Senior Manager, Data Collections Operations

About the role

Every capability our robots learn starts with data. The Senior Manager, Data Collection Operations leads the team that produces it, on real robots, in simulation, and through egocentric capture, across multiple internal sites and shifts. You will decide what that team works on, set the bar for the data it produces, and build the organization that delivers it.

This is a builder's role at an inflection point. You will take an operation that works today and scale it, with more robots, more shifts, more sites, new data modalities, and a steady stream of new experiments from our AI team. You will work directly with research, hardware, and product leaders, and your team's output will show up in what our robots can do.

Core Responsibilities

• Own data collection outcomes across all internal sites and shifts: volume, quality, and timely delivery of data against company priorities
• Set long term data collection strategy with AI, research, and product leadership, deciding what the organization collects, in which modalities, and how capacity is allocated across competing programs
• Oversee the functions that define and structure the work: task development, SOPs and playbooks, and data quality standards across teleoperation, simulation, egocentric, and other modalities, from targeted autonomy experiments to free-form exploration
• Oversee the function that runs the work day to day, holding site coordinators and shift leads accountable to plans that keep every site and shift productive
• Set goals for utilization, throughput, and data quality, align on them across the org, and establish the operating cadence and reporting that keeps leadership informed and drives improvement
• Lead a team of teams across sites and shifts, spanning functional leads, site coordinators and shift leads, and a blended full-time and contract workforce
• Develop your staff through coaching and regular feedback, define clear opportunities for growth, and shape career paths and contract-to-full-time decisions that keep strong operators on the robot and growing
• Own workforce planning and hiring end to end: decide what roles and resources are needed and where, stand up new shifts and sites, define roles, recruit and interview, and onboard and train new staff, in partnership with recruiting and staffing partners
• Partner with Deployment Operations, which runs our robots at customer sites, on capacity and data strategy to bootstrap deployment staffing; partner with Fleet Operations on hardware availability and new hardware rollouts

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of operations experience, including 3+ years of people management and managing leads, supervisors, or other managers
• Direct experience in data collection or data operations supporting AI/ML development
• Experience running shift-based, hourly, or contract workforces, including hiring and training at volume
• Track record of workforce and capacity planning: sizing teams, allocating people and resources across competing priorities, and defending those calls to leadership
• Experience building the SOPs, training programs, and quality standards an operational team runs on
• Track record of building operational metrics and reporting from scratch and using them to drive decisions
• Ability to translate technical requirements from engineering or research teams into clear operational plans
• Clear written and verbal communication with operators, engineers, and leadership alike
• Willingness to travel up to 25% of the time

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing a blended full-time and contract workforce, including staffing partners and contract-to-full-time conversion
• Background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, teleoperation, or other hardware-in-the-loop operations
• Experience with simulation or egocentric data collection
• Experience standing up new shifts or sites in a multi-site operation
• Applied use of AI tools to improve workflows, with clear ownership of the output

Pay and benefits

Walden Robotics offers a competitive total compensation program, including salary, annual cash bonus, company equity, company-subsidized insurance programs, 401(k) with company match, flexible PTO, daily lunch, and other benefits. The pay ranges noted on our posts are for salary only.