Senior Project Manager — AI Data Collection & Annotation

Senior Project Manager — AI Data Collection & Annotation

Why this role exists
Andovar's DCA division builds multilingual speech, text and image datasets — collection, transcription and annotation — for some of the world's largest technology and AI companies. It is the fastest-growing part of the business, and delivery complexity has outgrown coordination-style project management. We are hiring a Senior PM to own our most complex accounts end-to-end, lead a distributed delivery pod, and make delivery predictable: problems surfaced in week one, not at 70% delivered.

This is a senior, decision-making role. You will run accounts the way an owner would — feasibility before commitment, margin visibility throughout, and a team that gets stronger under you. You do not need to come from AI data: we can teach the domain. What we cannot teach is agency craft — managing client
expectations, handling unknowns, and chasing down what your project needs.

What you will own
Account and delivery ownership
• Own 2–4 complex, high-volume accounts end-to-end — including new-client pilots where speed and
first impressions decide whether the account scales.
• Install early-truth checkpoints on every project: pilot batches, week-one acceptance-rate checks, and
contributor-funnel math, so wrong assumptions surface while they are still cheap to fix.
• Run delivery against explicit capacity math — what one PM, one language, one contributor pool can
produce per day — instead of gut-feel commitments.
Client leadership
• Lead client communication for your accounts: pilot reviews, scope negotiation, delivery forecasts and
risk calls. You keep control of scope in writing.
• Translate ambiguous client requirements into precise operational instructions, acceptance criteria
and QA workflows.
• Handle unknowns openly: surface them early, convert them into questions with owners and dates,
and manage client expectations while they are being resolved.
• Proactively reach out — to client stakeholders and to internal departments (recruitment, vendor
management, engineering, finance) — to get what your project needs. You chase; you don't wait.
Pre-sales, commercial and margin
• Participate in pre-sales for your domain: quotation, sampling and pilot scoping alongside Sales — and
give a feasibility verdict before we commit, not after.
• Track project-level financials — budget, vendor spend, forecast vs. actual — and flag margin erosion
early enough to act on it.
• Own the invoicing step on your accounts: accurate, on-time invoicing inputs, and follow-up with the
client through to payment.
Team leadership
• Lead a pod of project coordinators, interns and freelance PMs across countries; design shift coverage
and handovers so client hours (including US/EU evenings) are covered without single points of
failure.
• Mentor juniors to independently run standard projects, so senior time stays on client-facing and
high-complexity work.
• Own escalations on your accounts and resolve them; escalate upward with options, not problems.
Process and instrumentation
• Improve SOPs, trackers and reporting so status reflects reality — acceptance rates, throughput and
margin visible weekly, not discovered at invoicing.

What success looks like
• First 90 days: you own 2–3 key accounts including one live pilot; weekly reporting on your accounts
shows real acceptance rates, forecast vs. actual and margin status; invoicing goes out accurately and
on time; your coverage plan has no single point of failure.
• By 12 months: your accounts deliver on time at or above target margin; at least two coordinators
you mentor run standard projects independently; every new deal in your domain gets your feasibility
and estimation input before commitment.

Requirements
You must be able to show evidence of all of the following:
• Agency-side experience is mandatory: 5+ years delivering projects for external clients in an agency or
client-services environment — software development, research/custdev, data collection or related —
of which 2+ years at senior level.
• Owned client relationships directly — expectations, escalations and scope negotiations, not just the
trackers. You can show how you kept a client confident through a project going sideways.
• A proactive operating style with evidence: you reach out to client stakeholders and internal
departments to unblock your projects, surface unknowns early, and turn them into named risks with
owners and dates.
• Managed distributed freelance, vendor or subcontractor delivery teams, including performance
management.
• Ran projects with budget or financial responsibility: budgeting, forecasting, vendor spend control,
and invoicing follow-through with clients.
• Participated in pre-sales: quotes, proposals, samples or pilots — and can talk about one you shaped.
• Mentored or led junior PMs or coordinators.
• Fluent professional English, written and spoken (C1+); confident client-facing communication.
• Based in Asia time zones (UTC+5 to UTC+9), with flexibility for evening calls with US/EU clients.
• Advanced command of project tracking and reporting tools (Excel plus Airtable, Jira, Asana or similar).

Preferred
• Experience in AI data collection, annotation, machine learning pipelines or content operations
(speech/audio, code-switching or biometrics a strong plus) — valued, but not a gate.
• Experience building cost models or quotes for services businesses.
• Experience designing shift or coverage models for follow-the-sun operations.
• A second working language.

What we offer
• Remote-first role with a distributed, international team. (possible relocation to Bangkok,Thailand).
• Senior scope with real decision authority — and a visible path toward Program Manager / Head-of-delivery responsibility as the division grows.
• Direct exposure to frontier AI companies and the fastest-growing segment of the language industry.
• Compensation built for owners: base salary plus a bonus on each successful project close — you share directly in the outcomes you deliver.

How we hire
Four stages, typically within 2–3 weeks: application screening, a short HR call, a structured interview, and
a practical case with a live working session.