Principal AI/ML Systems Lead

Ando Technologies•San Francisco, CA

About The Position

Ando is building AI-native workforce infrastructure for the 80M hourly workers in the U.S. and hundreds of millions globally. Labor is the last broken supply chain. Forecasting, allocation, and professional identity remain fragmented across static tools and manual decision-making. Ando is rebuilding this system from first principles. We start with highly accurate AI-generated demand forecasts, move to allocation-first labor optimization, and compound value through a persistent labor graph that captures skills, reliability, availability, and performance across time and employers. Over time, this becomes a professional identity layer and intelligent system serving both enterprises and frontline workers. Ando is a Seed-stage company backed by Slow Ventures and experienced operators. We are live with real customers and entering a phase where architectural clarity, learning loops, and AI systems quality are foundational to long-term success. The Role We are hiring a Principal AI / ML Systems Lead to serve as Ando’s senior AI leader and technical authority. This is a founding-level role. You will sit at the senior table with the CEO, help define Ando’s long-term AI architecture, represent the company’s AI strategy externally, and build the systems that become Ando’s moat. This role combines: Deep hands-on technical leadership Systems-level thinking Executive presence with customers, candidates, and investors If you want to own a category-defining intelligence system rather than tune isolated models, this role is for you.

Requirements

8–12+ years experience building production ML, forecasting, or decision systems
Strong background in: Time-series forecasting, optimization, or applied ML Production data systems and software engineering
Experience leading or mentoring senior engineers while remaining hands-on
Ability to reason at the system level, not just the model level
Comfort explaining AI tradeoffs to non-technical executives
Clear, structured communication and strong judgment

Nice To Haves

Experience with workforce, logistics, marketplaces, or supply-chain systems
Startup or founding-team experience
Prior exposure to multi-objective optimization or allocation problems
Public speaking, writing, or ecosystem involvement

Responsibilities

Own Ando’s core intelligence layer end-to-end: Predictive demand forecasting Market-level labor allocation and optimization Continuous learning loops across shifts, workers, and enterprises
Design and evolve production ML systems that operate under real-world uncertainty
Set standards for model evaluation, accuracy, and learning velocity
Make architectural decisions that compound over time
Sit at the senior leadership table alongside the CEO
Represent Ando’s AI strategy in: Enterprise customer conversations Senior hiring and recruiting Investor and advisor discussions The SF AI and systems ecosystem
Help translate complex systems into clear, credible narratives
Recruit, mentor, and lead a small, high-bar AI/ML and systems team
Build a culture grounded in accuracy, accountability, and systems thinking
Act as a talent magnet for senior technical builders