Head of AI / Principal AI Architect / ML Engineer / DataScientist

Role : Head of AI / Principal AI Architect / ML Engineer / Data Scientist San Francisco (Hybrid)Position Type : Full-Time (Permanent or Contract)Urgency : URGENTStart Date : ASAPTeam Size : High-agency founding team working at the cutting edge of agentic and multi-modal AICompensation & TermsBase Salary : $200,000 - $350,000 (dependent on experience and level)Equity : ~2% (flexible based on final role and compensation level)Visa Support : Not availableSign-On Bonus : Not mentionedInterview-to-Offer Turnaround : Varies based on schedulingRole SummaryJoin a YC-backed, high-growth fintech startup transforming the $1.25T private wealth industry with AI. As Head of AI or Principal AI Architect, you'll lead the development of foundational model architectures and agentic systems used for financial planning, recommendation, and autonomous analysis. Work directly with the CEO and CTO to bring to life generative copilots, retrieval-augmented advisors, and multi-modal assistants built with LLMs, advanced prompting, and orchestration strategies.Key ResponsibilitiesArchitect and scale generative AI systems for financial reasoning and planningBuild RAG pipelines to retrieve financial knowledge from structured / unstructured sourcesDesign autonomous agents to power user-facing workflows and copilot experiencesApply advanced prompting strategies (Tree of Thoughts, Constitutional AI, Agent protocol)Collaborate cross-functionally with product, business, and engineering stakeholdersCandidate Must-HavesHands-on experience building or fine-tuning LLMs or foundation modelsExperience at a top AI lab or foundation model org (e.g., OpenAI, DeepMind, Anthropic, FAIR)PhD (or equivalent) in AI / ML from a top institution (e.g., Stanford, MIT, CMU, Berkeley)Technical depth in :LLMs (e.g., GPT-4, Claude, LLaMA 3)RAG optimization & hybrid searchMulti-modal systems (text + voice)Agent orchestration for financial planning or similar use casesStartup-style work ethic (9am-9pm, 6 days / week)Comfortable working with non-technical teamsStrongly PreferredPublications in NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, CVPRFintech or financial modeling experienceLed AI / ML research teams or zero-to-one product buildsFamiliarity with Python, TypeScript, Claude, LLaMA, DynamoDB, AWSWork Model & EnvironmentLocation : San Francisco (in-office 3 days / week)Hybrid Schedule : Yes 3 days onsiteCulture : Intense, high-agency, deep technical collaborationClient Impact : Consumer-facing product already in use with six-figure revenue #J-18808-Ljbffr