Vahan

The person who builds this function will have the opportunity to define and own an entirely new business inside the company, including significant long-term upside.