Product & Operations Lead

About the job Product & Operations Lead

Product & Operations Lead

Hybrid | Los Angeles, CA
Direct Hire / Permanent Placement

HireNow Staffing is actively recruiting a seasoned, highly skilled Product & Operations Lead on behalf of a valued client partner in the AI data software startup sector. HireNow Staffing is acting as a direct placement partner for this Product & Operations Lead opportunity.

We are seeking a technically fluent, commercially strong operator who can work at the intersection of product, applied research, customer success, and revenue growth. This individual will serve as a primary relationship owner for advanced AI customers, translate sophisticated technical requirements internally, and help scale customer partnerships tied to frontier model development.

HireNow Disqualifier: Candidates with jumpy or unstable resumes will not be accepted or interviewed. We are prioritizing professionals with consistent tenure, progressive growth, and measurable impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Own strategic customer relationships end-to-end, from onboarding through renewal, expansion, and long-term partnership growth
• Serve as a trusted technical point of contact for advanced AI customers using data within model training and evaluation environments
• Understand customer data pipelines, workflow dependencies, annotation processes, and training stack requirements
• Translate customer feedback, use cases, and technical requests into structured internal briefs for Product, Engineering, and Operations teams
• Identify upsell, renewal, and expansion opportunities tied to new dataset demand or broader platform usage
• Support new business efforts including demos, technical scoping, proposals, and solution alignment
• Coordinate cross-functionally to ensure timely delivery, customer satisfaction, and execution excellence
• Surface market intelligence, customer pain points, and product opportunities to leadership
• Improve repeatable customer operations processes in a fast-scaling startup environment

• 1-3+ years of experience within an AI/ML data company, human data provider, AI infrastructure company, or related technical startup environment
• Direct experience with human data used for AI model training and evaluation (required)
• Strong understanding of ML data pipelines, model training workflows, data quality processes, and production AI environments
• Ability to clearly translate customer needs into actionable technical requirements for internal teams
• Proven relationship management experience with advanced technical customers or AI labs
• Strong communication skills with ability to simplify complex technical topics for varied audiences
• High ownership mindset, intellectual curiosity, and structured problem-solving ability
• Stable employment history with clear progression; candidates with jumpy resumes will not be considered

• Direct experience working with top AI labs or frontier model organizations
• Existing network within AI research labs, model builders, or advanced ML ecosystems
• Startup or early-stage company experience with high ambiguity tolerance
• Technical degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, or related discipline
• Experience supporting renewals, upsells, or revenue expansion within technical accounts
• Familiarity with RLHF, data labeling, synthetic data, model evaluation, red teaming, or related human data workflows
• Product operations or technical account management background

• Only general AI product management experience without direct human data / training data exposure
• No ability to articulate ML data pipelines or model training workflows clearly
• No customer-facing relationship ownership experience
• Need for visa sponsorship (not available)
• Frequent job changes without clear rationale or progression

• Base Salary: $150,000 - $250,000
• Additional Compensation: Equity + benefits package
• Work Location: Hybrid - Los Angeles, CA
• Employment Type: Full-Time / Direct Hire
• Visa Sponsorship: Not available