Head of AI

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San Francisco / $280000 - $320000 annum

INFO

Salary
SALARY:

$280000 - $320000

Location

LOCATION

San Francisco

Job Type
JOB TYPE

Permanent

Head of AI - San Francisco, CA

Start-up‑Focused Role - $280,000-$320,000 + Equity

About the Role

A fast‑moving startup is seeking a Head of AI to build and lead its artificial intelligence function from the ground up. This is a high‑ownership role designed for someone who thrives in early‑stage environments, moves quickly, and is excited to shape both technical direction and company culture.

What You'll Do

  • Own the entire AI strategy and roadmap, guiding the evolution from early prototypes to scalable production systems.
  • Design, train, fine‑tune, and deploy AI/ML models end‑to‑end, remaining hands‑on through early growth phases.
  • Build and lead the AI organization - hiring, mentoring, and establishing team structure and best practices.
  • Rapidly experiment and iterate, balancing scrappy execution with thoughtful long‑term architecture.
  • Establish all AI infrastructure, including data pipelines, training workflows, model hosting, and MLOps foundations.
  • Collaborate closely with founders and product/engineering teams to identify high‑impact AI opportunities.
  • Implement responsible AI practices from day one, ensuring safety, reliability, robustness, and transparency.
  • Evaluate and integrate emerging AI technologies, including LLMs, agentic systems, and multimodal architectures.
  • Set standards for experimentation, evaluation, benchmarking, and deployment, optimizing for speed and quality.

What Makes You a Great Fit

  • 7-10+ years in AI/ML with significant hands‑on experience building and deploying real systems.
  • A track record of shipping AI products or infrastructure in a startup or small‑team environment.
  • Deep understanding of LLMs, modern ML frameworks, retrieval systems, data engineering, and model evaluation.
  • Ability to move fast while maintaining strong engineering discipline.
  • Comfort operating in ambiguity and making high‑impact decisions without perfect information.
  • Natural leadership instincts with the ability to both set vision and execute.
  • Advanced degree in ML/CS or equivalent practical experience.

Bonus Experience

  • Previous experience as a founding ML engineer or early technical leader.
  • Direct experience training, fine‑tuning, or analyzing LLMs, multimodal models, or agents.
  • Familiarity with lightweight startup‑friendly ML infrastructure (e.g., serverless inference, vector search, lean MLOps).
  • Demonstrated ability to build quickly while maintaining high safety and reliability standards.

Location

San Francisco, CA - hybrid role; in‑person collaboration preferred during early team formation.

Head of AI - San Francisco, CA

Start-up‑Focused Role - $280,000-$320,000 + Equity

CONTACT

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