Applied AI Lead — Build Production-Grade AI V1s

MadHive; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

Madhive is seeking an Applied AI Lead in New York City to drive production-quality software from idea to V1. Reporting to the Chief Innovation Officer, you will act as a fungible builder and partner with leadership to rapidly translate needs into scalable AI solutions.

This senior, startup-style role emphasizes end-to-end delivery, zero-to-one execution, and collaboration across teams, while maintaining a high technical bar and adaptability in ambiguity.

Qualifications

• Senior Builder Profile: 10+ years of experience or a founding/early-engineer background with a proven track record of shipping end-to-end software solo or with small teams.
• Zero-to-One Expertise: Demonstrated ability to take projects from a blank page to live users, with the ability to articulate the full loop of discovery, iteration, and customer metric movement (activation, retention, etc.).
• Tool Fluency: Broad, full-stack, and AI-native capabilities. Proficient in standing up production prototypes using agentic coding tools, AI coding agents, and eval/observability frameworks.
• Operational Style: High technical bar combined with grit in ambiguity. Low-ego and collaborative, with a focus on making surrounding teams better without creating territorial boundaries.
• Fresh Perspective: We prioritize innovators from outside the ad-tech category to bring fresh perspectives; prior ad-tech experience is specifically not required.

Responsibilities

• Lead zero-to-one builds, shipping production-quality prototypes in days rather than quarters.
• Develop reusable components and architectural patterns that can be leveraged by other leads and receiving teams.
• Maintain fungibility across various innovation mandates, addressing the highest weekly priorities with agility.
• Ship each V1 to production -- including load-bearing, and revenue-generating AI architecture then hand it off as a new innovation for the next team to build around.

Skills

Senior Builder

Zero-to-One

Full-Stack AI

AI Prototyping

Collaborative

Tools

Agentic coding tools

AI coding agents

Eval/Observability

Job description

Madhive is seeking an Applied AI Lead in New York City to drive production-quality software from idea to V1. Reporting to the Chief Innovation Officer, you will act as a fungible builder and partner with leadership to rapidly translate needs into scalable AI solutions.

This senior, startup-style role emphasizes end-to-end delivery, zero-to-one execution, and collaboration across teams, while maintaining a high technical bar and adaptability in ambiguity.