Technical Program Lead, Public Sector

Scale AI; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 199,000 - 249,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Health, dental and vision coverage

Learning & development stipend

Generous PTO

Commuter stipend

Job summary

Scale AI is seeking a Senior Technical Program Manager to lead a high-impact Public Sector program in Washington, DC. You will own the technical delivery, guide the team, and ensure alignment with stakeholders and end users while driving innovative AI-enabled planning capabilities for major DoW commands.

You will mentor TPMs, orchestrate cross-functional collaboration with engineering and operations, and translate requirements into concrete delivery decisions with measurable impact.

Qualifications

• Experience leading or mentoring program managers, engineers, or technical staff.
• Ownership of technical delivery for a complex, multi-workstream program with government stakeholders.
• Deep understanding of ML operations and modern AI/ML tooling.
• Strong communication skills and travel willingness (25%+).

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of Technical Program Managers across the program's key technical delivery areas.
• Own the technical shape of the program, including when to build bespoke solutions.
• Plan releases with engineering, assess technical risk early, and communicate trade-offs to stakeholders.
• Serve as the senior technical voice for stakeholders and end users.
• Drive innovation by solving undefined technical and operational challenges for Public Sector customers.
• Align resources and create tools using data and analytics to add value to government customers.

Skills

Technical Program Management

Stakeholder management

Team leadership

Public Sector domain knowledge

Tools

Python

SQL

DevOps tooling

Job description

Scale's Public Sector customer base is growing rapidly, and you will ensure that these customers become passionate, lifelong Scale partners. In this role, you will lead technical delivery for one of Scale's most consequential Public Sector programs, building AI-enabled planning and decision-support capability for major Department of War commands. Partnering with the program's Delivery Lead, you own the technical shape of what we ship: how Scale's products come together, where we extend them, and what we build from scratch. You will also lead a team of Technical Program Managers, coaching them through ambiguous problems and multiplying what the group can take on.

You will:

• Lead and mentor a team of Technical Program Managers who own the program's key technical delivery areas, allocating scope, raising the technical bar, and unblocking them as they interface directly with stakeholders and end users
• Own the technical shape of what we deliver: whether we are combining Scale's products in the right way, extending them in the right way for this program, and being deliberate about what genuinely warrants a bespoke build
• Plan and sequence releases alongside engineering, anticipating technical risk early and putting engineering trade-offs in terms stakeholders can decide on
• Serve as the senior technical voice to program stakeholders and users, translating operational needs into delivery decisions the team can execute against
• Drive innovation and transformation by diving deep into technical and operational challenges, solving undefined problems, and delivering impactful solutions for Public Sector customers
• Leverage technical concepts, tools, and expertise to create solutions from scratch or drastically improve existing solutions
• Use data, analytics, and technical expertise to align internal resources and create tools that directly add value to customers in the public sector space
• Transition AI/ML technologies and processes into working Public Sector products / solutions even when requirements are undefined or ambiguous
• Partner with engineering, operations, and other public sector teams to build and deliver AI systems tailored to unique government use cases in the computer vision and generative AI domains
• Set the technical direction for a cross-functional team of engineers, operations, and delivery staff to exceed the customer's AI/ML objectives
• Manage the long-term health of the customer base by identifying and preempting areas of risk or concern
• Build with an eye toward reuse, identifying where program work can generalize into durable capability and surfacing it to Product, while holding the line on the program's technical delivery goals
• Address engineering problems alongside the product development teams

Must Haves

• An active TS/SCI clearance
• 7+ years of experience succeeding in stakeholder management or customer-facing role
• Experience leading or mentoring other program managers, engineers, or technical staff
• Demonstrated ownership of the technical delivery of a complex, multi-workstream program with senior government or enterprise stakeholders
• Technical background (education or professional experience with CS, Economics, Statistics, Engineering)
• Deep understanding of ML operations process
• Working knowledge of software delivery pipelines and DevOps principles
• A track record of structured, analytics-driven problem-solving
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Willingness to travel at least 25% of the time

We have a diverse team with a variety of skill sets, many have

• 10+ years of professional experience, often in a customer-facing technical program management role in industry or government.
• Experience in a Department of War or Intelligence Community operational environment, or supporting a combatant command
• Experience delivering a technical platform or product that other teams build on top of, with a feel for the integration, versioning, and support burden that creates
• Enough hands-on fluency with Python, SQL, and modern AI/ML tooling to interrogate data and prototypes directly, rather than relying on an engineer to answer every question

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.

The base salary range for this full-time position in the location of Washington DC is:

$199,200 - $249,000 USD

PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.

About Us

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.

We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at [e-mail]. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information.

We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision.

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