{"id":197256,"date":"2026-03-03T12:50:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-head-of-ai-san-francisco-california\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T00:05:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:05:23","slug":"eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-head-of-ai-san-francisco-california","status":"publish","type":"job_listing","link":"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/eb8cdd1a-d1d1-4f13-3bd8-08d5dc096ea6-head-of-ai-san-francisco-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Head of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><strong><a id=\"myCustomID\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/EB8CDD1A-D1D1-4F13-3BD8-08D5DC096EA6\">To Apply for this Job Click Here<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head of AI &#8211; San Francisco, CA<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Start-up\u2011Focused Role &#8211; $280,000-$320,000 + Equity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Role<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A fast\u2011moving startup is seeking a Head of AI to build and lead its artificial intelligence function from the ground up. This is a high\u2011ownership role designed for someone who thrives in early\u2011stage environments, moves quickly, and is excited to shape both technical direction and company culture.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What You&#8217;ll Do<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Own the entire AI strategy and roadmap, guiding the evolution from early prototypes to scalable production systems.<\/li>\n<li>Design, train, fine\u2011tune, and deploy AI\/ML models end\u2011to\u2011end, remaining hands\u2011on through early growth phases.<\/li>\n<li>Build and lead the AI organization &#8211; hiring, mentoring, and establishing team structure and best practices.<\/li>\n<li>Rapidly experiment and iterate, balancing scrappy execution with thoughtful long\u2011term architecture.<\/li>\n<li>Establish all AI infrastructure, including data pipelines, training workflows, model hosting, and MLOps foundations.<\/li>\n<li>Collaborate closely with founders and product\/engineering teams to identify high\u2011impact AI opportunities.<\/li>\n<li>Implement responsible AI practices from day one, ensuring safety, reliability, robustness, and transparency.<\/li>\n<li>Evaluate and integrate emerging AI technologies, including LLMs, agentic systems, and multimodal architectures.<\/li>\n<li>Set standards for experimentation, evaluation, benchmarking, and deployment, optimizing for speed and quality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What Makes You a Great Fit<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>7-10+ years in AI\/ML with significant hands\u2011on experience building and deploying real systems.<\/li>\n<li>A track record of shipping AI products or infrastructure in a startup or small\u2011team environment.<\/li>\n<li>Deep understanding of LLMs, modern ML frameworks, retrieval systems, data engineering, and model evaluation.<\/li>\n<li>Ability to move fast while maintaining strong engineering discipline.<\/li>\n<li>Comfort operating in ambiguity and making high\u2011impact decisions without perfect information.<\/li>\n<li>Natural leadership instincts with the ability to both set vision and execute.<\/li>\n<li>Advanced degree in ML\/CS or equivalent practical experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Bonus Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Previous experience as a founding ML engineer or early technical leader.<\/li>\n<li>Direct experience training, fine\u2011tuning, or analyzing LLMs, multimodal models, or agents.<\/li>\n<li>Familiarity with lightweight startup\u2011friendly ML infrastructure (e.g., serverless inference, vector search, lean MLOps).<\/li>\n<li>Demonstrated ability to build quickly while maintaining high safety and reliability standards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Location<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>San Francisco, CA &#8211; hybrid role; in\u2011person collaboration preferred during early team formation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Head of AI &#8211; San Francisco, CA<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Start-up\u2011Focused Role &#8211; $280,000-$320,000 + Equity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img src=https:\/\/counter.adcourier.com\/RGFuaWVsU3RvY2t3ZWxsLjY1NjM0LjEzMTk3QGhhcm5oYW1zZWFyY2guYXBsaXRyYWsuY29t.gif><\/p>\n<h4><strong><a id=\"otherId\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harnham.com\/job\/EB8CDD1A-D1D1-4F13-3BD8-08D5DC096EA6\">To Apply for this Job Click Here<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_promoted":"","_job_location":"San Francisco, 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