Frontier Data Strategist

Frontier AI labs decide what direction their models need to take before the actual training starts. As a Frontier Data Strategist on Scale's Generative AI team, you'll play a significant part in those conversations. You'll work directly with researchers at the world's leading AI labs to work out what data the next evolution of their models will need, then design the human-data programs to deliver it.

You'll sit where frontier research meets Scale's product roadmap. With customers, you'll build deep, technical relationships with researchers, learn where their work is heading, and bring them new data ideas before they ask or sometimes even think of it themselves. Inside Scale, you'll work with our AI Product Managers, ML Research, Delivery Operations, and Engagement Management teams to design what we're building to meet customer needs, turning research directions into product priorities.

This is a forward-looking, highly cross-functional role. Our Engagement Managers own customer success for live programs; Frontier Data Strategists own all that comes before it: spotting the need, designing the program, scoping and forecasting it, and winning the work. Through this role you’ll work closely with leading minds in the industry to push the frontier of AI science.

What you’ll do:

Build trusted relationships with researchers at your assigned frontier labs, and become a technical thought partner on their post-training, evaluation, and agent work.

Anticipate customer data needs by understanding their research priorities, following the literature, and tracking where model capabilities are heading.

Work cross-functionally to design new human-data programs (task design, data specs, quality bars, expert profiles) that turn loosely defined research goals into concrete projects Scale can run.

Match customer needs to Scale's product roadmap, working with AI product managers and ML teams to decide what to build, prioritize, or adapt.

Bring insights from the frontier (research directions, emerging data needs, capability gaps) back to Scale's technical teams to guide roadmap and investment decisions.

Scope, forecast, and price new opportunities with Delivery, Growth Operations, and Finance, and see them through to signed work and a clean handoff to Delivery Operations and Engagement Management.

What we’re looking for:

3+ years in a technical AI/ML role, such as ML engineering, research, applied science, technical product management, or post-training data work at a lab or data provider.

Working fluency in the LLM training lifecycle, especially post-training: SFT, preference data, reward modeling, RL environments, evaluations, etc.

The ability to read a research paper and form a view on what data would improve a given capability.

Experience earning credibility with technical stakeholders through substance, and enjoying the relationship side of the work.

Comfort turning ambiguous requests into structured plans with clear scope, timelines, and resource estimates.

A degree in CS, engineering, math, physics, or another quantitative field.

Ideally you'd have:

Hands-on experience designing training data, evals, or RL environments.

Experience at a frontier lab, model developer, or AI data company.

Some customer-facing experience in pre-sales, solutions engineering, or technical consulting.

Experience founding a company or early-stage startup leadership experience.

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.

Please reference the job posting's subtitle for where this position will be located. For pay transparency purposes, the base salary range for this full-time position in the locations of San Francisco, New York, Seattle is:

$160,800 — $201,000 USD

PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.

About Us:

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.

We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at [email protected]. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information.

We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision .

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