Vice President, Client Delivery (US, Canada, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico)

Description

Defined.ai is a leading provider of high-quality, ethically sourced data for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) model training. We host the world's largest AI marketplace and offer end-to-end services to help companies accelerate their AI solutions. Backed by significant funding and recognized globally for our commitment to ethical AI, we operate in a fast-paced, innovative environment with offices in Seattle and Lisbon.

Locations: United States, Canada, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico, or other locations within 1-2 hours of the US Eastern Time zone

Who are we looking for? 

The Vice President of Client Delivery will own end-to-end delivery for Define AI’s portfolio of custom data product engagements. Reporting to the CIO, this executive will lead a team of project managers responsible for building custom data products for commercial clients, and will hold ultimate accountability for delivery quality, timeliness, and client satisfaction across the portfolio.
This is a highly visible leadership role that blends organizational leadership, delivery operations, and direct client engagement. The successful candidate will be a proven delivery executive with a strong grounding in data products and an informed perspective on how data quality and structure relate to AI and machine learning outcomes, coupled with the executive presence to manage large commercial client relationships at the senior level.

Required Skills & Experience 

• A minimum of 7+ years of experience in project or program delivery leadership, including direct experience managing complex, custom data projects for external commercial clients.
• Demonstrated experience managing teams of project managers, not solely individual project delivery.
• A track record of managing large, sophisticated commercial or enterprise client relationships, including navigating executive-level conversations and resetting expectations under pressure.
• Strong fluency in data products, data pipelines, or data quality operations, with meaningful exposure to AI and machine learning — particularly how training and evaluation data requirements shape data collection and quality standards.
• Experience within a data services, data annotation/labeling, data licensing, or comparable data-as- a-product business (e.g., organizations such as Appen) is strongly preferred.

Leadership Competencies

• A strong, credible operating leader who develops talent and holds teams to a high standard of execution.
• Executive presence and precise communication, particularly when representing the organization to clients or delivering difficult messages.
• Highly disciplined and organized, capable of managing a multi-project portfolio without sacrificing quality.
• A structural, process-oriented thinker who builds scalable systems rather than one-off fixes. Composed and solutions-oriented under pressure, particularly during escalations or compressed timelines.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required; an advanced degree in a relevant field (business, data science, computer science) is a plus but not required in lieu of equivalent experience.

Benefits 
You spend a lot of your time at work, so it should be challenging, fun and interesting. At Defined.ai it will be all of those things and more. Here’s what we offer: 

• Flexible working schedule and hybrid model. We know comfort can boost creativity and performance, so you can manage your schedule and work both from one of our modern office spaces or home. 

• Excellent career development opportunities in a high growth company. With us, you can accomplish your career goals and follow a well-described career path with the support of your supervisor. 

• Culture of feedback and continuous improvement. AI is a fast-paced area, so we keep track of tech trends, and we always ask for feedback. 

• An international and diverse team. We have more than 23 nationalities at our 3 locations, 
  and we provide language classes. 

• Continuous training opportunities. You can choose from many options: leveraging hand-on workshops, unlimited access to Coursera and formal development opportunities. 

• We love to foster a great office vibe. We believe that a comfortable environment makes 
  a difference, so we provide daily breakfast and lunch, weekly happy hours to unwind,
  extra time-off, and even in-office massages to keep you relaxed and energized. 

Privacy Notice: defined.ai/candidate-privacy-statement 

What you'll do:

Organizational Leadership

• Lead, develop, and scale a team of project managers who own the build of custom data products for clients, including managers of data quality specialists embedded within project teams.
• Establish delivery standards, methodologies, and team structure appropriate to a growing, multi-project portfolio, and build the leadership bench needed to support the organization’s growth trajectory.

Client Relationship Management

• Serve as the senior executive point of contact for clients across the delivery lifecycle, building credibility and trust with client stakeholders from technical leads through executive sponsors.
• Own the proactive management of client expectations — scope, timelines, risk, and tradeoffs — and personally engage on escalations or strategically important accounts where executive-level judgment is required.

Delivery Operations

• Hold accountability for the successful delivery of custom data collection and data quality engagements across a portfolio of concurrent client projects, ensuring rigorous scoping, appropriate resourcing, and disciplined tracking against timeline, budget, and quality commitments.
• Define and govern the KPIs and quality metrics that matter for data product delivery — accuracy, completeness, turnaround time, and client satisfaction — and use them to drive continuous improvement across the organization.

Executive & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner closely with the CIO and executive team on delivery strategy, capacity planning, and operational investment decisions.
• Work with sales and account management to scope new engagements and set realistic delivery commitments during the sales cycle, and partner with engineering and data science functions to resolve technical or process constraints affecting delivery.
• Bring an informed point of view on AI/ML data requirements to internal and client-facing conversations, helping translate model and data science needs into delivery specifications.

Process & Scale

• Identify and lead improvements to delivery processes, tooling, and quality frameworks as engagement volume and complexity grow, and contribute to broader company strategy on service offerings and delivery capacity planning.