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Data Annotation Program Manager Jobs in California

campus4tech

Technical Program Manager III

Mountain View, CA · On-site

$152K - $197K/yr

This role sits at the intersection of program management, data operations, and AI/ML, and will play a pivotal part in ensuring that our data annotation efforts are scalable, high-quality, and aligned ...

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Data Annotation Program Manager information

What is a data annotation program manager?

Data Annotation Program Managers are professionals who oversee and coordinate data labeling projects, ensuring that data used for machine learning and artificial intelligence is accurately tagged and prepared. They manage teams of annotators, set project guidelines, monitor quality, and ensure deadlines are met. Their role is crucial for building high-quality datasets that enable reliable AI model training. Program Managers often collaborate with data scientists, engineers, and stakeholders to define requirements and improve annotation processes.

How does a data annotation program manager coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure project success?

A Data Annotation Program Manager regularly collaborates with engineering, data science, and quality assurance teams to align annotation guidelines, project timelines, and quality standards. They often facilitate meetings to clarify requirements, resolve ambiguities in data labeling, and provide feedback on annotation accuracy. This role serves as a bridge between technical teams and annotation staff, ensuring open communication and timely resolution of challenges, which is critical for delivering high-quality datasets essential for machine learning and AI projects.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a data annotation program manager, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Data Annotation Program Manager, you need expertise in project management, data quality assessment, and a solid understanding of machine learning or data annotation processes, typically supported by a relevant degree. Familiarity with annotation platforms, workflow management tools, and data labeling software is essential, along with knowledge of quality assurance frameworks. Strong leadership, problem-solving abilities, and effective communication are crucial soft skills that help manage diverse teams and ensure stakeholder alignment. These skills are important to maintain high data quality, meet project deadlines, and drive successful AI model training initiatives.

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For Data Annotation Program Manager jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:

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Data Annotation Program Manager jobs near you
Infographic showing various Data Annotation Program Manager job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 36% Part Time, and 64% Contract. Highlights an 46% In-person, and 54% Remote job distribution.

Data Annotation Lead

Physical Intelligence

San Francisco, CA • On-site

Full-time

Re-posted 8 days ago

Job description

Physical Intelligence is bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world. We are a group of engineers, scientists, roboticists, and company builders developing foundation models and learning algorithms to power the robots of today and the physically-actuated devices of the future.
The role
We're looking for a Data Annotation Lead to own annotation operations and scale the team behind it. Annotation is core to how our models improve, and demand is growing fast. You will scale the annotation workforce from 100s to 1,000s while raising the quality bar - designing the org, the training pipeline, the quality system, and the metrics that let it scale efficiently.
You will own the people and the operation: throughput, quality, cost, and delivery across every annotation type.
In this role you will
  • Own annotation operations end-to-end: throughput, quality, cost, and on-time delivery across all annotation types.
  • Scale the annotation workforce from 100s to 1,000s: workforce planning, org design, and the hiring and onboarding funnel.
  • Build and lead a multi-layer management structure; hire, develop, and manage managers and team leads.
  • Scale throughput with autolabeling and model-based annotation: design human-in-the-loop workflows where models pre-label and annotators review, correct, and escalate, so output grows faster than headcount.
  • Stand up the training and certification pipeline that brings new annotators and teams to the quality bar quickly and consistently.
  • Define and continuously raise the quality bar: rubrics, calibration, audit/QA loops, and quality-adjusted productivity.
  • Establish operational metrics and reporting (presence, throughput, acceptance/rejection, rework) and drive week-over-week improvement.
  • Run capacity planning and prioritization against competing demand; allocate teams to the highest-impact work.
  • Manage performance at scale with clear standards, feedback, and a fair improvement/exit process.
  • Partner with product and engineering to define annotation tooling that unlocks throughput and quality.
  • Partner with research and project leads to translate annotation needs into clear instructions, rubrics, and SLAs.
  • Own the in-house vs. vendor mix and manage external partners where used.
  • Own the annotation operating budget and unit economics; improve cost-per-annotation while protecting quality.

What you'll bring
  • 7+ years leading scaled data or annotation operations, including teams in the 100s+.
  • 3+ years as a manager of managers.
  • Track record standing up 0→1 annotation programs.
  • Deep command of annotation best practices, operations, and strategy.
  • Experience integrating autolabeling and model-based annotation into human workflows; building human-in-the-loop pipelines that raise throughput without sacrificing quality.
  • Fluency with operational and quality metrics; data-driven management of large workforces.
  • Strong cross-functional partnership with product, engineering, and research/ML.
  • Clear written and verbal communication; able to set and hold standards across a large, distributed team.
  • Working understanding of ML and why annotation quality drives model performance.

Nice to have
  • Experience in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or frontier-AI data pipelines.
  • Experience managing distributed/global and/or vendor workforces.
  • Built annotation tooling or partnered tightly with a tooling team.
  • Experience training or fine-tuning autolabeling models, or partnering closely with the ML teams that do.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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