Head of Research, DataLab

We are building Protege to solve the biggest unmet need in AI — getting access to the right training data. The process today is time intensive, incredibly expensive, and often ends in failure. The Protege platform facilitates the secure, efficient, and privacy-centric exchange of AI training data.

Solving AI’s data problem is a generational opportunity. We’re backed by world-class investors and already powering partnerships with some of the most ambitious teams in AI. The company that succeeds will be one of the largest in AI — and in tech.

We’re a lean, fast-moving, high-trust team of builders who are obsessed with velocity and impact. Our culture is built for people who thrive on ambiguity, own outcomes, and want to shape the future of data and AI.

We are building Protege to solve the biggest unmet need in AI - getting access to the right training data. The process today is time intensive, incredibly expensive, and often ends in failure. The Protege platform facilitates the secure, efficient, and privacy-centric exchange of AI training data.

Solving AI's data problem is a generational opportunity. We're backed by world-class investors and already powering partnerships with some of the most ambitious teams in AI. The company that succeeds will be one of the largest in AI - and in tech.

We're a lean, fast-moving, high-trust team of builders who are obsessed with velocity and impact. Our culture is built for people who thrive on ambiguity, own outcomes, and want to shape the future of data and AI.

The Head of Research will lead Protege's DataLab as a strategic research function focused on answering the hardest questions about data for AI. This person will define the research agenda, build rigorous systems for experimentation and evaluation, and ensure DataLab's work directly informs product direction, customer strategy, and platform capabilities.

This is both a leadership and builder role. The right person can set a clear research roadmap, manage and scale a high-performing team, partner across Product, Engineering, GTM, and Leadership, and translate ambiguous technical questions into practical frameworks, measurable experiments, and actionable recommendations.

The Director of Research will work closely with GTM across sales, delivery, and partner conversations — bringing technical credibility into the room when it matters and representing Protege’s research perspective externally.

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• Build a deep understanding of Protege's platform, customer workflows, and current research priorities.

• Meet cross-functional stakeholders across Product, Engineering, GTM, and Leadership to understand strategic goals and existing technical challenges.

• Audit current Data Lab workflows, experimentation infrastructure, and evaluation methodologies.

• Identify immediate opportunities to improve research velocity, rigor, and cross-functional communication.

• Deliver a clear research roadmap aligned to company priorities and platform differentiation.

• Launch initial experiments focused on data quality, evaluation systems, or marketplace optimization.

• Introduce standardized processes for experiment tracking, documentation, and reproducibility.

• Develop hiring plans and organizational structure for scaling the Data Lab function.

• Deliver research insights that directly influence product roadmap decisions or customer outcomes.

• Demonstrate measurable improvements in experimentation speed, evaluation quality, or data performance metrics.

• Establish Protege's Data Lab as a trusted strategic partner across Engineering, Product, and GTM.

• Recruit, onboard, and effectively lead key technical talent to support long-term research initiatives and company growth.

• Led impactful research initiatives in AI, machine learning, data infrastructure, or applied research environments where outcomes influenced product or business strategy.

• Built and managed high-performing research teams that operated with autonomy, technical rigor, and fast execution cycles.

• Experience partnering directly with customers, GTM teams, or external stakeholders in applied technical settings, with the judgment to represent both the research and business value of complex AI/data work clearly and credibly.

• Developed frameworks for evaluating model performance, dataset quality, synthetic data, or large-scale experimentation systems.

• Experience operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments where priorities evolved quickly and execution mattered.

• Strong ability to communicate complex technical findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Demonstrated ownership of cross-functional initiatives spanning research, engineering, product, and go-to-market teams.

• Track record of translating research into practical systems, tools, or customer-facing impact.

• Experience working with modern AI systems, foundation models, LLM evaluation workflows, or privacy-centric data methodologies.

• High judgment, strong prioritization skills, and comfort making decisions with incomplete information.

• Motivated by building from first principles and solving foundational problems in AI infrastructure.

We act with integrity and do the right thing - especially when it's hard and no one is watching.

We are resourceful, resilient builders who solve hard problems and push through obstacles.

Velocity matters. We move with urgency, learn quickly, and continuously improve as individuals and as a company.

We communicate directly and respectfully, building trust through honest feedback and genuine care for one another.

We win as one team. Collaboration, accountability, and shared ownership drive our success.

We take pride in our work, sweat the details, and continuously raise the bar for excellence.