Technical Program Manager: AI Alignment & Deployment

Character.AI; Redwood City (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Character.AI is seeking a Technical Program Manager to serve as the operational backbone across Post-Training, Safety Engineering, Trust & Safety, ML Infra, and UX Research. You will drive cross-functional programs that turn ambitious model development into well-scoped, tracked work across data, deployment, and evaluation.

You will partner with researchers, safety experts, data scientists, and engineers to balance speed with safety, build robust data pipelines, and deliver scalable serving

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in technical program management, research operations, or product execution in a fast-moving AI, ML, or research environment.
• Deep familiarity with post-training and alignment concepts (supervised fine-tuning, RLHF, AI safety frameworks, LLM evaluation) as well as model deployment/serving, sufficient to engage substantively with both research and infrastructure engineers.
• Proven ability to lead complex, multi-team programs in ambiguous, rapidly evolving environments; track record of shipping with quality and speed.
• Strong analytical mindset; comfortable working with data and user insights to measure program health, identify trends, and drive decisions.
• Proficiency in SQL and Python.
• Exceptional communication skills - able to translate deep technical work into clear narratives for leadership, and to hold detailed technical conversations with engineers across different disciplines.
• Obsessive about data integrity, operational rigor, and process quality without letting process slow teams down.
• BS in a quantitative, scientific, or technical field; MS or PhD a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead planning and execution of cross-functional programs spanning data collection, annotation pipelines, alignment workflows (RLHF, DPO, Constitutional AI), safety guardrails, and model serving.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams: Post-Training, Safety Engineering, Trust & Safety, ML Infra, UXR, and Product roadmaps.
• Develop and maintain evaluation frameworks to track model performance and user satisfaction; drive safety and toxicity baselines.
• Ensure data pipeline health, annotation quality, training progress, and deployment readiness across teams.
• Partner with leadership on prioritization, sequencing, and tradeoffs balancing speed, safety, user needs, and infra constraints.
• Build and refine operational patterns, ontologies, and frameworks to scale capability development.
• Manage external partner relationships with annotation vendors and data partners.

Skills

Technical program mgmt

Research operations

Product execution

SQL

Python

Communication

Data integrity

Quantitative background

Education

BS in quantitative field

MS or PhD a plus

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Cloud platforms

Experiment tracking

Job description

Character.AI is seeking a Technical Program Manager to serve as the operational backbone across Post-Training, Safety Engineering, Trust & Safety, ML Infra, and UX Research. You will drive cross-functional programs that turn ambitious model development into well-scoped, tracked work across data, deployment, and evaluation.

You will partner with researchers, safety experts, data scientists, and engineers to balance speed with safety, build robust data pipelines, and deliver scalable serving