Technical Program Manager

CLERA; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Visa sponsorship

Relocation assistance

Competitive salary

Job summary

Clera Labs, Inc. is seeking a Technical Program Manager to own complex data and evaluation programs for AI research teams and internal partners. You will align scope, requirements, and milestones across data ops and vendor coordination to ensure high-quality evaluation data.

You will translate ambiguous requests into actionable plans, manage external vendors, and drive data quality with metrics, while collaborating with research, platform, and marketplace teams to ship improvements.

Qualifications

• 3+ years owning complex technical programs in AI/ML, data ops, or related cross-functional field.
• Startup TPM/Strategic Program Lead experience in fast-paced environments.
• Experience translating ambiguous tech requirements into executable plans and data quality processes.
• Strong judgment evaluating datasets; balance aggregate metrics and individual examples.
• Vendor management and scaling delivery pipelines for AI research teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead data and evaluation programs from scoping to production and retrospective.
• Turn ambiguous requests into clear specifications with milestones and owners.
• Assess and improve data quality using quantitative metrics and qualitative review.
• Manage external vendors throughout the delivery lifecycle and improve pipelines.
• Improve workflows, documentation, automation, and cross-functional handoffs for data production.
• Partner with research, platform, and marketplace teams to turn feedback into product improvements.

Skills

Technical program management

AI/ML data operations

Vendor coordination

Requirements decomposition

Data quality assessment

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

RLHF

Reinforcement-learning environments

Job description

About the Role

Own complex data and evaluation programs for AI research teams and internal partners. This role brings together technical program management, data operations, and vendor coordination to help ensure evaluation data is high quality and useful for improving AI systems.

What You'll Do

• Lead data and evaluation programs from scoping and requirements gathering through production, quality assurance, delivery, and retrospectives.

• Turn ambiguous requests into clear specifications with milestones, owners, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.

• Assess and improve data quality using quantitative metrics and qualitative review, including task coverage, difficulty, and reward distributions.

• Manage external vendors throughout the delivery lifecycle and improve pipelines as programs scale.

• Improve workflows, documentation, automation, and cross-functional handoffs for data production.

• Partner with research, platform, and marketplace teams to turn feedback into product improvements.

What We're Looking For

• At least 3 years of experience owning complex technical programs in AI/ML, data operations, support engineering, applied research, forward-deployed engineering, or a related cross-functional field.

• Startup experience as a Technical Program Manager or Strategic Program Lead, with the ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.

• Experience translating ambiguous technical requirements into executable plans and maintaining or improving complex data quality processes.

• Strong judgment in evaluating datasets, moving between aggregate metrics and individual examples.

• Experience managing vendors, scaling delivery pipelines, and supporting AI research teams or technical customers with evolving requirements.

• Familiarity with RLHF, reinforcement-learning environments, agent evaluations, human-in-the-loop data pipelines, annotation, or expert data collection.

• Clear written and verbal communication, sound prioritization, and comfort navigating changing requirements.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary is $130,000 to $225,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship and relocation support are available for qualified full-time candidates.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, California. Remote candidates may be considered if they can maintain 70% to 80% time zone overlap with San Francisco or Singapore.