Scope of the Role:The next frontier for AI is the physical world, and Innodata is building the data factory that powers Physical AI for frontier robotics and humanoid systems. As a Robotics Data Collection Delivery Manager, you will own end-to-end delivery of egocentric video data collection programs for some of the world's most innovative robotics clients - combining deep operational execution with a working knowledge of robotics architectures, data pipelines, and physical AI systems. This is a high-visibility role that directly influences strategic client relationships and Innodata's $100M practice opportunity in egocentric robotics data.
This is a ground-floor opportunity to build and lead a new practice area at Innodata at a moment when demand for egocentric robotics training data is accelerating rapidly. The person in this role will sit at the intersection of physical AI, large-scale data operations, and frontier robotics - with direct impact on a $100M practice opportunity and working relationships with some of the most innovative robotics companies in the world.
What You'll Own: Delivery & Operations:- Own end-to-end delivery of egocentric robotics data collection programs from kickoff through final hour acceptance, ensuring all client quality, diversity, and timeline targets are met
- Develop and maintain a standard collection playbook adaptable across clients with adjustable parameters - camera geometry, naturalism blend, mount type, regions - rather than rebuilt from scratch each engagement
- Build reusable delivery assets including SOPs, onboarding and training curricula, scorecards, rubrics, and tracking infrastructure shared across client programs
- Monitor daily project progress against hour targets and acceptance rates, identifying and resolving bottlenecks before they impact delivery
- Act on client QA feedback within 24 hours, relay actionable guidance to contributors, and drive measurable improvement across quality, diversity, and task adherence dimensions
- Collaborate closely with Robotics Solutions Engineers to ensure clean handoff from pre-sales design to delivery, aligning on scope, success metrics, and data collection execution plans
Robotics & Technical Fluency:- Develop a working understanding of client robotics architectures - including VLMs, VLAs, ACTs, world models, and manipulation policies - to translate model requirements into concrete data collection specifications
- Translate client technical requirements (camera geometry, IMU specifications, naturalism targets, egocentric capture pipeline standards, file format requirements) into clear contributor guidance and internal delivery standards
- Partner with clients' robotics and ML teams to understand evolving data needs and proactively adjust collection programs to ensure dataset utility for model training
- Maintain fluency in egocentric capture best practices, sensor/rig configurations, and common failure modes (e.g. robotic movement, poor framing, low task diversity) to engineer quality upstream
Participant & Contributor Management:- Oversee a continuous contributor recruitment funnel capable of sourcing and onboarding 10,000+ participants at scale across US, LatAm, and developed Asia markets
- Partner with recruiting channels - crowd work agencies, BPO and workplace partnerships, universities, gig platforms, and referral networks - to maintain a reliable, diversified sourcing pipeline
- Design and enforce participant onboarding and training programs that front-load quality, addressing common failure modes before volume collection begins
- Monitor contributor-level metrics including acceptance rates, fraud rates, diversity scores, and hour contribution, taking corrective action where needed
Client & Stakeholder Management:- Serve as the primary operational point of contact for robotics clients during active collection engagements, maintaining strong relationships and positioning Innodata for contract expansion
- Provide regular project status updates to clients and internal leadership, including hour delivery progress, acceptance rates, fraud rates, and open issues
- Bring structured, frontline feedback from clients back into Innodata's product and roadmap discussions, helping shape a scalable Robotics & Physical AI data practice
- Represent Innodata's robotics data capabilities at key industry events and contribute to thought leadership through talks and published artifacts
Hardware & Logistics:- Coordinate device procurement, configuration, shipping, and recovery across collection regions, with a preference for company-owned, centrally managed iPhone fleets over participant-owned devices
- Standardize on client-defined hardware rigs - head mount, tilted-down geometry - and mitigate known comfort issues via mount fit, session length guidance, and participant training
- Build and manage a logistics function to procure, configure, track, refurbish, and redeploy devices across LatAm, Asia, and US markets
Quality & Fraud Prevention:- Enforce fraud prevention protocols across the contributor base, ensuring confirmed fraudulent sessions are flagged, not compensated, and that fraud rates stay below client thresholds
- Drive a quality-first collection culture through training, real-time monitoring, and fast feedback relay - treating QA as an upstream engineering problem, not a downstream fix
- Where clients provide backend QA access, plug into the feedback loop to continuously refine training and delivery
You'll Thrive in this Role If You Have: - A completed Bachelor's degree, or higher, in a related field
- 5+ years of experience in data collection, content operations, or program management, with at least 2 years managing large-scale contributor or workforce programs
- Hands-on familiarity with robotics or Physical AI systems - including perception/control stacks, egocentric data pipelines, teleoperation, or simulation - strongly preferred
- Working knowledge of robotics model architectures (VLMs, VLAs, ACTs, world models) and how training data requirements flow from model needs
- Experience with egocentric video data collection, computer vision datasets, or multimodal robotics training data
- Strong operational and project management skills - comfortable managing multiple concurrent workstreams across geographies with aggressive timelines
- Proven ability to translate complex technical specifications into clear, actionable guidance for non-technical contributors
- Experience working with clients in a B2B delivery context, with excellent communication skills across both senior executives and front-line engineers
- Comfort working cross-functionally with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Operations in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment
- Prior experience in data/AI/robotics delivery, solutions engineering, or technical program management a strong plus
The expected salary range for this position is $120,000 - $180,000 USD per year, based on experience, skills, and qualifications.
