Program Manager

Job Title: Program Manager

Experience: 4–6 years

Location: Based in Chennai (Monthly visit to Gurugram )

About Josh Talks

At Josh Talks, we believe voice will be the primary interface between humans and machines.

Our mission is to help machines talk like humans by building benchmarks, datasets, and foundational speech models that power global speech AI. We focus on high-quality, diverse, real-world data because the next breakthrough in speech AI will not come from algorithms alone.

Today’s models still feel robotic because they are often slow and inaccurate. Our goal is to enable natural conversations with <200 ms latency and <5% WER.

We are building benchmarks, datasets, and foundational speech models using State Space Models (SSMs) where Transformers fall short. We are a small, fast-moving team obsessed with precision; every decision is measured, documented, and shipped with intent.

About the Role

We are looking for a Program Manager to lead large-scale speech dataset programs across Indian languages. This role sits at the intersection of operations, product, data quality, and execution.

You will own end-to-end program delivery from planning data collection workflows to managing speakers, raters, vendors, timelines, payouts, quality metrics, and cross-functional coordination with Product and Tech teams.

This is a high-ownership role for someone who can bring structure to ambiguity, move fast, and ensure that every dataset shipped meets the quality standards required to power world-class speech AI systems.

What You’ll Do

• Own and drive large-scale speech dataset programs for ASR across Indian languages.
• Manage speakers, raters, vendors, and internal teams to ensure smooth data collection and annotation.
• Build and maintain strong execution systems for onboarding, scheduling, task allocation, payouts, issue resolution, and tracking.
• Create clear SOPs, guidelines, QC processes, and review mechanisms to maintain high data quality.
• Track program metrics such as collection progress, annotation quality, rejection rates, turnaround time, cost, and language-wise coverage.
• Work closely with Product and Tech teams to improve workflows, internal tools, dashboards, and automation.
• Identify bottlenecks early, solve operational issues, and ensure projects are delivered on time and within quality benchmarks.
• Document decisions, learnings, and process improvements to make every subsequent program faster and better.

Who You Are

• You have 4–6 years of experience in program management, operations, product operations, data operations, vendor management, or a similar execution-heavy role.
• You are strong in planning, coordination, stakeholder management, and follow-through.
• You can manage multiple moving parts without losing attention to detail.
• You are comfortable working with data, dashboards, trackers, and quality metrics.
• You have a quality-first mindset and understand that small errors in data can create large downstream model issues.
• You communicate clearly with both internal teams and external partners.
• You enjoy working in fast-paced, high-ownership environments.
• You are interested in AI, speech technology, datasets, language, or product operations.
• Familiarity with Indian languages, ASR, annotation workflows, or AI data pipelines is a strong plus.

Why Join Us

• You will work on one of the most important problems in AI: making machines understand and speak like humans.
• You will get real ownership, not just coordination work.
• You will help build datasets and benchmarks that can shape the future of speech AI for Indian and global languages.
• You will work with a small, sharp, fast-moving team where precision, speed, and ownership matter.