Founding Strategic Projects Lead

Zstate AI; Kolkata Metropolitan Area; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 8,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Zstate AI is seeking a Founding Strategic Projects Lead in Gurugram, India, to own end-to-end projects translating model gaps into concrete data and evaluation programs. You will work closely with the founders, domain experts, and operations to deliver shipped datasets and evaluations for an AI lab.

As an early hire, you will shape product direction, build repeatable processes, and drive high-impact work with limited direction, directly influencing the company’s trajectory from day one.

Qualifications

• Track record of owning high-stakes, ambiguous projects end-to-end in a fast-moving environment.
• Sharp written and verbal communication, ability to turn inputs into clear updates and recommendations.
• Strong analytical judgment and comfort working with data.
• Technical fluency: collaborate with engineers and domain experts on AI concepts.
• Process-oriented; builds repeatable systems and playbooks, not one-off fixes.

Responsibilities

• Design and stand up processes, playbooks, and workflows projects run on; refine as they scale.
• Own projects end to end: scoping, expert workflows, execution, and customer delivery.
• Translate a lab customer's model gap into a concrete data or evaluation program and drive it to delivery.
• Scope datasets and evaluations; stand up expert workflows; maintain quality and throughput.
• Turn ambiguous requirements into clear next steps, concise updates, and practical recommendations.
• Collaborate across operations, product, growth, strategy, technical, and vertical-expert teams.

Skills

Ambiguity ownership

Analytical judgment

Strong communication

Technical fluency

Ownership mindset

Process orientation

Job description

• Gurugram, India Apply for this role → Or write to [e-mail]
  
  

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Founding Strategic Projects Lead

Founding Team

• Full-time
• Gurugram, India Apply for this role → Or write to [e-mail]
  
  

About Zstate

As AI models become increasingly capable, the industry needs better ways to measure reasoning, reliability, and real-world performance.

Zstate AI is building the evaluation and post-training infrastructure powering the next generation of AI systems. We create expert-driven benchmarks, reward signals, RL environments, and high-quality datasets that help frontier AI models become more capable, reliable, and trustworthy across diverse real-world domains.

Zstate AI is led by a founding team from IITs, IIMs, and DCE, bringing together deep technical and strategic expertise to build category-defining AI infrastructure. We are backed by Giraffe Studios, a venture studio focused on deep-tech startups founded by Himanshu Aggarwal (Co-founder & CEO, Aspiring Minds) and Mohit Tandon (Co-founder, Delhivery).

As one of our earliest hires, you'll work directly with the founders to solve challenging engineering problems and help shape both the product and the company from day one.

What this role looks like

You'll sit at the center of a lab customer's project, translating a model gap into a concrete data or evaluation program and driving it to delivery. Working closely with the founders, domain experts, and operations, you'll own scoping, expert workflows, quality, and customer-facing communication, turning messy requirements into shipped datasets and evaluations an AI lab can act on.

A day in the life

• Design and stand up the processes, playbooks, and workflows projects run on, then refine them as they scale.
• Own projects end to end: scoping, expert workflows, execution, and customer-facing delivery.
• Translate a lab customer's model gap into a concrete data or evaluation program and drive it to delivery.
• Scope datasets and evaluations, stand up expert workflows, and hold quality and throughput at the same time.
• Turn ambiguous requirements into clear next steps, concise updates, and practical recommendations.
• Collaborate across operations, product, growth, strategy, technical, and vertical-expert teams.
  
  

Who you are

• A track record of owning ambiguous, high-stakes projects end to end in a fast-moving environment.
• Sharp written and verbal communication, with the ability to turn messy inputs into clear updates and recommendations.
• Strong analytical judgment and comfort working with data.
• Technical fluency: comfortable working alongside engineers and domain experts, and reasoning about AI concepts.
• Process orientation: you build repeatable systems and playbooks, not just one-off fixes.
• High ownership and the ability to move fast with limited direction.
  
  

Extra credit

• Experience in consulting, operations, program or project management, or founding and early-startup roles.
• Exposure to AI/ML, evaluations, benchmarks, RL environments, or data operations.
• Domain depth in software engineering, healthcare, finance, or STEM.
• Experience managing expert or specialist workforces and balancing quality with throughput.
  
  

Why this matters

• Competitive compensation for the right candidate.
• Sit at the center of the projects powering the next generation of frontier AI systems.
• Work directly with the founders and help shape both the product and the company from day one.
• Own meaningful, ambiguous problems with visible impact and rapid learning.
• Build the playbooks and processes the whole company scales on.
  
  

If structured thinking, messy problems, and owning the projects that turn expert judgment into frontier-AI training data sounds interesting, send your resume and a short note on why this role interests you to [e-mail] or [e-mail].