Principal Builder

AIFund•Mountain View, CA

5d•Onsite

About The Position

AI Fund is a venture studio founded by Dr. Andrew Ng in 2017. We build AI companies from the ground up with corporate partners, investors, and elite founders, backed by a fund from top-tier global corporations and VC firms. Our purpose is to build AI companies that move humanity forward. 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.

Requirements

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.

Nice To Haves

A technically deep person whose business judgment is their strongest asset.
Someone who still builds on weekends, at hackathons or on side projects, and who works well with everyone from elite founders to corporate partners.

Responsibilities

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.