Data Collection Operations Manager

Altentechnologyusa; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

ALTEN Technology USA is seeking an experienced operations leader to manage a 40+ person data collection and annotation team. You’ll ensure data quality, optimize workflows, and serve as the interface between data staff and customer teams.

The role requires 5+ years managing teams and 10+ years of professional experience, with strong KPI, SQL, and dashboards capabilities. Competitive benefits and career growth are provided.

Qualifications

• 5+ years people management experience.
• 10+ years of professional experience.
• Proven leadership managing 20+ operations staff.
• Experience in business operations with KPI ownership.
• Experience in data collection/annotation in robotics or AV.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Experience pulling data (SQL) and building dashboards.
• Sufficient technical ability to interface with software/hardware teams.
• Experience building internal tooling for visibility gaps.
• Experience designing career ladders and incentive plans.
• Experience diagnosing hardware/robot performance with engineering.
• Experience presenting data-driven reports to leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead daily operations of Data Collection and Annotation teams.
• Serve as main interface between data collection and research teams.
• Coordinate hiring and manage headcount needs.
• Develop onboarding and training materials.
• Set productivity goals and KPIs; monitor performance.
• Ensure safety and procedural compliance.
• Create and maintain SOPs; improve data collection methods.
• Manage project tracking systems (Jira/Asana) and reporting dashboards.
• Collaborate with hardware/engineering partners on tooling.
• Own analytics and end-to-end reporting infrastructure.

Skills

People management

Leadership

Operations management

Data collection

Data annotation

KPIs

SQL

Dashboards

Cross-functional communication

Internal tooling

Career ladders

Hardware collaboration

Robotics/AV context

Robot operations

6S methodology

Terminal commands

VR devices

Tools

Jira

Asana

Job description

We’re ALTEN Technology USA, an engineering company helping clients bring groundbreaking ideas to life—from advancing space exploration and life‑saving medical devices to building autonomous electric vehicles. With 3,000+ experts across North America, we partner with leading companies in aerospace, medical devices, robotics, automotive, commercial vehicles, EVs, rail, and more.

As part of the global ALTEN Group—57,000+ engineers in 30 countries—we deliver across the entire product development cycle, from consulting to full project outsourcing.

When you join ALTEN Technology USA, you’ll collaborate on some of the world’s toughest engineering challenges, supported by mentorship, career growth opportunities, and comprehensive benefits. We take pride in fostering a culture where employees feel valued, supported, and inspired to grow.

Our team is looking for an experienced operations people leader to manage a team of 40+ data collectors for physical data generation. This person will be responsible for delivering data output while ensuring efficient operations, maintaining quality standards, and optimizing workflow processes. They will be the primary point of contact between the annotation and data collection staff and the customer team within our organization.

Responsibilities

Leadership

• Manage daily operations of Data Collection and Annotation teams
• Serve as main interface point between data collection and research teams
• Manage team headcount needs and coordinate hiring, when needed
• Own and refine the job profiles for the data collection and annotation teams
• Create and maintain team schedules and rotation plans
• Conduct regular team meetings to relay team updates
• Develop and implement onboarding and training materials
• Set and monitor productivity goals and KPIs
• Manage team member performance and provide coaching
• Ensure compliance with safety protocols and procedures
• Create and maintain standard operating procedures
• Contribute to the improvement of data collection methodology

Software

• Manage project tracking systems (e.g. Jira/Asana) for team task assignment
• Create data reports and dashboards for management to understand program performance
• Maintain detailed documentation of data collection processes and outcomes
• Triage software issues and route them to the correct partner team to resolve
• Monitor ongoing software skillset needs on the team
• Track software updates and maintenance schedules with software engineering partners

Hardware

• Triage hardware issues and route them to the correct partner team to resolve
• Monitor ongoing hardware skillset needs on the team
• Supervise workspace organization and safety standards
• Ensure proper equipment handling and storage protocols across the teams
• Track and implement hardware upgrades alongside hardware engineering partners
• Manage equipment training programs

Organizational Design & Career Architecture

• Design and maintain formal career progression frameworks, including role definitions, promotion criteria, and lateral-track eligibility
• Design compensation and recognition programs (incentive tiers, bonus structures, recognition budgets) in partnership with staffing agency and client leadership
• Define minimum tenure and readiness standards for internal promotions

Program & Process Architecture

• Design frameworks that formally separate research readiness from operational readiness for cross-team handoffs
• Define authority boundaries between operations and research/engineering partners (what floor leadership can resolve independently vs. what requires escalation)
• Build structured onboarding systems, including phased training curricula and skill/task complexity libraries

Internal Tooling & Systems Development

• Design and build internal operations software (from the ground up) to solve visibility gaps that off-the-shelf tools don't cover
• Design data/status workflows (e.g., ticket routing, downtime attribution logic) in partnership with engineering
• Own analytics and reporting infrastructure end-to-end, from data model to stakeholder-facing dashboards

Cross-Functional Program Ownership

• Serve as the structural interface that turns ambiguous research needs into operational processes
• Diagnose and document hardware/performance issues in technical partnership with engineering, beyond simple ticket triage
• Own the connective processes (not just meetings) that keep research, engineering, and floor teams aligned

REQUIRED SKILLS:

• 5+ years people management experience
• 10+ years of professional experience
• Proven team leadership experience managing 20+ operations associates or similar
• Experience in a business operations leadership role, with responsibility for hitting KPIs
• Experience performing or managing data collection / annotation, especially in a robotics or autonomous vehicle context
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Strong organizational skills
• Experience defining metrics, pulling data (e.g. SQL), and building dashboards with that data from the ground up
• Sufficient technical ability to interface with software and hardware engineering for support
• Experience designing and building internal tooling from scratch to solve operational visibility gaps (not just using existing software)
• Experience designing structured career ladders and incentive/compensation frameworks
• Experience diagnosing hardware/robot performance issues in direct partnership with engineering teams
• Experience building and presenting data-driven reporting to leadership stakeholders

PREFERRED SKILLS:

• Experience operating robots
• Experience with physical world simulation
• Experience running basic commands on a terminal
• Experience with virtual reality devices
• Strong understanding of 6S methodology and processes to improve and maintain workspace organization

SALARY RANGE:

• $80,000 - 100,000 per year
• The actual salary offered is dependent on various factors including, but not limited to, location, the candidate’s combination of job-related knowledge, qualifications, skills, education, training, and experience.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, genetic information, or pregnancy.

Compliance Notice:

Alten USA is a federal contractor subject to the requirements of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) and Executive Order 11246. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

Drug Screening Requirement:

As a federal contractor, Alten USA maintains a drug‑free workplace. All candidates selected for employment will be required to successfully complete a pre‑employment drug screening as a condition of hire.