Manager, Production - Applied AI

lilt-corporate; Irvine (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

LILT is hiring a Senior Program Manager to lead AI data operations programs with distributed teams and multilingual staff. You will drive on-time delivery, oversee PM onboarding and performance, and implement quality interventions across multiple engagements. Strong knowledge of LLM processes and agile methodologies is required.

This hybrid role is based in the United States with U.S. work authorization. Join a fast-growing company backed by top investors, partnering with global enterprises to

Qualifications

• 5+ years in AI/ML data operations or production; 2+ years managing PMs or team leads in distributed, multi-time-zone contractor environment.
• Strong understanding of LLM training processes (pre-training, SFT, RLHF) and evaluation methodologies (human-in-the-loop, red teaming).
• Has run teams against throughput, quality, and cost-per-task targets; proficient with spreadsheets and dashboards; able to use SQL to extract and analyze performance data.
• Delivery track record sustaining on-time delivery and acceptance targets across multiple concurrent data programs for enterprise or research customers.
• Experience hiring, ramping, performance-managing, and offboarding hourly/freelance staff across regions and languages.
• Proven track record using Agile, Scrum, or Kanban for complex workflows across a portfolio of programs.
• Writes clear, unambiguous guidelines and communicates status, risk, and tradeoffs crisply to leadership.

Responsibilities

• Oversee program management performance: ensure accountability and on-time delivery across all active programs.
• Lead PM hiring, onboarding, and development; scale PM pool to match demand and ramp timelines.
• Ensure quality interventions across programs; address recurring issues and drive retraining or guideline updates.
• Standardize processes and software improvements; leverage playbooks and dashboards to reduce rework.
• Manage escalation and cross-functional interface; surface risks early and resolve cross-team conflicts.

Skills

People management

LLM knowledge

KPI-driven management

Delivery track record

Contractor workforce operations

Agile/Scrum/Kanban

Communication

Tools

Jira

Label Studio

SuperAnnotate

SQL

Job description

About LILT

AI is changing how the world communicates — and LILT is leading that transformation.

We're on a mission to make the world's information accessible to everyone, regardless of the language they speak. We use cutting-edge AI, machine translation, and human-in-the-loop expertise to translate content faster, more accurately, and more cost-effectively without compromising on brand, voice, or quality.

At LILT, we empower our teammates with leading tools, global collaboration, and growth opportunities to do their best work. Our company virtues—Work together, win together; Find a way or make one; Dance in the customer's shoes; Quicker than they expect; Quality is Job 1—guide everything we do. We are trusted by Intel Corporation, Canva, the United States Department of Defense, the United States Air Force, ASICS, and hundreds of global Enterprises. Backed by Sequoia, Intel Capital, and Redpoint, we’re building a category-defining company in a $50B+ global translation market being redefined by AI.

Key Responsibilities

• PM Performance

  • Outcome: Every active program has accountable Project Manager(s), and every PM carries a workload within the agreed span. Programs hit on-time delivery and first-pass acceptance targets without escalation; each PM is reviewed monthly against a scorecard of throughput, quality, and cost-per-task.

• PM Hiring, Onboarding, and Development

  • Outcome: PM pool capacity keeps pace with signed demand: new PMs are sourced, onboarded, and running their first program within the agreed ramp window, all programs start on time, and PM attrition is below threshold.

• Quality Interventions Across Programs

  • Outcome: Quality dips are caught mid-program through QA loops and corrected via retraining of annotator pools or guideline updates. Repeated misses by a PM or annotator pool lead to documented remediation or replacement. Issues are proactively discovered.

• Process Standardization & Software Improvements

  • Outcome: Programs launch from shared playbooks, guideline templates, and dashboard standards rather than being rebuilt per engagement. Every post-mortem produces documented improvements that lead directly into our custom software stack, and time from program handoff to first delivery declines quarter over quarter.

• Escalation and Cross-Functional Interface

  • Outcome: Risks surface to Technical Program Managers early enough to be managed. Escalations between the PM pool, Quality, Talent, and Delivery are resolved within agreed timelines.

Qualifications

• People management in AI data operations: 5+ years in AI/ML data operations or production, including 2+ years directly managing project managers or team leads in a distributed, multi-time-zone contractor environment.

• LLM knowledge: Strong understanding of LLM training processes (pre-training, SFT, RLHF) and evaluation methodologies (human-in-the-loop, red teaming), and of what drives quality and throughput in annotation workflows.

• KPI-driven management: Has run teams against throughput, quality (accuracy, IAA, gold-set), and cost-per-task targets; advanced proficiency with spreadsheets and dashboards, and able to use SQL to extract and analyze performance data.

• Delivery track record: Has sustained on-time delivery and acceptance targets across multiple concurrent data collection or evaluation programs for enterprise or research lab customers.

• Contractor workforce operations: Has hired, ramped, performance-managed, and offboarded hourly and freelance staff across regions and languages.

• Methodology: Proven track record using Agile, Scrum, or Kanban to manage complex workflows across a portfolio of programs.

• Communication: Writes clear, unambiguous guidelines and feedback for multilingual audiences and communicates status, risk, and tradeoffs crisply to leadership.

Preferred Skills

• Fluency in multiple human languages.

• Experience with multilingual data deliveries (pre-training, SFT, RLHF, machine translation, multimodal, etc.), especially in rare-resource languages

• Experience with data annotation platforms (e.g., Label Studio, SuperAnnotate) and project management tooling (e.g., Jira).

• Background in ML engineering, computer science, or data science.

Where You’ll Work

This position is based in our Boston office and will be expected to work in the office in a hybrid capacity. LILT is hybrid with hubs in SF, NY, Indianapolis, Boston, London, and Berlin.

Authorization to work in the U.S. is a precondition of employment.

• Boston (highly preferred)

• Others: SF Bay Area, New York, Indianapolis, London

Our Story

Our founders, Spence and John met at Google working on Google Translate. As researchers at Stanford and Berkeley, they both worked on language technology to make information accessible to everyone. While together at Google, they were amazed to learn that Google Translate wasn’t used for enterprise products and services inside the company.The quality just wasn’t there. So they set out to build something better. LILT was born.

LILT has been a machine learning company since its founding in 2015. At the time, machine translation didn’t meet the quality standard for enterprise translations, so LILT assembled a cutting-edge research team tasked with closing that gap. While meeting customer demand for translation services, LILT has prioritised investments in Large Language Models, human-in-the-loop systems, and now agentic AI.

With AI innovation accelerating and enterprise demand growing, the next phase of LILT’s journey is just beginning.

Our Tech

What sets our platform apart:

• Brand-aware AI that learns your voice, tone, and terminology to ensure every translation is accurate and consistent

• Agentic AI workflows that automate the entire translation process from content ingestion to quality review to publishing

• 100+ native integrations with systems like Adobe Experience Manager, Webflow, Salesforce, GitHub, and Google Drive to simplify content translation

• Human-in-the-loop reviews via our global network of professional linguists, for high-impact content that requires expert review

LILT in the News

• Featured in The Software Report’s Top 100 Software Companies!

• LILT makes it onto the Inc. 5000 List.

• LILT’s continues to be an intellectual powerhouse, holding numerous patents that help power the most efficient and sophisticated AI and language models in the industry.

• Check out all our news on our website.

Information collected and processed as part of your application process, including any job applications you choose to submit, is subject to LILT's Privacy Policy at https://lilt.com/legal/privacy.

At LILT, we are committed to a fair, inclusive, and transparent hiring process. As part of our recruitment efforts, we may use artificial intelligence (AI) and automated tools to assist in the evaluation of applications, including résumé screening, assessment scoring, and interview analysis. These tools are designed to support human decision-making and help us identify qualified candidates efficiently and objectively. All final hiring decisions are made by people. If you have any concerns, require accommodations, or would like to opt-out of the use of AI in our hiring process, please let us know at [e-mail].

LILT is an equal opportunity employer. We extend equal opportunity to all individuals without regard to an individual’s race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic characteristics, veteran or marital status, pregnancy, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state or federal laws. We are committed to the principles of fair employment and the elimination of all discriminatory practices.