Director, AI Data Acquisition and Operations (AI)

Location: Mountain View, California, United States

Salary: USD $130,900–$251,900 per year across the U.S.; USD $165,600–$272,300 per year in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metropolitan area.

Company

Microsoft AI develops frontier foundation models and related AI initiatives.

What you will do

• Lead post-training data collection programs, including human evaluations and training data.
• Select, negotiate with, and manage data vendors and contracts.
• Act as the primary data operations point of contact for research efforts, particularly post-training domains.
• Track purchase orders, vendor spend, amortization schedules, and milestone delivery.
• Coordinate initiatives across Business Development, Procurement, Legal, Compliance, Finance, and Engineering.
• Advance responsible AI development in line with Microsoft’s culture and values.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Business Administration or a related field and 3+ years of experience in strategy or finance, data operations, program or technical program management, procurement, or finance integration; or a bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Computer Science, or a related field and 4+ years of relevant experience; or equivalent experience.

Nice to have

• Bachelor’s degree and 6+ years of experience in technical data operations, procurement program management, or finance systems integration, or equivalent experience.
• Experience leading large cross-functional programs and strategically managing AI data vendor relationships.
• Experience managing data operations for AI research organizations and collaborating closely with scientists on data collection.
• Ability to oversee budget and impact tracking systems and cross-functional programs.
• Experience leading large-scale multimodal data programs for AI research organizations.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time role supporting frontier AI research and product deployment.
• Benefits and additional compensation may be available for eligible roles.
• Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled, with the posting open for at least five days.
• Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations during the application process.