Strategic Project Lead - 7-8 figure contracts with frontier AI lab clients

Strategic Project Lead

Salary: $140,000 - $200,000

What You'll Own

Serve as the main point of contact for top AI lab customers, building deep trust and long-term partnerships. Understand client objectives and translate them into executable project plans. Design and manage large-scale data pipelines from client specification through final delivery. Recruit, vet, onboard, and manage teams of expert contributors at scale. Mentor and develop Strategic Project Associates on your projects. Own 2-3 projects concurrently or one marquee project at any given time.

Requirements

Must-Have

3+ years full-time experience in a strategic project lead or equivalent role at Mercor, Scale AI, or a comparable frontier human data company. Full-time employment history. No contractor or annotator experience counts toward the bar. Proven track record of managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects with 7+ figure contract value. Experience working directly with clients in a customer-facing capacity. Comfort owning end-to-end project execution under an intense pace and high stakes. Based in SF or willing to relocate. 5 days in office, 996 schedule.

Nice-to-Have

Background in data operations, engineering, computer science, math, or a related technical field. For Mercor or Scale AI candidates: senior tenure only. Junior or early-tenure candidates from these companies are typically not the right bar. Core candidates who joined post-October 2025 Series C round are high-signal. Experience mentoring or managing junior team members.