Head of Open Source Ecosystem

Sentient Foundation • San Francisco, CA

3d

About The Position

Sentient Foundation is building the open-source future of intelligence, aiming for AI aligned with humanity and not controlled by a single entity. As a neutral, transparent steward of the open AGI ecosystem, Sentient unites researchers, builders, and communities through open research (ROMA, OML, Open Deep Search), global programs like the Open AGI Summit, and a fast-growing builder community. This role is pivotal in owning Sentient’s relationship with the global open-source AI community, including developers building open models, tools, agents, data, and evals. The Head of Open Source Ecosystem will act as a credible champion for open-source AI, fostering trust with builders and integrating key projects and individuals into Sentient’s mission. This involves setting community and ecosystem strategy, recruiting builders for the open ecosystem and Sentient’s stack (ROMA, ODS, EvoSkills, Arena, OML), and attracting council members, advisors, and thought leaders. The role also includes driving the open-source AI grants and investment program, supporting promising open-source AI initiatives, and relaying community needs back to product and research teams. It is a senior, relationship-focused leadership position for a recognized leader in open-source AI.

Requirements

• 4+ years in developer relations, community, or ecosystem roles, ideally in open-source AI/ML, data, or infrastructure.
• Strong hands-on technical ability. You can read and write code (Python and/or TypeScript), work directly with agent frameworks and the open stack (ROMA, ODS, EvoSkills, Arena, OML), and go deep enough technically to earn the respect of serious open-source developers.
• 4+ years building open-source software yourself, with a deep personal network across the open-source AI developer community. You already know many of the developers, maintainers, and projects we want to reach, and they know you.
• A track record of recruiting and convening senior people (founders, advisors, council members, or thought leaders) around a mission, and of being a recognized voice in an open-source or developer community.
• A working understanding of LLMs, AI agents, and agent frameworks, and the ability to explain complex technical ideas simply through writing, demos, and talks.
• A public portfolio of developer content, eg: tutorials, talks, demos, OSS contributions, or community building.
• Sound technical judgment for evaluating projects, for sourcing and vetting grant and investment candidates.
• Comfort with, or genuine curiosity about, Web3 / token incentive mechanics and on-chain interoperability.
• High user empathy, strong written communication, and a bias toward shipping.

Nice To Haves

• Experience contributing to or maintaining open-source AI/ML projects.
• Familiarity with agent frameworks, model fine-tuning, evaluation/benchmarking, or decentralized/crypto ecosystems.
• Experience running or participating in a grants, accelerator, or developer-fund program.
• A track record of measurably growing a developer ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Own the Foundation’s community and ecosystem strategy for open-source AI broadly.
• Champion great open models, tools, agents, and evals across the ecosystem, with Sentient’s own stack (ROMA, ODS, EvoSkills, Arena, OML) as one important part of it.
• Stand up the programs, content, and team that get developers from zero to shipping.
• Champion open-source AI through writing and storytelling, such as tutorials, docs, blog posts, demos, and talks that help developers build with the best of the open ecosystem, including Sentient’s own contributions (ROMA, ODS, OML) where they’re the right tool.
• Support and help drive Sentient's open-source AI grants / investment program.
• Source promising projects and builders, vetting technical quality and fit, and shepherding funded teams as they build on the Stack.
• Lead and scale the developer community across Discord, GitHub, and X.
• Answer hard questions, review contributions, and turn power users into ecosystem partners.
• Recruit and convene ecosystem leaders.
• Bring council members, advisors, and recognized open-source thought leaders into the Foundation’s mission, programs, and governance.
• Represent Sentient at hackathons, conferences, and online; run developer workshops and contribute to open-source libraries.
• Be the developer's advocate internally: synthesize feedback into clear, prioritized input for product and research, and help shape SDK and API design.
• Partner with product, research, and growth to amplify developer success stories across the open-source AI ecosystem and onboard new agent, model, data, and compute partners into the open ecosystem and, where it fits, onto the Sentient Stack.

Benefits

• Build and lead the community and ecosystem function for an open AGI network at the ground floor
• Work across the full open-source AI + Web3 stack (OML, ROMA, ODS, EvoSkills, Arena)
• Help direct where grant capital flows
• Help a 2M+ community build and own the next wave of AI agents.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed