Team Lead (TL)

Role Purpose

The Team Lead (TL) is a frontline people leader responsible for operational delivery, performance management, and project expertise. TLs anchor quality, productivity, and engagement driving excellence through coaching, data-driven decision-making, and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities:

Operational Leadership

• Track project and individual performance using business software used for data management, reporting, and decision-making (e.g. Zoho, Looker,  BI dashboards)
• Ensure achievement of quality, productivity, and adherence KPIs.
• Prepare and maintain daily, weekly, and monthly operational reports.
• Handle escalations and ensure timely resolution.
• Ensure attendance, compliance, and adherence to disciplinary procedures.
• Be flexible to work shifts and on weekends, based on the team roster, to support production.

Project Knowledge & Subject Matter Expertise

• Maintain deep mastery of client expectations, workflows, and project documentation.
• Understand quality thresholds, calibration requirements, and escalation pathways.
• Support Associates, Reviewers, QAs, SMEs and meaningfully contribute to:  
  •  Client calibration/review calls.  
  •  Internal calibration sessions.
• Act as an SME when required, including participating in annotation, review and QA work and deliveries.
• Use hands-on reviews to identify workflow challenges, quality risks, and support needs.
• Act as the first-line escalation point for Associates, Reviewers, and SMEs.
• Ensure consistent communication of workflow updates and client requirements.

Performance & Quality Management

• Set and communicate daily, weekly, and monthly performance targets for the team based on:
  •  Client SLAs and contractual expectations
  •  Project requirements and quality standards
  •  Volume forecasts and throughput constraints
  •  Historical team and individual performance
• Ensure all targets are fully aligned with client SLAs and internal KPIs (quality, productivity, timeliness, compliance).
• Monitor team KPIs using available dashboards and reports, ensuring visibility at individual and team level.
• Track achievement against targets and initiate corrective actions where gaps exist, including:
  • Focused coaching
  • Refresher training
  • Clarification of SOPs and workflow steps
  • Adjustments to daily work allocation
• Provide clear, specific, evidence-based performance feedback grounded in data.
• Conduct root cause analysis to understand trends impacting results and propose targeted interventions.(coaching, refresher sessions, process clarifications)
• Leverage insights from hands-on annotation/QC reviews to validate quality trends and strengthen feedback.
• Ensure all performance decisions are transparent, consistent, and data-driven.
• Partner with the Delivery Manager to review and recalibrate targets during:
  •  Volume fluctuations
  •  Project expansions or phase changes
  •  SLA revisions
  •  Performance deterioration or improvements
• Champion continuous improvement by identifying patterns, risks, and opportunities that enhance output quality and team efficiency.

Dashboard & Data Utilization

Promote data-driven leadership among team members through;

• Use of dashboards to track coaching frequency and overall team health.
• Identifying top performers and staff requiring additional support.
• Fostering healthy performance competition while preventing gaming/manipulation of metrics.
• Collaborating with BI teams to improve dashboard definitions (naming, filters, visibility).

People Management, Conducts weekly performance reviews and structured action planning sessions.

• Support recognition initiatives, team morale, and psychological safety.
• Partner with People Ops on ER  issues, welfare concerns, and attendance/leave management.
• Support talent identification and development for Reviewer/SME roles.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

• Partner with GSD leadership, People Ops, and BI teams to align workflows and priorities.
• Actively participate in Team Leader Round Tables.
• Ensure smooth communication flow between teams and leadership.

Continuous Improvement & Innovation

• Lead workflow improvement mini-projects and Kaizen initiatives.
• Support integration of new tools and systems
• Recommend practical process improvements backed by data.

Cross‑Project Flexibility & Role Scope

• Adapt to changing business demands by supporting or transitioning between projects where required
• Support Business Continuity initiatives.

 Training & Team Capability

• Support onboarding and training of new team members by facilitating structured learning sessions and providing hands-on guidance.
• Monitor trainee progress and team capability, providing coaching and refresher training to address performance or quality gaps.
• Conduct or support assessments to ensure training objectives are achieved and team members meet required certification or quality standards.
• Collaborate with training and project teams to create or improve training materials, develop training plan in alignment with project requirements and best practices.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Business, or a related field, preferably with exposure to learning and development or training.
• 1–2 years of experience in team leadership, training, or workforce development within the BPO or technical operations environment.
• Experience training or mentoring young adults in structured learning or workplace programs.
• Familiarity with People Operations and Business Intelligence tools (e.g., Zoho, Looker).
• Experience delivering technical or blended (online and in-person) training programs.

Competencies:

• Coaching & Mentoring
• Communication & Influence
• Analytical Thinking & Data Literacy
• Ownership, Accountability & Integrity
• Adaptability & Professional 
• Project Mastery & Contextual understanding

About Sama 

Sama provides high-quality training data that powers AI technology for Fortune 2000 companies such as Google, Walmart, Ford, Microsoft, and Marriott. We’re experts in data annotation, supporting text, 2D, 3D image, video, and sensor data for machine learning algorithms and generative AI models. Sama offers the highest quality SLAs in the industry, along with cutting-edge ML-assisted annotation tools, QA processes, and security and compliance standards.

Founded in 2008 on the belief that “talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not”, Sama is driven by the mission to expand opportunities for those who are underprivileged. As a certified B-Corp, Sama has provided worker training programs to increase economic opportunity for more than 15,000 people from underserved communities. By connecting our customers with amazing talent in East Africa, we've impacted more than 69,000 workers and their dependents.

Today, our vision is to provide data scientists, ML engineers, and data operations teams with an indispensable, integrated platform for AI data preparation, labeling, and collection. 

For more information, visit www.sama.com.

More information can be found at:

• Featured in Forbes: How Ethical Is Your AI?
• Sama Honored on Inc. Magazine’s Annual List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies — the Inc. 5000
• Reversing Poverty - Ted Talk by our founder Leila Janah

Our Culture:

Sama is quite unique. We are a technology company with a social mission. People that thrive in a high-growth environment, love working on the bleeding edge of technology, and really care about having a positive impact on the world are a great fit for the Sama culture. Our core values are One Team, One Goal - Deliver. Period. - Trust & Transparency - Customer First - Humanity.

Our Benefits:

Sama offers competitive compensation commensurate with experience and a full benefits package, including: medical, dental, and vision insurance, long-term disability insurance, life, and AD&D insurance, employer-matching Group RRSP, generous holiday and vacation policies, a monthly fitness stipend, monthly cell phone reimbursement and professional development opportunities. Our Talent Acquisition team would be happy to discuss our benefits packages with you in more detail during the interview process.

At Sama, we pride ourselves in being a diverse and equal opportunity employer.