Character. AI

Technology

TechnicalProgramManager,ModelAlignmentandDeployment

$220–260k Redwood City, California, United States FULL TIME
Market Sentiment
HIGH DEMAND

Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Mid+ candidates.

The Brief

“Technical Program Manager, Model Alignment and Deployment at Character. AI. Skills: Model Alignment, Model Deployment, AI Safety, ML Infrastructure. Lead planning and execution. Establish scopes, goals, timelines, risks, and success metrics”

Industry & Context.

Technology
Problems you'll solve

Analytical; Root cause analysis

What They're Looking For.

Must Have

5+ years of experience in technical program management, Proficiency in SQL, Proficiency in Python

Nice to Have

MS or PhD a plus, Hands-on experience with data pipelines, Hands-on experience with annotation platforms, Hands-on experience with ML evaluation tooling, Hands-on experience with human-in-the-loop workflows, Experience managing annotation vendors, Experience managing external data partners, Familiarity with distributed training, Familiarity with experiment tracking, Familiarity with ML infrastructure, Familiarity with model serving systems, Prior experience embedded in an AI research team, Prior experience embedded in a foundation model lab, Prior experience embedded in a Trust & Safety engineering team, Direct experience managing AI safety programs, Direct experience managing trust programs, Direct experience managing quality eval programs, Direct experience managing red-teaming programs

What You'll Do.

Lead planning and execution

Serve as connective tissue between teams

Translate priorities into executable roadmaps

Keep workstreams aligned

Develop and maintain evaluation frameworks

Track model performance

Track user satisfaction

Drive quality evaluation initiatives

Partner to identify quality signals

Incorporate human feedback

Surface actionable insights

Drive visibility into data pipeline health

Drive visibility into annotation quality

Drive visibility into training run progress

Drive visibility into deployment readiness

Identify bottlenecks across teams

Lead efforts to improve tooling

Lead efforts to improve process

Lead efforts to improve developer velocity

Partner with leadership on prioritization

Partner with leadership on sequencing

Partner with leadership on tradeoffs

Build operational patterns

Refine operational patterns

Own external partner relationships

Manage annotation vendors

Manage evaluation tooling providers

How You'll Work.

Team & Collaboration

Cross-functional teams; Research engineers; Safety experts; Data scientists; Infrastructure engineers; UX researchers; Post-Training team; Safety Engineering team; Trust & Safety team; ML Infra team; UXR team; Product team; Leadership

Communication Scope

Clear narratives; Technical conversations

Process & Methodology

Program management, Roadmap planning, Risk management

Full Job Description

ABOUT THE ROLE Model Alignment and Deployment is a critical, cross-functional effort spanning our Post-Training, Safety Engineering, Trust & Safety, ML Infra/Model Serving, and User Experience Research (UXR) teams. Together, these groups are responsible for transforming powerful pretrained language models into intelligent, engaging, safely aligned, and highly scalable products—working across data, compute, algorithms, infrastructure, and user insights to improve model performance and ensure reliable delivery. As a Technical Program Manager, you will be the operational and programmatic backbone connecting these teams: driving clarity, structure, and execution across some of the most technically complex and high-stakes work at Character.AI http://Character.AI. This is a role for someone who thrives at the intersection of research, safety, user experience, and production. You'll partner closely with research engineers, safety experts, data scientists, infrastructure engineers, and UX researchers to turn ambitious model development goals into well-scoped, well-tracked, cross-functional programs. You will ensure that the data pipelines, evaluation frameworks, alignment workflows, and serving infrastructure underpinning our models are moving fast and moving well. You'll operate effectively in high-ambiguity environments, anticipate risks before they become blockers, and bring the kind of technical fluency needed to earn trust with researchers while communicating clearly to leadership. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Program ownership: Lead planning and execution of cross-functional programs spanning data collection, annotation pipelines, alignment workflows (RLHF, DPO, Constitutional AI), safety guardrails (adversarial testing, red-teaming), and model serving. Establish scopes, goals, timelines, risks, and success metrics. - Cross-functional coordination: Serve as the connective tissue between Post-Training, Safety Engineering, Trust & Safety, ML Infra, UXR, and Product. Translate model

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