Mountain View, CA | AI Fund | Full-time
A Principal Builder decides which bets are worth making. The core of the role is technical insight applied to business judgment: seeing how a deep tech idea can uniquely solve a market need, and bringing the intellectual heft that elite founders and corporate partners respect in a co-founder. You drive each idea forward until it's either falsified and ended, or handed to a newly formed company.
What you'll do- Work with commercial partners, including corporates, VCs, and LPs, and with elite founders to identify, shape, and validate new company ideas.
- Build the business case for ideas that hold up: market sizing, business model, go-to-market plan, and a clear written thesis for the company.
- Decide which ideas to bet on, based on the size of the market opportunity and how uniquely AI can solve it.
- Help recruit the founder. Explain the idea to potential founders and Engineers in Residence, and help bring the right person on to lead the Build.
- Drive AI Fund's co-founding of companies with partners and founders, mainly through product, user, and go-to-market guidance during the 12-week Build.
- Build the recommendation on whether AI Fund should invest at the end of the Build, then support the AI Fund partner on follow-on investment and portfolio support.
What you need- Technical ability, a real understanding of frontier AI, and hands-on experience coding with AI.
- Experience as an engineer, product manager, product designer, or founder, including scrappy 0-to-1 work.
- A track record of working with top talent, such as elite founders and senior executives, where both sides earn each other's respect and you make efficient use of their time.
- The ability to communicate with rigor, persuade through influence, and carry strong opinions with maturity.
- A STEM or research degree from a top research university, or an equivalent background where you've built the same rigor.
Who this is for- A technically deep person whose business judgment is their strongest asset. This role shapes ideas, influences founders, and pushes AI Fund forward.
- Someone who still builds on weekends, at hackathons or on side projects, and who works well with everyone from elite founders to corporate partners.
$230,000 - $275,000 a year
Long-term incentives, including carried interest and virtual shares in AI Fund.
