Strategic Project Lead - Speech & Audio AI

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, which manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Strategic Project Lead – Speech & Audio AI based in the United States. Join a forward-thinking AI operations team dedicated to advancing next-generation artificial intelligence through high-quality speech, audio, and language data programs. In this role, you will lead complex projects from initial planning through final delivery, helping global clients develop and improve speech recognition systems, voice agents, and conversational AI applications. You will combine project management expertise, domain knowledge, and quality assurance to ensure reliable, scalable, and impactful outcomes. Working closely with clients and cross-functional teams, you will translate technical requirements into practical workflows, clear annotation guidelines, and measurable quality standards. You will also help resolve complex data challenges, optimize delivery processes, and develop reusable operational frameworks. This remote opportunity offers the chance to contribute to cutting-edge AI innovation in a collaborative, international environment that values curiosity, accountability, and continuous learning. Accountabilities - Lead end-to-end project delivery: Manage project scope, timelines, budgets, staffing, resource allocation, and risks to ensure speech and audio AI programs meet client expectations and delivery objectives. - Manage client relationships: Serve as a primary point of contact for client communications, status updates, workshops, project reviews, and escalations, maintaining alignment throughout the project lifecycle. - Translate requirements into operational workflows: Convert client objectives into clear annotation guidelines, project processes, tooling requirements, and quality standards that support consistent execution.

- Monitor data quality and performance: Define, track, and analyze key quality metrics, including transcription accuracy, word error rate (WER), speaker diarization, and linguistic consistency. - Resolve quality and delivery challenges: Investigate data quality issues, clarify ambiguous requirements with clients, and implement corrective actions to improve project outcomes. - Provide speech and audio expertise: Advise clients and internal teams on workflow feasibility, evaluation methodologies, tooling options, and best practices across speech, audio, and conversational AI projects. - Develop operational standards: Create and maintain reusable guidelines, standard operating procedures (SOPs), quality assurance frameworks, and documentation to improve efficiency and scalability. - Support team development: Share domain knowledge, mentor Operations Specialists, and promote consistent execution and quality practices across project teams. - Contribute to business and capability development: Support project scoping, pilot programs, and new service development as speech recognition, voice agents, and other AI technologies evolve. - Drive continuous improvement: Identify opportunities to refine processes, strengthen quality controls, and adapt delivery approaches to emerging client needs and industry developments. Requirements - Relevant professional experience: At least 1–2 years of experience in AI data operations, project coordination, project delivery, or a related field, ideally within generative AI or frontier AI environments. - Speech and language expertise: Practical familiarity with at least one speech, audio, language data, or conversational AI workflow. - Project and stakeholder management: Experience coordinating projects or workstreams, managing competing priorities, and communicating effectively with clients and internal stakeholders. - Data quality and annotation knowledge: Understanding of data annotation processes, quality assurance methods, and the importance of accuracy and consistency in AI training and evaluation datasets.