Program Manager, AI Data Ops

AiDash; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

You will build playbooks, dashboards, and SOPs to reduce operational complexity, drive cost optimization, and establish repeatable operating systems across vendor partnerships. This role requires startup-savvy leaders who can ship with data-backed rigor.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in program/project management, operations, or consulting with automation, vendor management, and cost optimization exposure.
• Proven track record building metrics and automation programs from scratch.
• Strong data skills; able to build and defend dashboards or business cases.
• Strong written and verbal communication.
• Experience managing external vendors and SLAs.
• Bonus: GIS/geospatial or automation tooling exposure (not mandatory).
• Startup experience required.

Responsibilities

• Automation & AI-native workflows across annotation, QA, imagery processing and reporting.
• Own the automation roadmap and drive it across the team.
• Run structured program governance across cross-functional initiatives.
• Bring discipline to timelines, ownership, and dependencies.
• Own a cost-efficiency roadmap for Ops including vendor spend and tooling costs.
• Design and own vendor scorecards and SLA reviews.
• Be the connective tissue across managers and leads; own SOPs and dashboards.
• Build dashboards tracking throughput, accuracy, vendor performance, and cost.
• Translate ambiguous problems into structured, actionable plans.

Skills

Program management

Automation

Vendor management

Cost optimization

Data dashboards

Job description

About AiDASH
AiDASH is leading the PreventionFirst™movement for electric utilities and transforming grid resilience through its pioneering platform that unifies vegetation, asset, storm, and wildfire intelligence. Powered by SatelliteFirst™ Inspection & Monitoring, AiDASH delivers comprehensive visibility across the entire grid at the right frequency and budget, using the right data modality. More than 200 customers trust AiDASH to keep the lights on, spend where it counts, and defend every decision, Securing Tomorrow across every mile of the grid. Learn more at www.aidash.com.

The PreventionFirst movement is growing, and so is the recognition behind it. In 2026, Forbes named AiDASH one of America's Best Startup Employers for the 4th consecutive year, and TIME included AiDASH among America's Top GreenTech Companies for the 3rd year in a row. Deloitte Technology Fast 500 ranked AiDASH No. 12 in the San Francisco Bay Area, and No. 59 overall in their selection of the top 500 for 2024.

Join us in Securing Tomorrow Together!

The Role

AiDASH is looking for a high-agency Program Manager to help scale our AI Data Ops function: the team responsible for sourcing, processing, and annotating the satellite and remote sensing imagery that powers our AI/ML models.

This role is a new addition to the leadership team, created specifically to bring an automation-first, numbers-backed, process-driven operating model to how Ops runs. This role is designed to reduce operational complexity over time, not to manage individual queues or projects indefinitely. You will sit at the intersection of strategy, operations, vendor management, and data science delivery, helping AI Data Ops evolve from a fast-scaling function into a well-designed, repeatable operating system.

You will need to zoom in to solve real problems on the ground — a stuck vendor SLA, a high priority escalation, a broken handoff — and zoom out to design the processes, playbooks, and automation that stop the same problems from recurring.
This is a high-visibility, build-from-scratch role: you'll be judged on the systems and habits you install, not just the projects you close.

How You’ll Make an Impact:

Automation & AI-native ways of working

• Identify repetitive, manual workflows across annotation, QA, imagery processing and reporting, and drive their automation — via internal tooling, scripting, RPA, or AI-assisted workflows.
• Build and own the automation roadmap and drive it seamlessly across the team

Program & project management

• Run structured program governance (milestones, RAID logs, status cadence) across cross-functional initiatives that no single manager owns end-to-end.
• Bring discipline — timelines, ownership, dependencies — to all team initiatives

Cost reduction

• Own a cost-efficiency roadmap for Ops: vendor spend, tooling spends, rework/error costs, and capacity utilization.
• Build the business case and track savings with real numbers- Clear visible impact

Vendor performance frameworks

• Design and own scorecards/SLAs for imagery, annotation and other third-party vendors.
• Run regular vendor performance reviews and own escalation/renewal/replacement decisions in partnership with managers.

Cross-functional ownership & data ownership

• Serve as the connective tissue across all managers and leads — surfacing shared problems (tooling, process, vendor etc) that no single manager can fix alone.
• Own org-wide SOP creation and the dashboard/metrics layer (throughput, quality, SLA, utilization) so every manager works off the same numbers.

Enable leadership with insight and structure

• Build dashboards/reports tracking throughput, accuracy, vendor performance, and cost efficiency; define KPIs that drive decisions on quality, capacity, and cost
• Manage budgets across data sourcing, annotation ops, and vendor contracts, identifying cost-optimization opportunities
• Translate ambiguous problems into structured, actionable plans

What We're Looking For:

• 5+ years of experience spanning program/project management, business operations, or management consulting — ideally with exposure to automation, Ops, vendor management and cost optimization.
• A genuine track record of building metrics/automation programs from scratch — not just running ones someone else designed.
• Comfort with data: you should be able to build and defend a dashboard or a business case yourself, not just commission one.
• Strong written and verbal communication — you'll be the face of Ops in external conversations.
• Experience managing external vendors/partners and negotiating SLAs.
• Bonus: prior exposure to GIS, geospatial, imagery, or annotation-heavy operations; experience standing up automation/RPA/AI tooling programs (This is not mandatory)
• Must-have: hands-on experience working in a startup environment.

We are proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. We are committed to embracing diversity and inclusion in our hiring practices, and we promote a work environment where everyone, from any race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, can do their best work.

We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible interview experience for all candidates. Please let us know if you require any accommodation during the interview process, and we will make every effort to meet your needs.
Read our Privacy Policy here: https://www.aidash.com/policy/privacy-policy/