Principal AI Architect job at The Talent Co-op. San Francisco, CA.
Principal AI Architect Opportunity | San Francisco | Hybrid
A stealth-mode, seed-stage fintech startup is hiring a Head of AI / Principal AI Architect to lead AI development efforts in the private wealth space. This company has a live product, paying customers, and six-figure annual revenue, all while operating with under $2 million in funding.
About the Role
The selected candidate will define and build the AI architecture from the ground up, working directly with a small team of engineers (approximately nine) to create intelligent systems for financial decision-making. This position requires deep, hands-on model development experience, with a focus on foundational and multi-modal models, agentic AI systems, and sophisticated prompting techniques. It is not a role limited to LLM API integration or traditional application-layer work.
Compensation and Structure
- Salary: $200,000 to $350,000, dependent on interview performance, experience, and location.
- Equity: Flexible, around 2 percent based on compensation package.
- Employment Type: Full-time or Contract.
- Location: San Francisco (in-office 3 days per week; hybrid model).
- Relocation Support: Not available.
- Visa Sponsorship: H1-B transfers not supported.
- Workload Expectation: Startup hours (approximately 9am to 9pm, six days a week).
Candidate Requirements
- Hands-on experience developing foundation models; not limited to using prebuilt APIs.
- Experience at a top AI lab or foundation model organization such as OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, Google Brain, or Meta FAIR.
- Advanced degree in AI or ML, preferably a PhD from a leading university (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, CMU, etc.).
- Deep technical expertise in generative AI, LLMs, multi-modal models (text and voice), retrieval-augmented .generation (RAG), and autonomous agents.
- Familiarity with prompting methods such as Tree of Thoughts, Constitutional AI, and agent protocol frameworks.
- Proven ability to work cross-functionally with product, design, and business stakeholders.
Exclusion Criteria
- Candidates with only short-term roles in their background.
- Candidates who have only used models but have not contributed to their development.
- Backgrounds primarily focused on non-LLM fields such as computer vision, robotics, or traditional ML.
Preferred Qualifications
- Research or development work in multi-modal AI systems.
- Publications in leading AI conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, ACL).
- Prior experience leading research teams or complex AI initiatives.
- Experience building AI-driven products in startup or zero-to-one settings.
- Domain knowledge in financial technology is a strong plus.
Technical Environment
- Core stack includes React, Node, AWS, DynamoDB.
- Acceptable tools and frameworks: LLaMA, Claude, Python, TypeScript, chatbot development, RAG pipelines, agent frameworks.
Interview Process
- Hiring Manager Screen.
- Interview with the CEO.
- System Design (45 minutes): Design a conversational chatbot, focusing on architecture, evaluation, and hallucination mitigation.
- Coding Round: May include a take-home assignment, depending on the candidate.
- Behavioral Round with the broader business team.
- Offer.
Why Join
- Competitive salary and meaningful equity.
- Flexible remote work within a hybrid setup.
- A rare opportunity to drive AI innovation in a high-potential sector.
- Direct influence on core product and company trajectory.
- Collaborative and fast-moving environment focused on breakthrough ideas.