Senior Technical Program Manager, Applied AI

LILT AI; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Cutting-edge AI tech

Collaborative environment

Growth opportunities

Global impact

Job summary

LILT seeks a Senior Technical Program Manager of Applied AI to lead benchmark transformations and data deliverables across multilingual multimodal data. You will architect workflows to ensure the next generation of LLMs and multimodal models are trained on diverse, high-quality data, while collaborating with research lab partners.

You will drive cross-functional initiatives, manage frontier AI programs, and oversee high-volume data pipelines, balancing delivery cadence with quality and ethics.

Qualifications

• Education and experience in AI/engineering with 10+ years; PhD with 5+ years acceptable.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with startup or venture experience.
• Strategic execution and stakeholder management with frontier AI labs.
• Frontier AI data pipelines for LLMs or multimodal models.
• Experience with automated validation at scale.

Responsibilities

• Act as CEO of your customer's business for benchmark transcreations with research labs.
• Lead end-to-end programs for frontier AI labs and data milestones.
• Architect pipelines for high-volume multimodal data delivery.
• Implement automated and human-in-the-loop QC frameworks.
• Bridge engineering, research and production teams.

Skills

Entrepreneurial Benchmark Leadership

Frontier Lab Program Management

High-Volume Data Operations

End-to-End Quality Control

Cross-Functional Leadership

Education

B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science/AI

Ph.D. +5 years AI/Engineering

Tools

Python

PyTorch

LangChain

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.

About The Role

As a Senior Technical Program Manager of Applied AI, you will sit at the intersection of cutting-edge research and industrial-scale execution. You will operate with an entrepreneurial mindset, effectively acting as the CEO of your customer's business to proactively drive success. You are responsible for leading complex benchmark transformations and data deliverables. Rather than just managing timelines, you are architecting workflows to ensure the next generation of LLMs and multimodal models are trained on the most accurate, diverse, and complex data available, while championing innovative solutions alongside our research lab partners.

• Entrepreneurial Benchmark Leadership: Act as the CEO of your customer’s business by proactively proposing and co-developing benchmark transcreations directly with research lab partners, ensuring our deliverables are innovative, tailored, and aligned with their core research objectives.
• Frontier Lab Program Management: Lead the end-to-end execution of high-priority technical programs for frontier AI labs, managing the delivery of massive-scale datasets and bespoke engineering milestones.
• High-Volume Data Operations: Architect and oversee pipelines for delivering high-volume data samples across multiple modalities (text, image, video, audio), ensuring strict adherence to delivery cadences without sacrificing precision.
• End-to-End Quality Control: Partner with production to implement rigorous, automated, and human-in-the-loop QC frameworks to ensure data integrity across various domains and languages.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Bridge the gap between forward-deployed engineering resources, research, and production teams to ensure LILT can serve the needs of the frontier AI market.

Qualifications

• Education: B.S or M.S. in Computer Science, AI, or a related technical field with 10+ years of industry experience. Equivalently, a Ph.D. with 5+ years of experience in a high-growth AI/Engineering environment.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset: Experience founding or scaling a venture, or operating in an early-stage startup environment where you drove business growth and strategic initiatives from the ground up.
• Strategic Execution: Strong business acumen and the ability to manage high-stakes stakeholder relationships with frontier AI labs.
• Frontier AI Expertise: Proven track record of managing data pipelines for LLMs or multimodal models. Deep understanding of training, inference, and the nuances of data diversity (multilingual and multi-domain).
• Scale & Quality: Demonstrated ability to manage "high-throughput" programs where quality control is mission-critical. You should have experience with automated validation at scale.

Preferred Skills

• Fluency in multiple human languages.
• Proficiency in Python and experience working with modern AI frameworks (PyTorch, LangChain, etc.).

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and benefits package.
• Opportunity to work with cutting-edge AI technology in a rapidly growing industry.
• A dynamic and collaborative work environment.
• Significant opportunities for professional growth and development.
• The chance to make a real impact on global communication and business.

Where You’ll Work

This position is based in our London, UK office and will be expected to work in the office in a hybrid capacity. Boston and Indianapolis are also acceptable locations. 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.

• London, UK (highly preferred)
• Others: Berlin, Boston, New York, Indianapolis

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 prioritized 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.