Strategic Project Lead / Delivery Manager 

Data Annotation & AI Delivery

8+ Years of Experience

Position Overview

We are looking for a seasoned Delivery Manager (8+ years of experience) to lead large-scale data annotation and curation projects in support of cutting-edge LLM and multimodal AI research. You will oversee end-to-end delivery for projects with 100+ team members, ensure world-class data quality, and drive process and tooling innovation in collaboration with AI researchers and cross-functional teams.

This role is ideal for someone who combines deep technical expertise, proven leadership in managing large teams, and a passion for advancing AI/ML innovation. Given that our key customers operate in the data analytics, data engineering, and Business Intelligence (BI) space, the ideal candidate will bring hands-on leadership experience with platforms such as Databricks and Snowflake, enabling them to deeply understand customer domains, speak their language, and deliver annotation outcomes that are contextually relevant and technically sound.

Primary Responsibilities

1. Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, mentor, and grow large-scale teams of annotators and trainers.
• Drive performance management, career development, and targeted training.
• Foster a culture of excellence, ownership, and continuous learning.
• Design and implement motivation strategies (including gamification) to boost engagement and reward top performers.

1. Project Management & Coordination

• Define and manage project scope, objectives, timelines, and quality metrics.
• Align with cross-functional stakeholders on goals and deliverables.
• Proactively identify and resolve delivery risks, blockers, and dependencies.
• Provide clear and consistent reporting on progress, challenges, and solutions.

1. Data Quality & Integrity

• Own quality control and data integrity across the annotation lifecycle.
• Analyze datasets to identify trends, anomalies, and insights for improvement.
• Implement best practices for annotation, evaluation, and data curation.
• Share learnings and continuously improve quality processes.

1. Technical Collaboration & Innovation

• Partner with engineering and research teams to optimize internal tooling.
• Stay ahead of emerging trends in AI, ML, and multimodal processing.
• Champion innovations that reduce task completion times and improve efficiency.
• Maintain clear and scalable documentation for processes and training.

1. Customer & Domain Engagement

• Serve as a domain-knowledgeable point of contact for customers operating in data engineering, analytics, and BI environments.
• Leverage hands-on experience with platforms like Databricks and Snowflake to understand customer data workflows, terminology, and quality expectations.
• Translate customer-specific data engineering and BI contexts into clear, actionable annotation guidelines and quality benchmarks for delivery teams.
• Collaborate with customers to define annotation taxonomies and evaluation criteria that align with their data pipeline and analytics use cases.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in engineering, program management, or delivery of large-scale projects.
• Proven ability to lead and scale large teams (100+ members) with measurable impact.
• Strong technical grounding in AI/ML, data annotation, and multimodal systems.
• Hands-on leadership experience in data analytics, data engineering, or BI domains, with working knowledge of platforms such as Databricks and/or Snowflake (architecture, pipelines, data modeling, and production workflows).
• Familiarity with the modern data stack including ETL/ELT pipelines, data warehouses, data lakes, and BI tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker, or similar).
• Ability to translate complex data engineering and analytics concepts into annotation frameworks, quality standards, and training materials.
• Proficiency in Python (preferred) or Swift for data analysis and automation.
• Strong mathematical and analytical skills for data-driven problem solving.
• Experience in data curation, annotation pipelines, and quality control.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Track record of driving high-quality outputs under tight deadlines.

Preferred Skills & Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, or related fields.
• Experience applying gamification to workforce engagement.
• Familiarity with modern project management tools & methodologies.
• Exposure to state-of-the-art multimodal AI technologies.
• Prior experience managing annotation or data labeling projects for customers in the data engineering, analytics, or BI space.
• Familiarity with SQL at an advanced level and data orchestration tools such as Apache Airflow, dbt, or Prefect.
• Certifications in Databricks (e.g., Data Engineer Associate) or Snowflake (e.g., SnowPro Core) are a plus.

At Ensono, our Purpose is to be a relentless ally, disrupting the status quo and unleashing our clients to Do Great Things!  We enable our clients to achieve key business outcomes that reshape how our world runs. As an expert technology adviser and managed service provider with cross-platform certifications, Ensono empowers our clients to keep up with continuous change and embrace innovation.

We can Do Great Things because we have great Associates. The Ensono Core Values unify our diverse talents and are woven into how we do business. These five traits are the key to achieving our purpose:

Honesty, Reliability, Curiosity, Collaboration, and Passion.

 About the role and what you'll be doing: 

Ensono's Enterprise Solution Architects are cross-functional technical Architects that bring multi-tower solutions together. This is a pre-sales role in which they work alongside and support Sales, Consulting and Client Success organizations to service our clients. They work with clients’ business and technical teams, and with Ensono's internal teams to create winning solutions. To that end, Enterprise Architects must be effective in fostering senior management and executive level relationships with an emphasis on client satisfaction. Throughout the engagement process, from discovery to solution implementation, ESAs must work with and often lead multi-disciplinary teams. They also lead the solution hand-over for delivery into internal delivery and ops teams. Ultimately, he/she remains the owner of the overall technical solution. 

What we are looking for

• Well versed in the hosting technology and outsourcing services landscape
• Experienced communicator at all levels of internal and external audience ranging from engineering/admin to C-level
• Experienced with large ITO, infrastructure, and transformation deals ($50M+ TCV)
• Has experience with (and preferably certified on) hyper-scale cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Experienced in planning and executing discovery and design workshops internally and at client sites
• Previous experience as an SA (Sales/Solutions Engineer, Solutions Architect) with service providers
• Comfortable with executive level positioning of complex solutions that span multiple disciplines (services, hosting, network, security, storage and backup, DR, etc.)
• Familiar with complex sales cycles and contracting process
• Familiar with and can help create financial (pricing) models to support technical solutions

Job Responsibilities / Key Tasks:

• Support strategic pursuits as the Lead Solution Architect for all initiatives (multi-tower)
• Collaborate with counterparts in the Sales, Consulting and Delivery organizations to create Pursuit, Solution, Sales and Delivery strategies for Enterprise Clients
• Conduct discovery, assessment and solution development workshops (often in collaboration with resources from consulting, operations and product teams) to craft winning solutions
• Develop and document solutions that meet client's (technical and business) requirements and allow them to adapt to changing industry needs with a focus on transformation and re-platform efforts
• Create win-win solutions for both client and Ensono as part of the deal qualification, pursuit, and execution process
• Aid in driving stability and innovation within the client's current and future state and create solutions based on client requirements and available product offerings
• Push for higher value/value added services and solutions in line with Ensono's offerings
• Present technical solutions and business cases to a wide variety of internal and external audience
• Gain clients' confidence as a trusted advisor by offering consultation and recommendations drawn from insights, technology know-how and past experiences
• Work with finance and pricing teams to create simple pricing to multi-year pro-forma models
• Help build the commercial construct and pricing for IT outsourcing, and large managed services deals
• Align and partner with Product Management to help drive appropriate product enhancements and changes to technology roadmap
• Work with Finance, Product, Operations, Legal, and other internal stakeholders to deliver client proposals and contract materials (MSA review, SOW development and redlining, etc.)
• Draft and negotiate SOW, contracts, and sub-contract agreements, ensuring T&Cs alignment and risk mitigation
• Participate in deal reviews and advise Ensono senior management team regarding technical, commercial and competitive aspects
• Provide post-close consulting, knowledge transfer, and deal documentation to ensure smooth internal transition for transition, delivery, operations, and billing
• Participate in Industry Conferences and Consulting Reviews

We want all new Associates to succeed in their roles at Ensono. That's why we've outlined the job requirements below. To be considered for this role, it's important that you meet all Required Qualifications. If you do not meet all of the Preferred Qualifications, we still encourage you to apply. 

What You Will Need:

• Experience in a pre-sales Solution Engineer or Architect role at a service provider with managed services, infrastructure, data center and transformation solutions
• Successfully concluded at least 10+ IT Outsourcing, Cloud, Managed Services, or transformation deals of $50M TCV or greater
• Complete understanding of the sales process for complex technical solution selling including ITO deals
• Strong understanding of Financial, Negotiation and Contractual issues and regulations in IT outsourcing deals
• Strong analytical and reasoning skills related to technical, contractual and financial issues
• Broad technical knowledge in data center, hosting, and hybrid cloud technologies
• Well versed in the hosting technology landscape including compute, storage, backup, network, security, End User Services, BC/DR, DevOps and IT governance
• Deep understanding of IT services outsourcing solutions
• Hybrid environment solutioning experience with the following:
  • Public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI)
  • Hypervisor Environments (VMware, Openshift) - Preferred
  • IBM Power (IBMi, AIX, Linux on Power)
• Excellent written and oral communication skills and proficient in MS Excel, PowerPoint, Word etc.
• Experience in technical documentation to capture solution components in a timely manner while ensuring acceptable level of detail, data integrity, and accountability
• Ability to share knowledge and expertise among various organizations within the company and to facilitate teamwork among those organizations to better serve our clients

Skills and Key Attributes

• Strong presentation, communication, and influencing skills at a C-level
• Independent, Self-directed, Results oriented
• Strong empathy, self-awareness and interpersonal skills
• Business and customer-oriented player with strong team orientation
• Ability to manage periods of high project demand, short deadlines and operate under pressure

Education and Experience

• 15+ years of experience with at least 10+ years with a service provider and/or cloud MSP
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or other technical disciplines
• Major Industry accreditations / certifications a plus

Shift Timings: 1:30 PM to 10:30 PM IST

We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to caste, colour, creed, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, HIV status, or any other status protected by law. Candidates with disabilities who require accommodations during the recruitment process are encouraged to contact our Talent Acquisition team to place a request.