Head of Robotics Data Operations

Why This Role, Why Now

The next leap in AI isn't text — it's the physical world. Robotics companies and frontier AI labs are racing to teach machines how to move, grasp, and act, and they all need the same scarce input: massive volumes of high-quality, real-world video data captured by actual humans doing actual tasks.

Workstream is uniquely built to deliver it. We already understand the hourly workforce better than anyone — how to recruit them, schedule them, pay them, and keep them engaged at scale. We're now turning that engine toward one of the most valuable data problems in AI: mobilizing thousands of contributors to wear headsets and capture the real-world video that trains the next generation of robots.

Grow With Us

This is a zero-to-one business inside a company with hard-won infrastructure behind it. We're looking for the operator who will own it end to end.

Day In The Life

• Own and lead Workstream's robotics data collection programs across the US and internationally — full accountability for delivery, quality, throughput, and margin.
• Build, lead, and scale the operations team — from 5–10 operators today to hundreds over time — hiring and coaching front-line ops managers and building the management layer beneath you.
• Recruit, onboard, schedule, and scale a distributed network of hundreds to thousands of hourly contributors capturing video and sensor data in the field.
• Solve the hard physical-logistics problems: device fulfillment and tracking, contributor scheduling and utilization, no-show and retention management, and in-person quality assurance.
• Build the operational systems, playbooks, and infrastructure that let programs grow fast without breaking on quality.
• Translate robotics-company and AI-lab requirements into concrete collection protocols, project scopes, and operational workflows your teams can execute.
• Own the metrics that matter — quality, on-time delivery, throughput, utilization, cost — and use them to drive continuous improvement.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to evolve the internal tooling and data pipelines that make contributors and program managers dramatically more effective.
• Hire and lead the operational teams responsible for recruiting, workforce management, scheduling, QA, and program coordination.
• Serve as the operational lead for new program launches and customer expansions, and the person who gets at-risk programs back on track.
• Communicate performance, risks, and recommendations crisply to executive leadership and customers.

Who You Are

• 5–8+ years in operationally intensive roles — marketplace operations, data operations, strategy & operations, or comparable — with real ownership of delivery and performance metrics.
• A track record of leading and scaling teams of front-line operators (not just individual-contributor work) — hiring, coaching, and managing managers, ideally through periods of fast headcount growth.
• Demonstrated ability to build operational systems from zero-to-one and scale them through rapid growth.
• Experience running complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives from definition through delivery, with measurable business impact.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving instincts, and the judgment to make high-quality decisions with incomplete information.
• High-ownership mindset, bias to action, and comfort moving between high-level systems thinking and hands-on execution.
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management.

Nice To Have

• Experience coordinating hourly, gig, or physical workforces at scale — Uber, DoorDash, Lyft, Instacart, Amazon logistics, field/event staffing, or similar — with all the real-world logistics that entails.
• Background in investment banking, private equity, or management consulting that moved into hands-on operational leadership.
• Experience with large-scale data collection, labeling, AI data operations, or workforce platforms (Scale AI, Mercor, Handshake, Surge, and the like).
• Exposure to AI, robotics, data infrastructure, or technical-services delivery.
• Experience building and scaling a business from early-stage growth through operational maturity.

What Success Looks Like in 6–12 Months

• Your programs consistently hit or beat delivery, quality, and throughput commitments for our most important robotics and lab customers, with clear, referenceable wins.
• Key operational metrics — quality, on-time delivery, throughput, utilization, cost — improve materially under your ownership.
• You've built a contributor network and operating system that scales from hundreds to thousands without quality degrading.
• Clients, Product, and Engineering proactively bring you into planning because they trust your operational judgment.
• Your team sees you as a leader who raises the bar while giving clear direction and real support.

Additional Information

• We are committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals.
• Workstream provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.