Hi, I am Ilya!
I deliver projects where quality can’t slip, and I find where AI systems break before users do.
Nice to meet you!
About me
Ilya Garaeff
Project & Program Manager | Delivery, QA governance and AI data quality
I own projects from scope to sign-off: requirements, acceptance criteria, stakeholder communication and on-time delivery against agreed statements of work. I also build the quality processes that keep the work reliable once it scales.
I’m a CAPM-certified Project Manager with an MBA. At ABCS Insights I manage a portfolio of client analytics projects for media-measurement studies, from feasibility and scoping through to report delivery, under formal information-security protocols. Before that I designed a quality-control framework and governance manual that became the formal operating protocol across 12+ e-learning courses at AYP Business School, cutting revision cycles by 30%. I also led a multi-team localization program that shipped ahead of its 90-day deadline.
Alongside project delivery, I evaluate frontier AI models for platforms such as Turing and Mercor: fact-checking 1,000+ model outputs across medical, legal and financial domains, building ground-truth data for RLHF, and validating 5,000+ multilingual samples. That work taught me where AI systems fail, and how to build review processes that catch it before users do. .
I work in Russian, English, Spanish and Chinese, and I treat language and cultural nuance as a quality requirement, not an edge case. Non-English markets are where most review processes quietly break, and where I focus.
Portfolio
Model Evaluation & Release Readiness
Turing
Voice AI Evaluation & Benchmarking
micro1
Building a Repeatable Localization Pipeline
Translation Commons
E-Learning QC System & Learner Outcomes
AYP Business School
Skills
Project & Program Delivery
Scope, Requirements & Acceptance Criteria: I turn vague requests into written scope, requirements and acceptance criteria that clients sign off on, then deliver against them on time.
Stakeholder & Client Communication: I run client-facing communication, feasibility requests, SOW coordination and report delivery, and keep every party aligned without surprises.
Planning, Risk & Reporting: Work plans, risk tracking, status reporting and delivery dashboards (SmartSuite, Power BI, Tableau) that give leadership visibility on KPIs.
Cross-Functional Leadership: I coordinate design, engineering, linguistic and operations teams, and turn technical constraints into trade-offs everyone can act on.
Quality & Governance
QC Frameworks & Governance Manuals: I designed a quality-control framework and governance manual adopted as formal operating protocol across 12+ courses, cutting revision cycles 30%.
Process Improvement: I standardise workflows and documentation to cut delays, rework and escalations.
Agile for Evaluation and Delivery Teams: Scrum and Kanban adapted to work where “done” is fuzzy and criteria shift.
AI Evaluation & Data Quality
Model Evaluation & Release Readiness: I structure evaluation criteria into a clear, defensible go/no-go signal that product and engineering leads can act on.
RLHF & Human Data: Ground-truth curation, rubric design, annotation quality management and cross-language bias review on Turing, Mercor and OpenTrain AI.
AI Tools Implementation: Client-facing rollouts of NotebookLM, ChatGPT Team and Gemini API, turning AI capability into workflows non-technical teams adopt.
Data & Analysis: SQL (HackerRank Advanced and Intermediate verified, 2026), Python (Pandas), Excel, Power BI and Tableau, turning “this output looks wrong” into “here’s the number that proves it.”
Multilingual Delivery
Multilingual Semantic Alignment: I catch where AI models and deliverables lose intent or cultural nuance across languages before a user does.
Global Program Coordination: Coordinating cross-functional review teams across the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Linguistic Taxonomy & Data Strategy: I lead subject-matter teams that define what “correct” means in a given language and market.
Testimonials
Ilya brings a strong eagerness to learn, a genuine passion for product management, and a commitment to professional development that is evident in how he approaches his work.
Soeren Eberhardt
Localization Director, Translation Commons
His reliability, attention to detail, and strong sense of prioritization make him a trusted partner on complex initiatives.
Kunal Krishn
Solutions Architect, Stealth AI
I highly recommend Ilya for his professionalism, proactive attitude, team-oriented approach, and readiness to embrace new challenges. He is not only capable but also a pleasure to work with, bringing both insight and energy to every project he undertakes.
Luz Valdez
Executive Director, AYP Business School