Technical Program Manager III
Job Title: Technical Program Manager III Location: Bellevue, WA (Onsite) Type: Contractor Pay Rate: $87.50/hr Job Summary: DataBricks’ R\&D Operations Organization is seeking a highly motivated and technically skilled Technical Program Manager (TPM III) to lead and oversee large-scale data annotation programs that power cutting-edge AI research initiatives. This role bridges program management, data operations, and AI/ML, ensuring annotation efforts are scalable, high-quality, and aligned with research and product needs. Key Responsibilities Program Ownership Lead large-scale data annotation initiatives end-to-end—from requirements gathering, planning, and execution to delivery and post-mortem analysis. Cross-Functional Collaboration Partner with AI Research leadership, data scientists, ML engineers, and product managers to define data needs, success metrics, and annotation guidelines. Vendor \& Workforce Management Manage external annotation vendors and internal labeling teams, including contracts, SLAs, quality standards, and throughput planning. Quality \& Process Design and implement robust quality control pipelines, annotation tools, and feedback loops to ensure high data quality at scale. Tooling \& Automation Collaborate with engineering teams to optimize annotation infrastructure, workflows, and data pipelines for efficiency. Data Strategy \& Governance Ensure privacy, security, ethics, and compliance best practices in annotation workflows. Reporting \& Metrics Define and track key program metrics (cost, quality, speed, volume), and communicate progress to stakeholders and leadership. Internal Adoption Build onboarding processes, workflows, and change management strategies for internal adoption of AI products. Data Quality Leadership Establish and standardize processes to monitor, measure, and improve data quality across datasets and annotation teams. Customer Engagement Collaborate with external customers and research partners on pilots, workshops, and feedback sessions to drive continuous improvement. Required Qualifications: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a technical field (Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, Information Systems) or equivalent experience. 7+ years of experience in technical program management, project management, or operations in data-centric or AI/ML environments. Strong understanding of ML development workflows, data pipelines, and annotation lifecycle. Experience managing large-scale data labeling or data collection initiatives, including vendor management. Familiarity with big data platforms (e.g., Apache Spark, Databricks, Hadoop) and data warehousing concepts. Advanced SQL skills and ability to build analytics, dashboards, and reports. Strong problem-solving, organizational, and communication skills; ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders. Proven record of driving complex technical projects to completion on time and with high quality. Experience performing root cause analysis on internal and external data and processes. Self-motivated and able to work independently and collaboratively. Preferred Qualifications: Knowledge of GPU technology and applications in generative AI/ML. Familiarity with Apache Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow, or other big data/ML frameworks. Skills \& Competencies: Advanced Project Management Technical Program Management Data Labeling and Annotation Machine Learning Workflows SQL Querying \& Analytics Vendor \& Team Management Data Governance \& Compliance Reporting \& KPI Tracking * Cross-Functional Collaboration