Head of Open Source Ecosystem

Sentient Foundation; Lasalle; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Sentient Foundation seeks a senior leader to own the community and ecosystem strategy for open-source AI. You will champion open models, tools, agents, and evals, and build the programs that move developers from zero to shipping.

You will recruit builders, shape grants and investments, and collaborate with product and research to scale the ecosystem across ROMA, ODS, EvoSkills, Arena, and OML.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in developer relations, community, or ecosystem roles, ideally in open-source AI/ML, data, or infrastructure.
• Strong hands-on technical ability; read/write code (Python and/or TypeScript) and work with agent frameworks and the open stack.
• 4+ years building open-source software with a broad network in open-source AI developers.

Responsibilities

• Own the Foundation’s community and ecosystem strategy for open-source AI broadly, championing open models, tools, agents, and evals.
• Lead storytelling through tutorials, docs, blogs, demos, and talks to engage developers.
• Support and drive open-source AI grants / investment programs, vet projects, and shepherd funded teams.
• Lead and scale the developer community across Discord, GitHub, and X; turn power users into partners.
• Recruit ecosystem leaders; bring council members and thought leaders into the Foundation’s mission and governance.
• Represent Sentient at events; run workshops and contribute to open-source libraries.
• Synthesize feedback for product and research and help shape SDK and API design.
• Partner with product, research, and growth to amplify developer success stories and onboard partners.

Skills

Developer relations

Community building

Open-source AI

Python/TypeScript

Agent frameworks

Open-source governance

Tools

ROMA

ODS

EvoSkills

Arena

OML

Job description

About Sentient

The Sentient Foundation is building the open-source future of intelligence: AI aligned with humanity and never controlled by a single entity. We’re a neutral, transparent steward of the open AGI ecosystem, uniting researchers, builders, and communities through open research (ROMA, OML, Open Deep Search), global programs like the Open AGI Summit, and a fast-growing builder community.

The role

You’ll own Sentient’s relationship with the global open-source AI community. This includes developers building open models, tools, agents, data, and evals. You’ll be a credible champion for open-source AI as a whole, earn the trust of builders across the ecosystem, and bring the best of them and their projects into Sentient’s orbit. You’ll set community and ecosystem strategy, recruit builders to build on the open ecosystem broadly and on Sentient’s own stack (ROMA, ODS, EvoSkills, Arena, OML), and bring council members, advisors, and recognized thought leaders into the Foundation’s mission and governance. You’ll help drive our open-source AI grants and investment program, which backs great open-source AI wherever it’s built, and carry the community’s needs back into product and research. This is a senior, relationship-first leadership role for a recognized leader in open-source AI.

What You’ll Do

• Own the Foundation’s community and ecosystem strategy for open-source AI broadly. Champion great open models, tools, agents, and evals across the ecosystem, with Sentient’s own stack (ROMA, ODS, EvoSkills, Arena, OML) as one important part of it. Stand up the programs, content, and team that get developers from zero to shipping.
• Champion open-source AI through writing and storytelling, such as tutorials, docs, blog posts, demos, and talks that help developers build with the best of the open ecosystem, including Sentient’s own contributions (ROMA, ODS, OML) where they’re the right tool.
• Support and help drive Sentient's open-source AI grants / investment program. Source promising projects and builders, vetting technical quality and fit, and shepherding funded teams as they build on the Stack.
• Lead and scale the developer community across Discord, GitHub, and X. Answer hard questions, review contributions, and turn power users into ecosystem partners.
• Recruit and convene ecosystem leaders. Bring council members, advisors, and recognized open-source thought leaders into the Foundation’s mission, programs, and governance.
• Represent Sentient at hackathons, conferences, and online; run developer workshops and contribute to open-source libraries.
• Be the developer's advocate internally: synthesize feedback into clear, prioritized input for product and research, and help shape SDK and API design.
• Partner with product, research, and growth to amplify developer success stories across the open-source AI ecosystem and onboard new agent, model, data, and compute partners into the open ecosystem and, where it fits, onto the Sentient Stack.

What We’re Looking For

• 4+ years in developer relations, community, or ecosystem roles, ideally in open-source AI/ML, data, or infrastructure.
• Strong hands‑on technical ability. You can read and write code (Python and/or TypeScript), work directly with agent frameworks and the open stack (ROMA, ODS, EvoSkills, Arena, OML), and go deep enough technically to earn the respect of serious open-source developers.
• 4+ years building open-source software yourself, with a deep personal network across the open-source AI developer community. You already know many of the developers, maintainers, and projects we want to reach, and they know you.
• A track record of recruiting and convening senior people ( founders, advisors, council members, or thought leaders) around a mission, and of being a recognized voice in an open-source or developer community.
• A working understanding of LLMs, AI agents, and agent frameworks, and the ability to explain complex technical ideas simply through writing, demos, and talks.
• A public portfolio of developer content, eg: tutorials, talks, demos, OSS contributions, or community building.
• Sound technical judgment for evaluating projects, for sourcing and vetting grant and investment candidates.
• Comfort with, or genuine curiosity about, Web3 / token incentive mechanics and on‑chain interoperability.
• High user empathy, strong written communication, and a bias toward shipping.

Nice to have

• Experience contributing to or maintaining open-source AI/ML projects.
• Familiarity with agent frameworks, model fine‑tuning, evaluation/benchmarking, or decentralized/crypto ecosystems.
• Experience running or participating in a grants, accelerator, or developer‑fund program.
• A track record of measurably growing a developer ecosystem.

Why join

Build and lead the community and ecosystem function for an open AGI network at the ground floor, work across the full open-source AI + Web3 stack (OML, ROMA, ODS, EvoSkills, Arena), help direct where grant capital flows, and help a 2M+ community build and own the next wave of AI agents.