Bespoke Labs — Strategic Projects Lead

Type: Full-time | Mountain View, CA Compensation: $140,000–$200,000 + competitive equity Hiring count: 1 Visa sponsorship: None available Reports to: Leadership (flat-structure lab)

Bespoke Labs is an applied AI research lab pioneering the curation of data and RL environments for training and evaluating agents. They curated Open Thoughts (one of the best open reasoning datasets, used by multiple frontier labs), trained SOTA specialized models including Bespoke-MiniChart-7B and Bespoke-MiniCheck, taught agents multi-turn tool-calling with reinforcement learning, and are a core contributor to Terminal-bench (a leading agent benchmark used by most frontier labs). Bespoke creates RL environments for frontier labs and specialized agents for enterprises.

Founded: 2023 | Team size: 11–50 | Stage: Series A Industry: AI Research Website: bespokelabs.ai Office: Mountain View, CA

• Ownership from day one: Owns multi-million-dollar contracts with frontier AI labs and enterprise customers end-to-end — budget, schedule, and scope.
• Frontier visibility: Full visibility into frontier AI training workflows and direct customer relationships with leading labs and enterprises.
• Build from scratch: Flat structure, direct access to leadership, and the ability to design systems and processes where no playbook exists — scope expands as fast as you can take it.

• No intake-call transcript was present in the role page (intake video embedded but not transcribed). Request transcript or notes from Contrario if a summary is needed.

The Strategic Projects Lead owns end-to-end delivery of customer projects for frontier AI labs and enterprises — a deeply operational role at the intersection of project management, data operations, and customer success.

• →Own end-to-end delivery of customer projects across budget, schedule, and scope with clear accountability for outcomes
• →Track project milestones and quality standards across distributed expert teams
• →Identify bottlenecks early and resolve problems before they become blockers
• →Communicate directly with customers (frontier AI labs and enterprises) to understand needs, set priorities, and manage expectations
• →Build and scale data pipelines and operational processes that drive real revenue across distributed global teams
• →Manage large teams of annotators, engineers, and domain specialists across time zones and aggressive deadlines
• →Design systems and workflows from scratch when playbooks do not exist
• →Make high-impact daily decisions on resource allocation, scope, and trade-offs using SQL and Python for data analysis

Tech stack: SQL, Python (for data analysis and operational tracking); expert teams engaged over Discord

• 4-8 years operations or project lead experience
• CS undergraduate degree required
• SQL and Python for data analysis and operational tracking
• Strong written + verbal English fluency (Discord-based expert engagement)
• Balances quality, speed, and cost simultaneously

• Strong conceptual and analytical problem-solving with CS or ML background.
• Track record of balancing quality, speed, and cost simultaneously on past project work.
• Bias for action plus systems thinking plus high empathy for the customer.
• Prior experience managing distributed expert teams (annotators, engineers, domain specialists across time zones)
• Calm under pressure with high ownership and tenacity.

• Candidates who theorize about strategy instead of getting their hands dirty in operations.
• Pure project managers without technical grounding (cannot work with SQL, Python, or alongside engineers fluently). The role requires technical operations, not consulting-style PM.
• Senior managers (10+ years) who default to delegation rather than direct execution. Role is 4-8 years sweet spot.
• Weak written communication. Expert teams are engaged primarily over Discord, so written fluency is the primary screen.
• Cannot operate without a playbook.
• No CS undergraduate degree

• PM or operations experience at a data company, AI lab, or benchmarking organization
• Experience managing distributed expert teams (annotators, engineers, domain specialists)
• MBA or management background combined with hands-on technical grounding
• Background in Mercor, Handshake, or comparable AI operations companies
• Stakeholder engagement experience across customer-facing and internal teams

Salary$140,000–$200,000EquityCompetitive (no % stated)On-site policyOn-site — Mountain View, CAVisa sponsorshipNone availableEmployment typeFull-timeLocationMountain View, CA

1. What's one accomplishment that you are most proud of?
2. Are you legally authorized to work in the United States?
3. Will you now or in the future require the company to commence ('sponsor') an immigration case in order to employ you (for example, H-1B or other employment-based immigration status)?
4. If you currently hold US work authorization through a visa, which category applies? (Optional)
5. Are you willing to work from / relocate to the role's location? (Optional)
6. Location
7. I consent to Bespoke Labs AI, Inc collecting and processing the personal information in this application for recruitment purposes, in accordance with its privacy policy.

Stage 1 — Pending Approval Stage 2 — Pending Enrichment Stage 3 — Initial Screen Stage 4 — First Round Stage 5 — Second Round Stage 6 — Offer Stage 7 — Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.

Drawn from the role's Nice-to-Have signals (no dedicated Ideal Companies section on the page). AI operations / data companies — Mercor, Handshake, comparable AI operations companies Backgrounds — data companies, AI labs, benchmarking organizations

For reference only — do not source these specific profiles (page labels them "DO NOT CONTACT"). Saloni Shah — LinkedIn (button present on page; URL not captured in HTML) Harshel B. — LinkedIn (button present on page; URL not captured in HTML)

• None present on the role page.