Senior Frontier Data Strategist

Scale AI; New York (NY); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health & Wellbeing

Personal & Career Growth

Building Scale Community

Parental Support

Job summary

Scale AI is seeking a Senior Frontier Data Strategist to join the Generative AI team in shaping data strategies for next-gen models. You will partner with research leads and senior stakeholders to design human-data programs and influence product roadmaps across Scale's AI teams.

The role sits at the frontier of research and product, owning customer relationships, forecasting programs, and guiding strategic investments for Scale’s leadership.

Qualifications

• Deep fluency in the LLM training lifecycle and post-training workflows.
• Track record owning relationships with senior technical stakeholders.
• Ability to read a research paper and form an opinion on data needs.
• 5+ years in a technical AI/ML role (engineering, research, or PM).
• Experience shipping high-stakes technical programs from idea to delivery.
• Experience mentoring or leading technical teammates.

Responsibilities

• Own relationships with senior research stakeholders and strategic partners.
• Shape data strategy for model development, post-training, and agent roadmaps.
• Direct cross-functional teams including AI Product, ML Research, and Delivery Ops.
• Design and forecast multi-program human-data initiatives for customers.
• Mentor Frontier Data Strategists and develop team playbooks.

Skills

Data strategy

Stakeholder management

Research literacy

Product roadmap influence

Cross-functional leadership

Mentoring

Education

CS/engineering/math/physics degree

Graduate degree or ML research

Job description

• As a Senior Frontier Data Strategist on Scale’s Generative AI team, you’ll be a trusted voice in those decisions
• You’ll partner with research leads and senior stakeholders at the world’s leading AI labs to shape the data strategy behind their next generation of models, then design the human-data programs to deliver it
• You’ll sit where frontier research meets Scale’s product roadmap, and you’ll be expected to move both. With customers, you’ll own senior, technically grounded relationships, anticipate where their research is heading, and bring them new data ideas before they ask
• Inside Scale, you’ll be a leading voice with our AI Product Managers, ML Research, Delivery Operations, and Engagement Management teams, turning what you learn from customers into product priorities and investment decisions
• This is a forward-looking, highly cross-functional role. Our Engagement Managers own customer success for live programs; Frontier Data Strategists own everything that comes before it: spotting the need, designing the program, scoping and forecasting it, and winning the work
• As a senior member of the team, you’ll set the standard for how Scale does this work and help develop the Frontier Data Strategists around you
• Own relationships with senior research stakeholders at your assigned frontier labs, such as research leads, heads of post-training, and technical leadership, and become a strategic thought partner on their post-training, evaluation, and agent roadmaps
• Set the data strategy for your accounts: anticipate needs across research areas, spot where the biggest opportunities are, and build a multi-program plan for how Scale can help
• Direct the cross-functional team designing Scale’s most complex and novel human-data programs, including work that has no precedent at Scale
• Shape Scale’s product roadmap by representing your customers in planning with AI Product Managers and ML Research, and by resolving tradeoffs between customer needs and what Scale can build
• Bring insights from the frontier (research directions, emerging data needs, capability gaps) back to Scale’s leadership and technical teams to guide strategy and investment decisions
• Own the pipeline of new opportunities for your accounts. Lead scoping, forecasting, and pricing with Delivery, Growth Operations, and Finance, and see the work through to signed programs and a clean handoff
• Mentor Frontier Data Strategists, set the bar for program design and customer engagement, and help build the playbooks the team runs on

Benefits

• Health & Wellbeing: Our holistic approach to supporting Scaliens includes comprehensive health coverage, dental and vision insurance, mental healthcare services, and more. PTO policies and accommodating schedules ensure you’ll get time off when you need it to relax and recharge. Note that our offerings may vary by region as we strive to respond to the unique needs of Scaliens around the globe.
• Personal & Career Growth: Continuously learn and grow through annual learning & development stipend, attending leadership breakfasts, manager training, speaker series, and joining an ERG.
• Building Scale Community: We welcome guests to our offices, and you can expect to see Scalien families and friends around. Join local happy hours, and accept invites to game nights, book clubs, and many other employee-led community events.
• Parental Support: Balancing work and family is essential, and Scale understands the importance of having adequate leave policies in place to promote a healthy home and work life.

Deep fluency in the LLM training lifecycle, especially post-training: SFT, preference data, reward modeling, RL environments, evaluations, agentic training, etcA track record of owning relationships with senior technical stakeholders, and of influencing their direction through substanceExperience influencing a product or research roadmap without direct authorityThe ability to read a research paper and form an opinion on what data would improve a given capability, and to defend that opinion to researchersA degree in CS, engineering, math, physics, or another quantitative fieldEvidence of shipping ambiguous, high-stakes technical programs from idea to delivery5+ years in a technical AI/ML role, such as ML engineering, research, applied science, technical product management, or post-training data work at a lab or data providerHands-on experience designing training data, evals, or RL environmentsExperience at a frontier lab, model developer, or AI data companyA background in founding or leading at an early-stage startup, or in pre-sales, solutions engineering, or technical consultingA graduate degree (PhD, MS) or published research in ML or a related fieldExperience mentoring or leading technical teammates, formally or informally