Data Quality Team Lead

Instrumental is the leader in AI for manufacturing and is used by the world’s most admired electronics brands to accelerate revenue and reduce costs. Our AI cloud platform leverages visual inspection and functional test data to expedite failure analysis and improve throughput.

We’re seeking a Data Quality Team Lead to manage and grow our Shenzhen-based Data Quality team while also rolling up their sleeves to perform hands-on data quality work. This hybrid leadership role directly impacts the quality of results our customers see in the Instrumental platform and is key to scaling our world-class manufacturing AI solutions.

This position is ideal for a professional with experience in manufacturing or quality control who is ready to take on people leadership responsibilities while staying close to the work. The ideal candidate is multi-faceted, technically savvy, organized, deeply customer-oriented, and fluent in Mandarin to effectively lead our China-based team.

What You’ll Be Doing

Team Leadership & Cross-functional Coordination:

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Data Quality Specialists based in Shenzhen, China.
• Set clear expectations, manage workload allocation, and ensure consistent, high-quality execution across the team.
• Provide ongoing performance feedback, training, and mentorship to help team members grow in their roles.
• Work closely with Customer Success, Product, and Engineering teams to communicate data quality issues, customer context, and opportunities to improve product performance or operational efficiency
• Serve as a primary communication bridge between the U.S. and Shenzhen teams, ensuring operational alignment.
  
  

Hands-On Data Quality Work

• Set Up Customer Program Environments: Partner closely with global Customer Success teams to prepare customer environments for high-quality data ingestion and anomaly detection.
• Label and Review Data: Perform detailed hands-on classification and review of product images to produce training data for AI models and validate model outputs.
• Maintain Quality Standards: Adhere to structured guidelines while ensuring that quality control processes are followed consistently across the Shenzhen team.
• Data Reporting: Clean, analyze, and summarize customer image data to support defect trend analysis and program ROI reporting.
• Issue Escalation & Process Improvement: Identify unusual data patterns, environmental changes (e.g., SKU updates, lighting shifts), and ambiguous cases. Ensure timely escalation and develop improvements to workflows and documentation.
  
  

What You Have

• 2–4 years of experience in manufacturing, quality inspection, process engineering, or similar roles—ideally within the high-tech electronics industry.
• Prior experience leading or mentoring team members; formal people management experience preferred but not required.
• Excellent spoken and written Mandarin necessary to manage the Shenzhen-based team.
• Meticulous attention to detail and the ability to perform repetitive tasks with consistency and accuracy.
• Strong interpersonal skills and comfort working with global, cross-functional teams.
• Technically savvy and eager to learn new tools, systems, and processes.
• Ability to learn quickly, follow structured workflows, and apply feedback to improve program results.
  
  

You’re encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn’t precisely match the job description.

Instrumental offers competitive, location-based compensation. The following is a representative annual base salary range: $148,000-$156,000.

Job leveling and salary opportunity are evaluated through our interview process—we review each applicant's experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities. Instrumental’s benefits include: Health, Vision, Dental, Public Transit/Commuter Plans, and Parental Leave.