ABOUT THE ROLE

Innodata builds and delivers AI/ML programs for some of the most demanding clients in the market, spanning model development, training and fine-tuning, LLM-based solutions, data pipelines and model evaluation. The Head of Technical Operations owns the delivery portfolio behind that work. You are accountable for keeping what the client expects and what actually gets delivered tightly aligned at every stage and for surfacing risk early enough that it can still be solved rather than explained.

This is a senior, client-facing position with real exposure. You own relationships from day-to-day contacts up to CXO level, lead the delivery and program managers running individual engagements, and connect practice heads, engineering, talent acquisition and operations around one delivery plan. This is a technical leadership role, not an administrative one. You are expected to stay close enough to the work to read the guidelines, interrogate the data, challenge an estimate and take a problem apart yourself when a program needs it.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

Portfolio and Delivery Ownership

Own the end-to-end delivery roadmap for a portfolio of AI/ML programs, including model development, training and fine-tuning, LLM implementations and model evaluation workstreams
Translate client requirements and business goals into structured delivery plans, milestones and success metrics that your managers can execute against
Hold scope, timelines, budgets and resourcing across multiple concurrent engagements, and intervene where slippage threatens a client commitment
Set and enforce the governance cadence across all active engagements, including status reviews, steering committee updates and sprint or iteration reviews

Technical Ownership and Depth

Read and challenge project guidelines, annotation taxonomies, evaluation rubrics and workflow designs rather than routing every technical question to the practice teams
Interrogate delivery and quality data directly instead of relying on summarized reporting, and build or modify the trackers and working tools a program needs
Work with practice and technical leads to validate solution approaches, technical feasibility and effort estimates before commitments are made to clients
Get into the detail with engineers and data scientists when a program is off track, and set the technical standard your delivery managers are held to

Client and Executive Relationships

Own the senior client relationship for the portfolio, working with stakeholders from day-to-day contacts through to CXO level
Lead business reviews and escalation calls, presenting delivery status, risks and outcomes with a clear point of view
Capture, document and continuously validate client expectations against what is actually being built, closing gaps before they surface as dissatisfaction
Build trusted adviser relationships that support account growth and renewal

Team and Cross-Functional Leadership

Lead delivery and program managers, set the delivery standard for the portfolio and develop the capability of the team behind it
Act as the connective tissue between practice heads, engineering, talent acquisition and operations so that everyone is working off the same delivery plan and priorities
Coordinate staffing and hiring pipelines with talent acquisition so the right people are available in time for project ramp-up
Partner with operations on resourcing, utilization, invoicing and billing milestones and contractual compliance

Risk, Quality and Governance

Identify delivery risks across technical, resourcing, scope and timeline dimensions early, and drive mitigation before they escalate
Anticipate client concerns from program signals such as slipping milestones, performance issues or resourcing gaps, and act ahead of formal escalation
Own issue and escalation management end to end, coordinating the right internal teams and communicating transparently with the client throughout
Maintain accurate, real-time visibility into portfolio health, present executive dashboards and reviews, and ensure contractual SLAs, deliverable timelines and commercial commitments are tracked and met
Drive continuous improvement in delivery processes, templates and playbooks based on lessons learned across engagements

WHAT YOU BRING

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science or a closely related technical discipline
Postgraduate degree preferred. An MBA or equivalent is an advantage but not required where delivery experience compensates

Experience

10+ years in technical program or delivery management, with progression into portfolio or multi-account ownership
3+ years specifically managing AI/ML, data science or data engineering programs
Executive client ownership. Demonstrated experience as the senior client-facing owner for enterprise or CXO-level stakeholders, including escalations and commercial conversations
People leadership. Experience leading delivery managers, program managers or senior individual contributors, with accountability for their output and development
Portfolio scale. Proven ability to run multiple cross-functional programs at once in a matrixed environment spanning engineering, practice teams, hiring and operations
Services delivery model. Experience in IT services, consulting or an AI/ML solutions provider, where delivery is to a client rather than to an internal product team, is preferred

Certifications

Required, one of the following: PMP or Lean Six Sigma Green Belt

Technical Skills

AI/ML lifecycle. Strong working knowledge of model training and fine-tuning, LLM-based solution delivery, model evaluation and MLOps concepts
Personal technical working capability. Able to read and challenge guidelines and workflow designs, interrogate delivery and quality data directly, build or modify trackers and utilities, and troubleshoot technical issues alongside engineers rather than delegating every technical decision
GenAI delivery exposure. Direct exposure to LLM and generative AI delivery, including RAG pipelines, fine-tuning, agentic workflows and evaluation frameworks, is preferred
Delivery tooling. Practical use of Jira, Asana, MS Project or Confluence, plus reporting and dashboarding tools
Executive communication. Able to translate technical detail into business impact and present credibly to CXO audiences

HOW YOU WORK

Orchestrator who stays in the detail. You connect client, engineering, hiring and operations, and remain close enough to the technical work to test assumptions, spot a flawed estimate and take a problem apart personally
Proactive rather than reactive. You anticipate risks, resourcing gaps and client concerns before they surface as problems
Credible in both rooms. You are equally at home in a technical review with engineers and a business review with a CXO
Ownership-driven. You treat client outcomes and portfolio health as personally accountable, end to end
Comfortable operating on fixed governance cadences, with no tolerance for missed or inaccurate deliverables

Innodata is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Qualified applicants are considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or any other characteristic protected by law.

Head of Technical Operations, AI/ML Delivery