Senior Director, Client Accounts - AI Data Solutions

Senior Director, Client Accounts

Welcome to TELUS Digital where innovation drives impact at a global scale. As an award-winning digital product consultancy and the digital division of TELUS, one of Canada's largest telecommunications providers, we design and deliver transformative customer experiences through cutting-edge technology, agile thinking, and a people-first culture.

With a global team across North America, South America, Central America, Europe, and APAC, we offer end-to-end expertise across eight core service areas: Digital Product Consulting, Digital Marketing Services, Data & AI, Strategy Consulting, Enterprise Technology, Enterprise Applications, Cloud Engineering, and QA & Test Engineering.

From mobile apps and websites to voice UI, chatbots, AI, customer service, and in-store solutions, TELUS Digital enables seamless, trusted, and digitally powered experiences that meet customers wherever they are all backed by the secure infrastructure and scale of our multi-billion-dollar parent company.

This role can operate remotely within the US (we are prioritizing candidates based on the US West Coast) OR be based out of one of our major US office locations - Charlottesville, VA, Durham, NC, Columbus, OH, or Boston, MA.

As Senior Director, Client Accounts for our AI Data Solutions practice, you will lead a high-performing team of Client Account Partners aligned to some of the most influential technology firms in the world. You will be both a people leader and a hands-on client executive, setting the strategic direction for your team while personally owning and deepening relationships within a portfolio of marquee accounts. This role sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, data operations, and client success, requiring a strong understanding of the full AI data lifecycle from initial collection and annotation through to validation, fine-tuning, and model evaluation.

Our service offerings span the breadth of what modern AI development demands. On the Generative AI side, we partner with the world's most ambitious AI labs to build human-aligned datasets that move models from post-training to production, supporting Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT), Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), agentic trajectories and RL environments, red teaming, and bespoke dataset creation across more than 20 domains and 100+ languages. In data for automotive AI, we're the single partner for the full AV/ADAS data pipeline, spanning open road testing, in-cabin behavioral data collection, 2D/3D sensor fusion annotation, HD mapping, and vendor-agnostic quality control, trusted by leading OEMs, tier-1 suppliers, and AV programs across 50+ countries. We deliver data for physical AI & robotics to help robotics labs and world-model builders with sensor setups, hardware integration, foundational training and simulation, and real-world interactions, covering egocentric video, teleoperation, and physics-aware annotation across every embodiment. In the arena of data for search & ads, we leverage two decades of experience and a global network of 10,000+ active evaluators to deliver uninterrupted quality, relevance, and safety data that powers the world's leading search, ads, and content platforms across 100+ languages and regions. Rounding out our portfolio, we offer a library of off-the-shelf datasets purpose-built for training and evaluating LLMs, computer vision models, and audio AI systems, providing clients with accessible, cost-effective, continuously refreshed solutions ready for immediate integration.

The ideal candidate will bring both technical fluency and a client-facing mindset, with the ability to translate complex data requirements into scalable, high-quality solutions that drive measurable outcomes for AI development initiatives.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Client Account Partners focused on industry-leading technology firms, while fostering a culture of accountability, curiosity, and client-first thinking.

• Set clear performance expectations and support each team member in building and executing account strategies that drive retention, expansion, and net-new revenue.

• Coach the team on Data-specific solutioning (data collection, data annotation, and data validation), consultative selling, and executive engagement, ensuring they can credibly advise clients on labeling workflows, quality frameworks, and AI training best practices.

• Conduct regular account reviews, pipeline assessments, and deal coaching sessions to maintain forecast accuracy and identify risks or growth opportunities across the portfolio.

Client Account Engagement

• Serve as a senior client account executive and strategic point of escalation for the team's highest-priority and most complex client relationships.

• Build and maintain trusted relationships with AI, data science, product, and operations leaders across your portfolio of industry-leading technology firms.

• Lead executive business reviews and strategic planning sessions that align TELUS Digital's capabilities to each client's evolving AI roadmap and data needs.

• Personally drive retention, expansion, and new workstream growth within a defined set of named accounts, demonstrating the same consultative approach expected of your team.

• Act as the voice of the client internally, surfacing insights that influence delivery execution, product development, tooling priorities, and research investments.

Data & AI Expertise & Solutioning

• Develop and maintain deep expertise across TELUS Digital's Data for Generative AI, Data Collection, Data Annotation, Data Validation, and Off-the-Shelf Datasets capabilities, including text, image, video, audio, and sensor data labeling, as well as generative AI data services, agentic AI workflows, and responsible AI practices.

• Guide clients in designing scalable, high-quality data programs that meet the demands of their model training and fine-tuning objectives.

• Partner closely with Solutions Architecture and Delivery teams to develop technically credible, customized proposals that address each client's unique data pipeline requirements.

• Stay ahead of industry trends in AI training data, including emerging labeling methodologies, quality assurance approaches, and the evolving regulatory landscape surrounding responsible AI, and ensure your team is equally well-informed.

Strategy, Forecasting & Operations

• Develop and execute a comprehensive growth strategy for the Client Accounts team, balancing near-term revenue targets with long-term partnership development.

• Maintain rigorous pipeline hygiene, forecast accuracy, and account health reporting using Salesforce.

• Collaborate cross-functionally with Delivery, Solutions Architecture, Finance, and Legal teams to ensure seamless client experiences and commercially sound agreements.

• Contribute to practice-level initiatives, including go-to-market strategy, capability messaging, and thought leadership for the AI Data Solutions business.

Competencies

Leadership & Account Management

• 10+ years of F500 client account management and account building experience, with at least 3+ years in a Commercial people leadership role overseeing account teams.

• 3+ years of sales experience in Data Collection, Annotation, and Validation services.

• A demonstrated track record of building, coaching, and scaling high-performing teams in a complex, technical services environment.

• Proven ability to manage and grow a portfolio of large, strategic accounts with multiple stakeholders across business units and seniority levels.

• Experience leading executive-level engagements, business reviews, and long-cycle renewals and expansions.

Data & AI Knowledge

• Deep familiarity with data collection, annotation, and validation services, workflows, and quality frameworks across modalities, including text, image, video, audio, and sensor data.

• Strong understanding of how training data supports AI and ML model development, fine-tuning, and evaluation, and the ability to translate that knowledge into client-relevant solutions.

• Comfort discussing generative AI, agentic AI pipelines, and responsible AI principles with both technical and business audiences.

• Experience working with or selling to AI-forward technology companies is strongly preferred.

Skills & Competencies

• Exceptional executive presence and presentation communication skills, with the ability to engage credibly at the C-suite level and inspire confidence within your team.

• A consultative, client-first approach, curious, solutions-oriented, and committed to understanding each client's business before proposing a path forward.

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