# Data Operations

**Company:** [Thinking Machines Lab](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/thinking-machines-lab)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** Data Engineering
**Salary:** $250k – $350k/yr
**Skills:** Data Operations, Vendor Management, Data Quality, Data Sourcing, Project Management, Process Design, Workflow Automation, Ai Data, Data Annotation, Cross-Border Compliance
**Posted:** 2026-08-25

> Own end-to-end data sourcing and vendor operations that help researchers train and evaluate frontier AI models. The role requires strong judgment, communication, problem-solving, and comfort managing ambiguous, fast-changing projects.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Partner with researchers to understand data needs and turn open-ended requests into concrete plans.
- Own data projects from sourcing and vendor selection through quality review and delivery.
- Identify suitable vendors, experts, and data sources, including international partners.
- Review data quality with researchers and vendors, resolve issues, and improve outputs.
- Learn new data domains quickly and establish quality standards.
- Build guidelines, processes, and tools that make recurring work scalable.
- Automate repetitive operational work where appropriate.
- Collaborate with legal and other teams on vendor relationships and communication guidelines.
- Manage multiple projects against research and model timelines while adapting to changing priorities.

## Requirements
- Experience owning operational, data, product, program, or vendor work from start to finish.
- Experience working with data vendors, ideally in AI or technology.
- Strong problem-solving, communication, judgment, and prioritization skills.
- Ability to work with researchers or technical teams and turn loosely defined needs into action.
- Strong attention to data quality and willingness to inspect work closely.
- Comfort with ambiguity, changing priorities, and tight timelines.
- High initiative and ability to contribute wherever needed.
- Ability to add useful structure without overcomplicating processes.

## Nice-to-Haves
- Experience with pre-training, post-training, evaluation, annotation, or other AI data types.
- Relationships with diverse AI or related data vendors.
- Experience at an AI company, data company, marketplace, or fast-moving technology company.
- Experience with international vendors and cross-border operational or compliance issues.
- Product, program, operations, or generalist experience in a process-building environment.
- Experience building simple tooling or automation to reduce manual operational work.

## Compensation & Benefits
- Annual salary range: **$250,000–$350,000 USD**.
- Health, dental, and vision benefits.
- Unlimited paid time off.
- Paid parental leave.
- Relocation support as needed.
- Visa sponsorship available.

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