Senior Annotation Lead

Desicrew Solutions; Chennai District; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 2,100,000; Full time

Job summary

DesiCrew is seeking a capable lead to manage a high-volume multimodal annotation programme. You will drive throughput, ensure quality against client SLA, and oversee a structured review process from L1 to L3, feeding improvements back to annotators.

You will translate client labelling guidelines into actionable instructions, grow a team of annotators, and coordinate with client ML and data teams on guideline changes and volume planning.

Qualifications

• Several years in data annotation, data operations or a quality-led delivery role with team leadership.
• Direct experience of an annotation quality system—sampling, golden sets or equivalent.
• Comfort with at least one annotation toolchain and judgement on guideline ambiguity.
• Clear written English for guideline and escalation work with client teams.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in delivery or quality.
• Helpful: 2D/3D LiDAR or sensor-fusion annotation or robotics/geospatial data.

Responsibilities

• Run day-to-day delivery for an annotation programme: throughput, quality and SLA.
• Own L1/L2/L3 review structure with sampling and feedback to annotators.
• Translate client guidelines into actionable team instructions and update as needed.
• Lead, coach and grow a team of annotators and reviewers.
• Collaborate with client ML and data teams on guideline changes and planning.

Skills

Team leadership

Data annotation

Quality systems

English writing

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Annotation toolchain

Job description

About the role

You will lead one of the annotation programmes behind our clients AI systems: multimodal image, video and LiDAR work running at production volume - hundreds of thousands of frames a month - where the accuracy of the label decides whether the model works.

What you will do

• Run day-to-day delivery for an annotation programme: throughput, quality and turnaround against the client SLA.
• Own the L1/L2/L3 review structure - sampling, golden-set checks and the feedback loop back to annotators.
• Translate a clients labelling guidelines into instructions a team can apply consistently, and keep them current as edge cases surface.
• Lead, coach and grow a team of annotators and reviewers, including people new to the field.
• Work with client-side ML and data teams on guideline changes, quality disputes and volume planning.

What you will bring

• Several years in data annotation, data operations or a comparable quality-led delivery role, including time leading a team.
• Direct experience of an annotation quality system - sampling, inter-annotator agreement, golden sets or an equivalent.
• Comfort with at least one annotation toolchain, and the judgement to know when a guideline is ambiguous rather than the annotator being wrong.
• Clear written English: most guideline and escalation work happens in writing with client teams.
• A bachelors degree, or equivalent experience in a delivery or quality role.
• Helpful, not required: 2D/3D LiDAR or sensor-fusion annotation, or experience in autonomous mobility, geospatial or robotics data.

Working arrangements

Full time, on site at the delivery centre listed above. Standard working hours, with shift cover arranged within the team where a client programme runs to a different timezone.

About DesiCrew

DesiCrew has run high-stakes AI and enterprise operations from small-town and rural India since 2007. More than 2,000 people work across our delivery centres, 68% of them women - roughly twice the industry average - and 49% the sole earner in their family. We are ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 certified and a Great Place to Work.

We hire for aptitude and train for the rest. DTOUCH, our in-house learning platform, has delivered more than 5,000 certifications and 1,200 AI-certified professionals, and training continues well past onboarding.