Technical Strategic Projects Lead
Technical Strategic Projects Lead
AfterQuery is seeking exceptional technical candidates for our Technical Strategic Projects Lead position. This is not a typical job – you'll work directly with our founding team on high-priority technical projects spanning AI research, product development, and engineering infrastructure.
Total Compensation: Up to $300K in cash comp in addition to equity
Company Overview
AfterQuery is a research lab investigating the boundaries and capabilities of artificial intelligence through novel datasets and experimentation. Our customers are the foundation model labs—we serve all of the frontier AI labs.
We are based in San Francisco, CA, and have raised funding from top investors, including Y Combinator and BoxGroup, ex-partners from Lightspeed and Index Ventures, and senior leadership at Google DeepMind and Meta GenAI.
Our founding team brings backgrounds from Jane Street, Meta, Citadel Securities, Google, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Silver Lake, Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR), and Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL).
Why Apply
Massive Opportunity: We were one of the fastest growing YC companies in our batch, and we believe we can be one of the fastest growing YC companies of all time
Founding role—own critical technical initiatives from day one with significant equity upside
Equity & Growth – Competitive salary + meaningful equity in a fast-scaling company
Strong Team: You get to work with the best :)
The Opportunity
Work at the intersection of cutting-edge AI research and technical execution
Direct collaboration with frontier AI labs on next-generation datasets and research
Mission-driven, fast-moving culture that prizes curiosity, pragmatism, and excellence
Broad technical scope—build tools, analyze data, ship product features, and drive technical strategy
Responsibilities
Work closely with the world’s leading AI labs to generate next generation datasets to push the boundaries of AI to the limits, directly generating revenue for the company
Manage teams of technical experts across a wide variety of domains, like software engineering, data science, and machine learning
Build technical infrastructure and tooling to support dataset generation, quality control, and delivery pipelines
Drive technical and operational initiatives end-to-end: scoping requirements, building solutions, and managing technical experts
Interface directly with engineering and research teams at leading AI labs
Support the founding team on high-priority technical projects and operational initiatives
Required Qualifications
Strong technical background: CS degree, engineering experience, or equivalent demonstrated ability to ship technical projects
Eagerness to manage experts for technical human data campaigns
Intense work ethic, agency, and drive
Proficiency in Python and comfort writing production-quality code
Experience with data pipelines, APIs, or ML/AI tooling
Passion for AI and demonstrated interest in frontier AI research
Competitive nature and track record of exceptional achievement
Strong leadership experience and communication skills
Ability to context-switch rapidly between technical and strategic work
Preferred Qualifications
Background in software engineering, ML engineering, AI research, or computer science
Experience at a top tech company (FAANG, frontier AI lab) or quantitative trading firm
Prior startup experience or founding experience
Willingness to work long hours and weekends when projects demand it