AfterQuery — Strategic Projects Lead

davidjoseph-co; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Profit-sharing on contracts

Job summary

AfterQuery in San Francisco, CA, is seeking a Strategic Projects Lead to manage high-value data contracts with leading AI labs. You will lead large teams of domain experts/annotators, ensure on-time delivery, and interface with researchers and stakeholders.

Join the founding team to drive revenue, scale operations, and shape the company’s rapid growth in a demanding startup environment.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated history of strong execution in high-pressure environments (e.g. top banking, consulting, or startup ops).
• Willingness to work 60–70+ hours/week; intensity to match founder pace.
• Clear communication skills — must interface directly with technical researchers.
• Fast learning and high agency — can operate with low guidance in ambiguous situations.
• Must work in-person from AfterQuery's San Francisco office.

Responsibilities

• Work directly with the founding team to execute and manage delivery of high-value data contracts with top AI labs — managing large teams of domain experts/annotators, ensuring on-time, high-quality delivery, and interfacing directly with researchers and technical stakeholders.
• Manage teams of experts across domains (finance, software engineering, sciences).
• Collaborate with internal teams to develop groundbreaking AI research.
• Drive initiatives across the company as an early hire.
• Support the team across various operational initiatives.

Job description

AfterQuery — Strategic Projects Lead

Type: Full-time | On-site | San Francisco, CA Compensation: $130,000–$150,000 + 0.2%–0.5% equity (profit-share bonus on managed contracts; up to ~$300K total cash comp) Hiring count: 4 Visa sponsorship: None available Reports to: Founding team (specific manager not stated)

About AfterQuery

AfterQuery is an AI research lab investigating the boundaries and capabilities of AI through novel datasets and experimentation. Its customers are the foundation model labs — it serves the frontier AI labs. It has raised from top investors including Y Combinator and BoxGroup, former partners at Lightspeed and Index Ventures, and senior leadership at Google DeepMind and Meta GenAI. The founding team brings backgrounds from Jane Street, Meta, Citadel Securities, Google, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Silver Lake, BAIR, and Stanford AI Lab (SAIL). Reported traction: $25M+ annualized revenue since founding in Feb 2025, among the fastest-growing companies in its YC Winter 2025 cohort.

Founded: 2025 | Team size: 11–50 | Total funding: not disclosed Industry: AI research / human data ops (Contrario card lists "Consumer Tech" — likely a platform mislabel) Website: afterquery.com Office: San Francisco, CA

Why Candidates Should Join

• Frontier-lab exposure: Direct contact with the world's leading AI labs (DeepMind, OpenAI, xAI) and their researchers; own contracts end-to-end.
• Uncapped upside: Profit-share on contracts you manage, driving up to ~$300K total cash comp in addition to equity.
• Ground-floor at a fast riser: Early hire at a revenue-generating lab reporting $25M+ annualized revenue inside its first year.

The Role

Work directly with the founding team to execute and manage delivery of high-value data contracts with top AI labs — managing large teams of domain experts/annotators, ensuring on-time, high-quality delivery, and interfacing directly with researchers and technical stakeholders.

What You'll Be Doing

• Work with leading AI labs to generate next-generation datasets that push AI to its limits — directly generating revenue for the company
• Manage teams of experts across domains (finance, software engineering, sciences)
• Collaborate with internal teams to develop groundbreaking AI research
• Drive initiatives across the company as an early hire
• Support the team across various operational initiatives

Tech stack: N/A — delivery/operations role.

Requirements

• Demonstrated history of strong execution in high-pressure environments (e.g. top banking, consulting, or startup ops).
• Willingness to work 60–70+ hours/week; intensity expected to match founder pace.
• Clear communication skills — must be able to interface directly with technical researchers.
• Fast learning and high agency — can operate with low guidance in ambiguous situations.
• Must work in-person from AfterQuery's San Francisco office.

Green Flags

• Ex-Goldman, MBB, Catalyst, or similar high-output backgrounds.
• Past SPL/human data ops experience at companies like Scale AI, Mercor, Surge
• Past experience in healthcare/healthtech
• Debate/public speaking background or technical depth (CS/ML/eng) to interface well with researchers.
• Has trialed or succeeded in past fast-paced startup roles with strong references.
• Works autonomously, yet collaboratively, and doesn't burn out under heavy load.

Red Flags

• Worked cushy tech jobs (FAANG PM, etc.) and may not be used to intense work environments.
• Struggles with ambiguity or lacks examples of owning large, complex projects.
• Only interested in remote work — role is strictly in-person.
• Can't articulate why they want to pivot into AI ops or join a startup now.
• No experience managing teams or unclear on motivating people toward execution.

Role Details

Salary$130,000–$150,000Equity0.2%–0.5%Total cash compUp to ~$300K (incl. profit-share on managed contracts)Experience0–5 yearsOn-site policyIn-person, SF office; ~6-day work week / 60–70+ hrsVisa sponsorshipNone availableEmployment typeFull-timeLocationSan Francisco, CA