Data Acquisition Lead

Spectrum Search; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Spectrum Search is seeking a Data Acquisition Lead to own the commercial strategy for sourcing and purchasing high-value real-world data. You will define acquisition strategies, identify target data assets, price data, and negotiate complex enterprise deals, while building and leading a team.

You’ll collaborate with Ops, Research, Legal and Engineering to ensure data meets compliance and technical requirements, while forecasting budgets and ROI for executive leadership.

Qualifications

• 5–10 years’ experience in data acquisition, corporate development, or senior sales roles.
• Track record of personally negotiating and closing seven-figure+ enterprise deals.
• Experience leading a team of 5+ people (ideally 10+).
• Experience negotiating data licensing, corporate development, or enterprise data sales.

Responsibilities

• Develop and own the data acquisition strategy, prioritising target industries and partners.
• Design scalable sourcing systems to reach data owners and institutions.
• Lead high-value enterprise data purchase agreements from term sheet to signature.
• Set pricing strategies, deal structures, and walk-away points for unique datasets.
• Manage vendor and partner relationships including pricing, licensing, renewals and expansions.
• Recruit, coach, and manage a high-performing data-acquisition team.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Ops, Legal and Research to ensure data meets compliance and technical standards.
• Ensure data purchases comply with legal, IP, privacy, and governance standards.
• Own the acquisition budget, pipeline, and forecasting; report ROI to executives.
• Contribute to cross-functional initiatives as the company scales.

Skills

Data acquisition

Deal negotiation

Team leadership

Pricing strategy

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

We’re working with a fast-growing, venture-backed AI company at the centre of the frontier AI ecosystem. They partner with the world’s leading AI labs to supply the specialised data used to train and evaluate the next generation of foundation models. As they scale, they’re hiring a senior commercial leader to own how they source and buy high-value real-world data.

The role

As Data Acquisition Lead, you’ll own the commercial strategy for data acquisition. That covers how the business finds and approaches companies that hold valuable proprietary data, how that data is priced, and how the largest and most complex purchases get negotiated and closed. You’ll work across Ops, Research, Legal and Engineering to decide which data assets to target and how to secure them. You’ll also build and lead your own team.

What you’ll be doing

• Data acquisition strategy: Develop and keep refining the acquisition strategy. Identify where proprietary enterprise and other data can meaningfully improve frontier model training, and prioritise target industries and partners alongside the research team and leadership.
• Sourcing strategy: Design a scalable system for reaching the institutions and data owners most likely to sell high-ROI data, with support from Marketing.
• Deal negotiation and ownership: Personally lead the highest-value, most complex enterprise data-purchase agreements, from term sheet through to signature.
• Pricing: Set offer prices, deal structures and walk-away points in a market with little public pricing data, where no two datasets are alike.
• Vendor and partner management: Build and maintain a portfolio of enterprise data relationships, and negotiate pricing, licensing terms, renewals and expansions.
• Building and leading a team: Recruit, coach and manage a high-performing team of associates who source acquisition opportunities. Build a culture of urgency, ownership and continuous improvement.
• Cross-functional partnership: Work with Engineering, Ops, Legal and Research to make sure acquired data meets technical and compliance requirements and becomes usable training data.
• Compliance and governance: Make sure every data purchase meets legal, IP/copyright, privacy and data governance standards.
• Reporting and forecasting: Own the acquisition budget, pipeline and forecasting, and report progress and ROI to the executive team.
• Operational support: Contribute to company-wide initiatives, covering building, analysis, coordination and execution, as the business scales.

What our client is looking for

• 5–10 years’ experience in data acquisition, corporate development, strategic partnerships or another senior sales role
• A track record of personally negotiating and closing seven-figure+ enterprise deals
• Experience managing a team of at least 5 people (ideally 10+)
• Experience negotiating commercial agreements in data licensing, corporate development, strategic partnerships or enterprise data sales, ideally within the AI data and talent marketplace space