Director – Surgical Data Annotation & Programs

Role Overview

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for a portfolio of high throughput, clinically defensible, audit ready surgical video annotation programs.
• Own scale, standardization, automation leverage, quality systems, and client trust across multiple programs—ensuring predictable delivery, regulatory readiness, and measurable ROI on human in the loop operations.
• Own end to end delivery for multiple concurrent surgical video annotation programs across clients, procedures, and modalities.
• Set and enforce standard operating models from intake → de identification → annotation → QA/IRR → adjudication → dataset release + evidence packs.
• Ensure programs meet or exceed SLAs, quality thresholds, and release timelines at scale.
• Define and institutionalize annotation operating standards: Program playbooks, SOPs, Quality gates, Evidence pack structure, Dataset versioning discipline.
• Ensure every program is reproducible, auditable, and clinically defensible.
• Partner with senior clinical SMEs to define and approve procedure level ontologies (phases, steps, anatomy, tools, events).
• Ensure consistent translation into labeling guidelines, UI constraints, and QA checks.
• Own governance mechanisms to resolve clinical ambiguity, manage guideline evolution, and prevent ontology drift across programs.
• Set the automation vision and roadmap for surgical video labeling: Pre-labeling + verification as default, Confidence/uncertainty based task routing, Active learning feedback loops.
• Drive continuous reduction in cost per labeled minute and human effort per release.
• Partner with ML, platform, and data engineering leaders to productionize automation gains.
• Design and govern enterprise grade quality systems: Multi-rater strategies by label class, IRR standards, Calibration and retraining frameworks, Acceptance thresholds by use case (R&D vs regulated).
• Ensure every dataset ships with a complete Evidence Pack: Provenance, QA & IRR reports, Adjudication logs, Clinical and delivery sign offs.
• Own disagreement governance across programs: Escalation paths to senior adjudicators and clinicians, Systematic tracking of ambiguity categories, Closure of recurring issues via guideline and tooling updates.
• Proactively identify delivery, quality, compliance, and reputational risks.
• Ensure all annotation programs comply with de-identification standards, Data access controls, Logging, retention, and audit requirements.
• Serve as executive owner for security reviews, audits, and vendor risk assessments (SOC2 / ISO aligned environments).
• Act as senior escalation and trusted advisor for clients.
• Lead executive level program reviews, roadmap discussions, and expansion opportunities.
• Ensure PoCs convert into long-term, scaled production partnerships.
• Build and lead a multi-layered delivery organization: Program Leads, Senior annotators & adjudicators, QA auditors, Training & calibration leads.
• Define career pathways, certification standards, and succession plans.
• Manage enterprise level infrastructure: SOP libraries, Training academies, Calibration playbooks, Release governance checklists.

Requirements

• 12–15+ years of hands-on experience in data operations, annotation programs, QA-led delivery, or clinical data management
• 5+ years leading managers or owning multi-program portfolios
• Deep, hands-on expertise with video annotation programs, including temporal segmentation, event labeling, and annotation tool workflows at scale
• Proven track record designing and running enterprise-grade quality systems with IRR accountability
• Strong executive program management skills: capacity planning, financial control, risk management, and stakeholder leadership
• Demonstrated ability to operationalize clinical guidelines into enforceable, tool-based workflows
• Experience working in regulated or high-trust environments (healthcare, life sciences, sensitive data handling)

Benefits

• 3 days per week on-site
• Professional development opportunities