Distribution Operations Manager Jobs in Austin, TX

About the Role

We sit at the intersection of AI and real human experience. Our HITL (Human-in-the-Loop) Operations team is responsible for making sure the AI our clients interact with actually works —reviewing outputs, catching errors, cleaning data, and closing the loop with real people when the technology isn't enough.

This function sits at a critical intersection of Product, Operations, Customer Experience, and Go-to-Market, serving as the connective tissue between what we build, how it performs in the real world, and how we continuously improve it. The insights generated here directly influence product decisions, customer outcomes, and our ability to scale effectively.

We're looking for an Project & Operations Manager to lead this team. You'll manage a team of Project Coordinators and a Project Coordinator Lead, own the day-to-day operational rhythm, and serve as the bridge between your team and the Product Manager driving the broader product. This is a working-manager role: part people leader, part process builder, part operational strategist.

What Your Team Does

The HITL Operations team plays a critical quality and feedback role across the product lifecycle:

• Review AI outputs — the team monitors and evaluates LLM-generated interactions with real clients, flagging errors, inconsistencies, and edge cases
• Feed product — insights and patterns from reviews are surfaced to the Product team to improve model performance and client experience
• Human escalations — when clients are uncomfortable interacting with AI, the team steps in directly, speaking with them by phone to resolve concerns and maintain trust
• CRM data management — team members identify and clean bad or incomplete data in the CRM, ensuring downstream reporting and client records are accurate
• Process improvement — the team actively documents what's breaking and builds better processes to prevent it from happening again

What You'll Do

• Lead, coach, and develop the Project Coordinator Lead and the broader Project Coordinator team — including workload distribution, performance management, and career growth
• Act as the primary connector between the HITL team and the Product Manager, translating strategic priorities into team execution and surfacing risks or blockers early
• Monitor day-to-day output quality and volume across the team; identify and resolve bottlenecks before they escalate
• Plan and manage team overhead — staffing levels, capacity planning, and workload balance — as client and product volume shifts
• Track and reduce operational costs across the team's workflows and tooling
• Build and launch new operational initiatives; provide hands-on support when new product features or client programs roll out and need operational infrastructure
• Maintain process documentation so the team operates consistently and new hires ramp quickly
• Report regularly on team performance, capacity, and cost to leadership
• Serve as the operational product expert for the team — the go-to resource for understanding how the product works end-to-end, leading investigations when something breaks or behaves unexpectedly, and ensuring findings are clearly communicated to the right stakeholders.

• 3+ years of direct people-management experience — you've led a team, not just managed projects
• Experience working closely with a Product or Project Managers as their operational counterpart — translating priorities to a team and escalating blockers up
• Hands-on experience with CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, or similar) — including data cleanup, hygiene practices, or workflow management within a CRM
• Comfort with data review, quality assurance, or output evaluation workflows — you understand what it means to systematically assess whether something meets a standard
• Track record of managing team capacity and overhead — you've had to balance what needs doing against what you can realistically staff
• Proactive process builder mindset — you see a broken workflow and fix it, not just flag it
• Strong communicator who can translate between a detail-oriented team and outcome-focused stakeholders

Nice to Have

• Experience in AI, machine learning, or HITL operations environments — reviewing model outputs, supporting annotation or data labeling programs, or working in trust & safety / quality ops
• Experience handling client-facing escalations or human escalation workflows
• Background in scaling a small team or function as program volume grew
• Familiarity with project management tooling (e.g., Hubspot, Asana, Monday.com, Jira, or similar)