Strategic Project Lead - Physical Engineering

About the role

About the Role

Appen’s Strategic Project Leads turn complex technical requirements into high-quality data and evaluation resources that help advance AI models. 

As the Strategic Project Lead for Physical Engineering, you will bring deep engineering knowledge to projects involving the physical world and built environment. You will help translate real-world engineering work into structured tasks, expert-reviewed data and evaluations that support AI training and model assessment. 

You will bring depth in at least one physical engineering discipline, such as mechanical, electrical, civil or structural engineering, while working with specialists across other areas as needed. You will partner with customers, Applied Researchers, Operations and technical experts to shape project requirements, establish quality standards and deliver technically credible results. 

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will lead through subject matter expertise and influence, rather than direct people management. 

Your Impact

• Translate customer requirements into realistic engineering tasks, data specifications and measurable acceptance criteria. 
• Assess technical requirements, review source files and develop representative samples to establish project feasibility. 
• Shape the physical engineering domain strategy across areas such as CAD, BIM, CAE and electrical engineering. 
• Develop multi-step engineering tasks and reference solutions that reflect real-world technical challenges across models, drawings, calculations and specifications. 
• Lead pilots from sample development and expert onboarding through quality assurance and customer acceptance. 
• Partner with Operations to transition projects into production, maintaining technical standards and ownership of domain quality as delivery scales. 
• Build and qualify a network of specialist engineering contributors and reviewers. 
• Work with Applied Researchers and tooling teams to develop technical verification methods and improve the consistency of engineering evaluations. 
• Provide effort estimates and identify specialist requirements, tooling needs and delivery risks to support commercial proposals. 
• Turn successful projects into reusable engineering samples, task libraries and delivery methods. 

What You Bring

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering or a closely related engineering discipline. 
• 3–5+ years of hands-on experience in at least one physical engineering discipline, with a background in applied engineering work and technical problem-solving.
• Practical experience with engineering tools and CAE workflows, including interpreting analyses and validating assumptions, constraints and results.
• Experience working with technical artefacts such as CAD or BIM models, engineering drawings, schematics, calculations, simulations or specifications.
• Experience leading technical projects from initial scoping and estimation through execution and delivery, with direct involvement in the technical work.
• Ability to evaluate engineering outputs, identify technical inaccuracies and establish quality standards and acceptance criteria.
• Experience assessing or guiding technical specialists, with the judgement to recognise when additional expertise is required.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex requirements into clear instructions and lead cross-functional teams. 

Nice to Have

• Master's or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering or a related technical discipline.
• Experience developing engineering data, technical tasks or evaluation resources for AI training, model evaluation or benchmarking.
• Familiarity with CAD/BIM interoperability, open engineering formats or structured validation of engineering models and documentation.
• Experience building specialist contributor networks or leading distributed technical delivery with external engineering experts. 

Why You'll Love Working Here

At Appen, we foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence. We value curiosity, accountability, and a commitment to delivering the highest quality AI solutions for frontier models.

You'll work on complex challenges that shape the future of AI across industries and geographies, alongside talented people in a culture that values humility over ego. You'll have the flexibility to deliver in a way that works for you and your team, supported by tools, resources, and development opportunities to continue to build your capability over time.

About Appen

Appen has been a leader in AI training data for over 30 years. We specialise in human generated data to train, fine tune, and evaluate models across generative AI, large language models, computer vision, and speech recognition. Our AI assisted data annotation platform and global crowd of more than 1 million contributors in over 200 countries support model pre training, supervised fine tuning, evaluation and benchmarking, safety and red teaming, and multilingual global expansion.