Associate Program Manager, Annotation

Who You Are:

You are a highly organized, analytical individual who is excited to build a career as a Technical Program Manager in the AI field. You excel at building relationships and enjoy working closely with researchers and other subject matter experts on projects across diverse areas. You embrace learning and aren't intimidated by new tools or techniques. With your detail-oriented approach, you take a hands-on role in getting things done.

Who We Are:

You'll be joining the program management team within our Strategic Infrastructure (SI) group, responsible for driving the definition and execution of Ai2's ambitious flagship projects, including "truly open" foundation models, our upcoming agentic AI research assistant, and AI-for-environment initiatives. Our centralized team works directly with world-class researchers to connect the dots between R&D, engineering, and real-world impact. We are deeply involved in technical details while also serving as stewards of the institute's big-picture strategy. Our work spans all levels of the organization-from coordinating with the team operating our state-of-the-art GPU cluster to communicating up to executives to drive clarity, decision-making, and prioritization.

Your Next Challenge:

This is a temporary (30 hrs/week) position for 12 months.

You will manage our human annotation program, working closely with researchers and ML engineers to collect human-produced training and evaluation data that underpins our AI technologies. The data collected covers diverse modalities and domains, including images, geospatial data, and scientific text.

The essential functions include, but are not limited to the following:

• Program Management: Define, develop, and iterate on procedures for human annotation projects, including intake processes, project estimation, tracking, and communicating program status.
• Create Centralized Resources: Build a comprehensive understanding of available annotation platforms and their strengths and weaknesses. Develop documentation and standard procedures, e.g. for completing participation agreements, setting fair compensation, and addressing annotator safety issues like handling objectionable content.
• Task Setup: Collaborate with researchers to understand project scope and set annotation and evaluation requirements. Recruit annotators, manage contracts, and provide feedback to refine user interfaces and guidelines.
• Task Execution: Assign tasks to annotators, manage communications, perform Inter-Annotator Agreement (IAA) checks, conduct productivity analyses, and perform quality assurance as needed.

What You'll Need:

• BS degree in a quantitative field or equivalent experience
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• A positive attitude, with a proactive approach to handling repetitive tasks and finding creative ways to simplify and scale annotation efforts.
• Strong organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines.
• Demonstrated ability to independently learn new tools and platforms
• Strong analytical skills and an interest in artificial intelligence.

Bonus:

• Basic coding skills, especially Python and bash
• Experience working with a technical team in a professional environment

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time.
• The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations.
• The ability to observe details at close range.
• Can work under deadlines.

A Little More About Ai2:

Ai2 is a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is building breakthrough AI to solve the world's biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

In addition to Ai2's core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the Ai2 Team. Some highlights are:

• We are a learning organization - because everything Ai2 does is ground-breaking, we are learning every day. Similarly, through weekly Ai2 Academy lectures, a wide variety of world-class AI experts as guest speakers, and our commitment to your personal on-going education, Ai2 is a place where you will have opportunities to continue learning alongside your coworkers.
• We value diversity - We seek to hire, support, and promote people from all genders, ethnicities, and all levels of experience regardless of age. We particularly encourage applications from women, non-binary individuals, people of color, members of the LGBTQA+ community, and people with disabilities of any kind.
• We value inclusion - We understand the value that people's individual experiences and perspectives can bring to an organization, and we are building a culture in which all voices are heard, respected and considered.
• We emphasize a healthy work/life balance - we believe our team members are happiest and most productive when their work/life balance is optimized. While we value powerful research results which drive our mission forward, we also value dinner with family, weekend time, and vacation time. We offer generous paid vacation and sick leave as well as family leave.
• We are collaborative and transparent - we consider ourselves a team, all moving with a common purpose. We are quick to cheer our successes, and even quicker to share and jointly problem solve our failures.
• We are in Seattle - and our office is on the water! We have mountains, we have lakes, we have four seasons, we bike to work, we have a vibrant theater scene, and we have so much else. We even have kayaks for you to paddle right outside our front door. We welcome interest from applicants from outside of the United States.
• We are friendly- chances are you will like every one of the 200+ (and growing) people who work here. We do.

Ai2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. You may view the related Know Your Rights compliance poster and the Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision by clicking on their corresponding links.

This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with disabilities to the full extent required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you feel you need a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the ADA, you are encouraged to contact us at recruiting@allenai.org.

Benefits:

• Team members and their families are covered by medical, dental, vision, and an employee assistance program.
• Team members are able to enroll in our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans.
• Team members are able to enroll in our company's 401k plan.
• Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.
• Team members will also receive up to ten sick days per year, up to seven personal days per year, up to 20 vacation days per year and twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year.

Note: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the team members(s) of this position. Team members will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the team member(s) will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at will relationship.