Strategic Project Lead

About Turing Based in San Francisco, California, Turing is the world’s leading research accelerator for frontier AI labs and a trusted partner for global enterprises looking to deploy advanced AI systems. Turing accelerates frontier research with high-quality data, specialized talent, and training pipelines that advance thinking, reasoning, coding, multimodality, and STEM. For enterprises, Turing builds proprietary intelligence systems that integrate AI into mission-critical workflows, unlock transformative outcomes, and drive lasting competitive advantage. Recognized by Forbes, The Information, and Fast Company among the world’s top innovators, Turing’s leadership team includes AI technologists from Meta, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, McKinsey, Bain, Stanford, Caltech, and MIT. Learn more at  www.turing.com The Role You will be the operational engine behind Turing’s most strategic data delivery projects for frontier AI labs. Every major lab — OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta AI, Anthropic, and others — depends on high-quality human expert data to train, post-train, and evaluate their models. Your job is to take those projects from customer kickoff to flawless delivery, managing hundreds to thousands of contributors and building the client relationships that turn a single project into a long-term partnership. This is a high-ownership role. You will shape the playbook, the quality frameworks, the escalation paths, and the contributor management infrastructure that define how Turing delivers at scale. What You’ll Do 1) Operational execution — own end-to-end delivery on every project you run Design and manage data pipelines from customer specification to final delivery, with full accountability for scope, timeline, and quality. Diagnose bottlenecks in real time — re-sequence workflows, refine instructions, create incentive systems, and scale review processes to hit throughput targets. Run daily “war room” syncs to stay ahead of issues before they reach the customer. 2) Customer relationships — be the face of Turing to the world’s leading AI labs Act as the primary point of contact for researchers and program managers at frontier AI labs. Deliver clear, consistent reporting and proactively anticipate client needs before they ask. Build the kind of long-term trust that converts a one-off project into a multi-year partnership — and identify expansion opportunities along the way. 3) Large-scale coordination — orchestrate the work of 100–1,000+ contributors Source, vet, onboard, train, and performance-manage domain experts across distributed workspaces. Maintain high execution standards at every stage of production, from annotation through review through delivery. Design motivation and performance systems — including gamification — that keep large contributor pools engaged and output high. 4) Quality ownership — ensure world-class data integrity on every project Own quality control across the annotation lifecycle: set the bar, measure against it, and close the gap when it slips. Analyze datasets to identify trends, anomalies, and systematic errors — then fix the root cause, not just the symptom. Implement and continuously improve annotation, evaluation, and curation best practices. 5) Process innovation — make the operation faster, better, and cheaper each cycle Stay ahead of emerging practices in AI data operations and apply them before customers ask. Champion workflow changes that reduce task completion times and improve cost efficiency. Maintain clear, scalable documentation so that improvements survive beyond any single project. 6) Playbook building — codify what works so future SPLs scale faster than you did Document onboarding scripts, quality benchmarks, contributor management frameworks, and escalation patterns. Own your domain’s section of the SPL knowledge base. Actively mentor the next hire — your playbook is your legacy. Who We’re Looking For Background in consulting, finance, startups, or other operationally intense environments, with a proven track record of managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects. Strong analytical and communication abilities: you can spot a bottleneck in a noisy production environment, build a measurement plan, and communicate the fix to a demanding client in plain language. Customer-facing experience: comfortable working directly with high-profile clients, managing expectations, and building long-term relationships. Excited by gritty process optimization and large-scale execution — you thrive on making complex operations faster, cleaner, and more reliable. What Success Looks Like 30 days: First project delivered end-to-end with no quality escapes reaching the customer. Reporting cadence established and trusted by the lab. Contributor onboarding playbook v1 published. You know the names of every researcher on your accounts. 60 days: 300+ active co