Head of Robotics Data Operations

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.

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.

As Head of Robotics Data Operations, you are the business owner and operational architect for our robotics data collection programs — and the leader of the operations team that runs them. You'll start by leading a team of 5–10 operators and are expected to grow it into an organization of hundreds as programs scale. You will build and run the systems, teams, and infrastructure that turn ambitious data targets into repeatable, high-quality execution across the US and internationally.

This is a people-and-ops leadership role, not an individual-contributor one. You'll hire, coach, and lead front-line operations managers and their teams — setting the bar for performance, building the management layer beneath you, and creating the operating rhythm that keeps a fast-growing org aligned and executing.

This is fundamentally a physical operations challenge, not a back-office one. You are coordinating a distributed, hourly workforce in the real world — people who show up, wear devices, and capture video in homes, warehouses, kitchens, and streets. The complexity lives in scheduling, utilization, no-shows, equipment logistics, in-person quality control, and throughput — closer to the operational reality of Uber, DoorDash, or Instacart than to remote knowledge-worker annotation.

You'll sit at the intersection of operations, workforce management, product, engineering, and our robotics and AI-lab customers. You'll partner directly with executive leadership to set strategy and then own the execution that delivers on it — scaling programs from hundreds to thousands of contributors while holding the bar on quality, speed, and cost.

This is a full-time role requiring presence of up to 5 days per week in our  Menlo Park office.

• 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 per unit, SLAs — 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.

• 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.
• Customers, 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Want to own a brand-new, business-critical operation and be directly accountable for its outcomes.
• Are energized by physical, real-world operations and the messy logistics of coordinating people in the field.
• Can move fluidly between designing systems and reviewing execution detail.
• Thrive when priorities shift weekly and customer needs change fast.
• Like leading and coaching operators, setting a clear bar, and giving direct feedback.

It's not the right fit if you want narrow IC scope, highly predictable days, or heavy top-down structure. This is an early, high-intensity build — there will be stretches of long hours, including evenings and weekends around launches and critical program inflection points. You'll often be the person responsible for getting things back on track.

• A mission-driven and value-based company dedicated to empower deskless workers and local businesses
• An early employee opportunity at a Series B hyper-growth startup; work with the founding team and industry veterans to accelerate your career
• Competitive salary and equity
• Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision. We pay 95% of your premiums for our employees and 85% for dependents
• 401K Plan
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• Learning/development stipend
• Flexible PTO

In compliance with the California Pay Transparency Law, the base salary range for this role is between $170,000 to $190,000 in the San Francisco Bay Area. This range is not inclusive of bonus or equity. When determining compensation, we consider experience, skillset, scope, and market benchmarks.