Strategic Project Lead

What You’ll Do

• Own delivery of assigned research and deployment initiatives from intake through completion.
• Partner with researchers and stakeholders to define scope, success criteria, timelines, and operational requirements.
• Prioritize work and allocate resources across competing projects based on impact, urgency, and available capacity.
• Build execution plans that define staffing, robot allocation, dependencies, milestones, and delivery timelines.
• Identify and resolve risks, bottlenecks, staffing gaps, and dependency conflicts before they impact delivery.
• Drive project reviews, stakeholder communication, escalations, and delivery decisions.
• Improve planning, prioritization, and operational systems as the organization scales.

What We’re Looking For

• This role sits at the intersection of program management, operations leadership, and research enablement.
• We’re looking for someone who can create clarity from ambiguity, coordinate complex work across teams, and consistently deliver results in fast-moving environments.
• Ideal background includes 2+ years of experience in program management, operations, technical project management, consulting, startup operations, or similar roles.
• Experience leading complex cross-functional initiatives involving multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
• Strong track record of translating ambiguous goals into executable plans and successful outcomes.
• Experience balancing competing priorities and making thoughtful resource-allocation decisions.
• Ability to quickly understand technical goals, operational constraints, and execution tradeoffs.
• Experience communicating effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Key Qualities

• Exceptional prioritization and organizational skills.
• Strong operational judgment and systems thinking.
• Comfort making decisions with incomplete information.
• Ability to identify risks, bottlenecks, and dependencies before they become problems.
• Ability to influence across teams without direct management authority.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• High ownership and accountability for outcomes.
• Bias toward action and execution.

Nice to Have

• Experience supporting AI, robotics, hardware, or research organizations.
• Experience managing data collection, evaluation, annotation, or operational programs.
• Familiarity with robotics workflows and teleoperation environments.
• Experience building operational processes and scaling teams.
• Experience working directly with researchers, engineers, or technical product teams.