Founding AI Transformation Lead

Northstone; Northern (KY); Remote; USD 125,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Northstone seeks a Founding AI Transformation Lead to own client engagements end to end, combining operator and builder skills. You’ll interview teams, map workflows, and design AI systems that automate friction. You’ll report to the CEO and shape the practice as it scales, including hiring and staffing decisions.

Within three months, you’ll run engagements end to end and grow into a managerial seat. This fully remote role offers ownership, rapid impact, and the chance to build AI that reshapes

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in business operations, project management, or owning a core function.
• Hands-on experience designing and shipping AI agents and AI-driven workflows in production.

Responsibilities

• Map how client businesses actually run and identify high-impact work.
• Design an AI operating system: data model, standards, governance; build workflows and agents.
• Build and ship production AI agents and AI-powered workflows.
• Integrate existing tools (CRM, storage, calendars) into one connected system.
• Turn data into dashboards to show progress at a glance.
• Own client relationships and drive adoption across organizations.

Skills

AI transformation experience

Client-facing experience

Strong technical proficiency

Data fluency

Startup experience

Cross-functional experience

Problem solving

Tools

Notion AI

n8n

Make

Zapier

APIs

Job description

This position requires current authorization to work in the United States. We are not able to sponsor work visas at this time.

THE COMPANY

Who we are

Northstone helps businesses become AI-native. We build AI systems that become a company's second brain and operational backbone, a durable operating system that turns scattered work into a connected, execution-ready machine.

We've developed a practical approach to AI transformation that starts with real user workflows and proves value fast. We build the backbone, the data model, standards, and guardrails that make AI reliable, then we ship workflows and agents on top of it in short, iterative cycles.

The result is not a pile of demos. It is a system people actually use, one that keeps getting better as it becomes the source of truth for how the company runs. We do this for leaders across industries who know what AI can do but need an operator-builder to implement it end to end. We bring deep operations experience, hands‑on AI fluency, and we move fast.

THE MOMENT

Why this matters (and why now)

• Most companies are stuck in AI pilot purgatory: lots of experiments, little leverage.
• AI is now a baseline expectation. Most organizations are still early in adoption, and the gap between “AI‑native” operators and everyone else is widening fast.
• The winners are not the ones who prompt the most. They are the ones who redesign how the company runs, then ship reliable systems that compound.
• We turn AI into an operating system: a connected data model + governance + workflows + agents that run the business day‑to‑day.
• You’ll help define how AI gets implemented inside real organizations, then ship it, prove it works, and repeat.

THE ROLE

About this role

This is a key founding role at a startup that's scaling fast. We're defining how businesses across industries adopt AI, and the person we hire helps shape both our approach and how we operate.

As a Founding AI Transformation Lead, you’ll own client engagements end to end. The role sits where operator meets builder. Half your time goes inside the actual work of our clients: interviewing teams, mapping workflows, finding the friction. The other half goes to designing and shipping the AI systems that remove it. You’ll report directly to the CEO, and you’ll be the one in the room when a client makes a decision about how AI changes their business.

Within three months, you’ll be running your own engagements end to end. As the practice scales, this role grows into a managerial seat: hiring the next builders, shaping how we staff engagements, refining our AI implementation playbook, and within a year leading a pod of your own.

THE WORK

What you’ll do

• Partner with leaders and their teams to map how their business actually runs, and pinpoint the highest‑impact work to start with.
• Design the operating system: define the data model, standards, and governance that make AI reliable, then build workflows and agents on top of it.
• Build and ship production AI agents and AI‑powered workflows.
• Integrate the tools a business already uses (CRMs, file storage, calendars, sales, and more) into one connected system.
• Turn data into clear answers and dashboards that let a leader see what’s on track in seconds.
• Redesign broken workflows, then automate the better version.
• Own the client relationship. Lead syncs, deliver updates, and handle escalations directly.
• Drive adoption across client organizations. Manage user training, documentation, and track user usage signals closely.

THE SHAPE OF THE WORK

• Single source of truth. Replace a messy intake process with a single source of truth in Notion (databases + permissions + workflows) and an agent that keeps it clean.
• AI foundation. Build the “AI foundation” for a client: knowledge architecture, agent‑ready documentation, reusable primitives, and guardrails so new solutions can be shipped quickly and safely.
• AI chief of staff. Build “AI chief of staff” agents for operators: daily updates, decision logs, reminders, and lightweight inbox triage with human‑in‑the‑loop review.
• One connected system. Connect existing tools (email, calendar, Slack, CRM, file storage) into one system so leadership can ask questions and get reliable answers fast.
• SOPs into systems. Turn manual SOPs into systems: templates, project plans, checklists, and agent‑ready documentation that compounds across clients.

REQUIREMENTS

What you bring (required)

• 5+ years of professional experience, including 3+ years in business operations, project management, or owning a core function inside a company.
• Hands‑on experience designing and shipping AI agents and AI‑driven workflows in production, not just prototypes. You know how to write agent instructions, set guardrails, and give agents memory and context so they’re reliable.
• Strong technical proficiency. You build integrations, work directly with APIs (auth, webhooks, reading docs), write logic and expressions, and debug your own automations. Experience with n8n, Make, Zapier, or similar; coding ability is a strong plus.
• Data fluency. You can model how data flows across a business and analyze it to surface insight. Using SQL or advanced spreadsheets is a plus.
• Client‑facing experience. You’ve owned external relationships and communicated with stakeholders and executives directly.
• Cross‑functional experience. You’ve worked across multiple departments and operate well without a fixed lane.
• Startup experience. You’ve operated in an early‑stage, resource‑constrained environment (ideally small startups) and can wear many hats while still shipping high‑quality systems.
• A sharp problem‑solver who can take a messy business situation and turn it into a shipped system, fast.

BONUS POINTS

Nice to have

• Hands‑on experience with Notion AI agents and databases.
• Direct consulting or agency experience.
• Familiarity with LLM tooling (Claude, OpenAI APIs, vector stores, RAG).
• A portfolio of systems, automations, or products you’ve built and shipped.

THE OFFER

• Founding team. Day‑one decision rights on architecture, methodology, and how we run engagements.
• Work directly with the CEO. No layers between you and the client, no telephone‑game handoffs.
• Work that ships. Every engagement ends with systems running in production, not recommendations sitting in a deck.
• A new business problem on every engagement. Different industry, different data model, different team structure each time.
• Full ownership of your engagements. You’ll be the one building, deciding, and shipping.
• Fully remote.

HONEST FILTER

Not for you if

• You want a playbook handed to you, not one you help define.
• You prefer recommending what to build over actually building it.
• You freeze when things are ambiguous. You’re comfortable taking initiative with incomplete information and iterating quickly as you learn.

COMPENSATION & LEGAL DISCLOSURES

Salary Range. In accordance with New York State’s Pay Transparency Law (Labor Law Section 194‑b), the good‑faith salary range for this position is $125,000 to $175,000 per year. Actual compensation within this range is determined based on factors including experience, skills, qualifications, and business needs. This range reflects base salary only and does not include equity, bonuses, or other benefits that may be part of the total compensation package.

Equal Employment Opportunity. Northstone AI Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, marital status, pregnancy, military or veteran status, genetic information, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. All employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business need.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. We believe diverse teams build better systems. We actively welcome applicants of all backgrounds and identities, and we are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where everyone can do their best work. We encourage candidates who may not meet every listed qualification to apply.

Reasonable Accommodation. Northstone AI Inc. complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and applicable New York State and local laws. We provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application process and during employment. To request an accommodation, please contact us.

Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision. We will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant.

Employment Terms. This is a full‑time, at‑will position. Employment may be terminated by either the employee or the employer at any time, with or without cause or notice, to the extent permitted by law. This position requires current authorization to work in the United States; visa sponsorship is not available at this time.