Senior Project Manager- Data Collection

About Welo Data

Welo Data, a Welo Global brand, is the multilingual data and evaluation partner for foundation labs and enterprises deploying GenAI systems globally. They deliver the human judgment, data infrastructure, and evaluation systems that ensure AI models perform reliably across languages, cultures, and real-world contexts, at every stage from training through deployment. Its global network of 500,000+ vetted experts spans 300+ languages and locales, enabling high-quality multilingual data creation and structured model evaluation across the full spectrum of modern AI applications — from large language models and voice and speech systems to agentic workflows and robotics and embodied AI. This breadth of linguistic, cultural, and domain expertise enables Welo Data to address critical AI development challenges, including safety, bias, inclusivity, and cross-lingual reliability. A unified global operating model, led by specialized program and quality experts and grounded in assessment-driven talent selection, localized rubrics, and continuous calibration, ensures consistent performance across languages, domains, and modalities. Underpinning all of this is NIMO™ (Network Identity Management and Operations), Welo Data's proprietary identity and fraud-prevention framework. Built to maintain data integrity and workforce trust across a global contributor base, NIMO combines advanced verification, continuous monitoring, and structured QA to ensure every dataset is accurate, traceable, and culturally grounded. welodata.ai

The Senior Project Manager oversees a portfolio of Data Collection (DC) projects across onsite, studio, and remote modalities. Leads delivery and scale: contributor capacity planning, vendor management, and process improvement. Ensures quality is consistent across projects, drives performance improvements, and plans work jointly with the Quality team. Ensures financial performance and compliance requirements are met across all DC projects in the portfolio. 
Job Reference: #LI-JC1

Main responsibilities

• DC function build-out: Support the Senior Manager DC in building operational capability - contribute to SOP development, tool evaluation, process design, and piloting new collection modalities as the function scales.
• Portfolio delivery: Plan and run a portfolio of DC projects (onsite, studio, remote) end-to-end; set priorities, milestones, and handoffs across time zones.
• Governance & reporting: Maintain DC portfolio tracker and dashboard; run regular delivery reviews covering project status, contributor pipeline, and quality outcomes (status, risk, escalations); flag risks and escalations to Senior Manager DC with clear options and impact.
• Capacity planning: Forecast and secure contributor capacity across modalities, locales, and project types for the portfolio; flag capacity risks and cross-programme conflicts.
• Quality consistency: Partner with the Quality team on acceptance criteria, QC rubrics, audits, and corrective actions; ensure quality standards are applied consistently across projects and modalities.
• Process improvement & tooling: Identify manual or inefficient steps in DC workflows; own SOP maintenance; drive adoption of DC tooling across the team.
• Vendor management: Manage DC vendor relationships within established SLAs and playbooks; review performance and drive improvements or changes as needed.
• Financial control: Build and track project and portfolio budgets, burn, and margins; manage change orders to protect financial outcomes.
• Risk, issue & change: Lead root-cause analyses and corrective action plans; escalate high-impact items with options and impact.
• Client and stakeholder management: Lead portfolio-level planning and client reviews; explain results, risks, and next steps clearly; manage escalations and scope changes.
• Team enablement: Coach DC PMs (P1-P2) and coordinators on delivery, QA, and DC-specific tools and workflows; support onboarding and skills growth (no formal line management required).
• Compliance & security: Ensure data handling, consent, PII, and Info Sec policies are followed across all DC workstreams.
• People Management: Gather feedback, provide training and coaching, foster team cohesion, conduct performance reviews, and support staffing and retention efforts. 
• Collaboration with Recruitment: Work closely with the recruiting team to manage DC hiring efforts by communicating role requirements, project pipeline, and candidate statuses. Review, evaluate, and select qualified candidates and decide on next steps (e.g., assessments, interviews, or further evaluation).
  

Experience

• 3 - 4 years leading multi-project portfolios or large multi-workstream programmes in data collection, content operations, annotation, or adjacent fields
• Background in contributor capacity planning, vendor management, and quality systems; 
• Experience piloting or scaling process improvements is a plus
• Experience managing or coaching junior team members

Skills and additional qualifications

• Portfolio planning and governance across several concurrent DC projects
• Clear communication with senior clients and internal leaders; confident leading planning and governance reviews
• Strong use of spreadsheets, PM/task boards, and basic BI
• Sound judgement on scope, time, cost, and quality trade-offs
• Negotiation and escalation to resolve risks, issues, and change
• Coaching mindset; guides DC PMs (P1-P2) and coordinators
• Comfortable working with global, distributed teams
• Comfortable operating in an ambiguous, fast-changing environment with the ability to define structure where it doesn't yet exist Additional qualifications
  
• Experience with data collection platforms, contributor management systems, and annotation tools
• Familiarity with data submission, validation workflows, and session operations
• Familiarity with QA, rubric design, or compliance frameworks (GDPR, COPPA, PII handling) is an advantage
• Able to work independently and manage complex workflows in a remote environment
• Multilingual ability is an advantage
• Owns delivery outcomes for a portfolio of DC projects
• Works independently; defines delivery approach and engages the Senior Manager DC for non-standard or high-impact items
• Shares accountability for quality outcomes with the Quality team; works closely with Senior Manager DC on delivery planning and escalations.
• This role requires flexible working hours to ensure some overlap with US-based stakeholders and teams.