I got the opportunity to work as a contract data program manager, coordinating the data collection activities for 5 algorithms within Google’s Pixel division. The contract position was terminated as my unit had to make pandemic-related cuts, but it was great to work alongside smart and caring people who came together to achieve their unit’s goals.
During my tenure there I facilitated 6 data collection efforts through a variety of data collection execution partners and vendors, whom I selected while making the trade-off between data quality and speed of delivery. My selection of lower cost yet still efficient execution partners enabled my team to save 10% of the requested budget.
My coordination role also put me in a position to consolidate and centralize test cases, so that my team had one source of truth. This consolidation effort identified duplicate test cases among algorithms, sped up the decision-making process and lowered the risk of critical test cases following through the cracks.
Finally, I kept my team and our partners up to date on data collection efforts including current and potential blockers, which I worked with teammates to resolve. I communicated the status through dashboards created through tools such as Google Slides and Smartsheets.