Applied AI Lead

Emberline

4d•Remote

About The Position

Emberline is a two-partner investment firm that acquires and develops founder-led businesses, focusing on hands-on operational support rather than financial engineering. The firm currently manages three portfolio companies and aims to expand to five. The Applied AI Lead will be a core team member, working across these portfolio companies with operators, finance leaders, and advisors. This new role is tasked with driving the practical implementation of AI across Emberline's portfolio companies. The primary mandate is to ensure portfolio companies actively deploy AI solutions that deliver tangible results, rather than merely discussing or exploring AI. This includes areas like customer service automation, developer productivity, sales and marketing workflows, and back-office operations. The role involves close collaboration with the Managing Partner to identify opportunities, evaluate tools, and deploy solutions, followed by training portfolio company teams to manage these new systems. The position is described as 80% hands-on implementation and 20% evaluation and planning, emphasizing a high degree of autonomy and opportunity to build a new function from the ground up.

Requirements

Hands-on experience with AI/ML tools in a professional context, whether that's deploying chatbots, integrating LLM APIs, building automation workflows, or similar.
Strong understanding of APIs, integrations, and how systems connect.
Excellent communication skills.
Comfort with ambiguity.
Background probably in Product Management, Solutions Engineering, or Technical Operations.
Ability to move fluidly between technical and business conversations.
Preference for existing tools before writing custom code (e.g., configured chatbots, played with OpenRouter APIs, and automated own workflows).
Keen interest in new AI tactics and tools (reads changelogs, signs up for betas, stress tests new workflows).
Preference for deploying imperfect solutions and iterating over planning indefinitely.
Ability to add value in various functional meetings (sales, finance, engineering).
Low ego, high ownership (willingness to perform any task that moves the ball forward).
Willingness to travel for on-site engagements, rapport building and investigations.

Nice To Haves

Experience across multiple companies (agency, consulting, fractional, or portfolio ops) is a plus.

Responsibilities

Assess each portfolio company's workflows across customer service, sales, marketing, finance, and operations, then identify where AI can reduce friction, cut costs, or improve quality.
Configure and deploy AI tools (chatbots, copilots, automation platforms, etc.) across portco functions.
Connect AI tools to existing systems like CRMs, helpdesks, marketing platforms, and codebases.
Test new AI applications quickly. Prove value in days or weeks, not months. Kill what doesn't work; scale what does.
Stay current on AI tooling: what's shipping, what's vaporware, what's actually production-ready.
Evaluate vendors, run trials, negotiate pricing.
Know when to use off-the-shelf tools, when to customize, and when to build something custom.
Train portfolio company teams to use and maintain the tools you deploy.
Build simple, usable guides for each implementation.
Identify and build repeatable playbooks from successful implementations across portfolio companies.
Work closely with the Managing Partner to prioritize, troubleshoot, and align on roadmap.
Test new tools and approaches alongside the Partner.