GTM Lead

Next Matter; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and equity

Direct work with founding team

Travel opportunities to Zurich

Job summary

Next Matter is seeking a GTM Lead to establish its first full-time presence in San Francisco. This role is critical in building Rapidata's US operations from early stages, leveraging existing customer relationships in the Bay Area.

Candidates should have a proven sales background in major AI labs, a strong network within the SF AI community, and the ability to work independently. This position offers competitive salary and equity, high visibility, and the opportunity to shape the US business.

Qualifications

• Active in the SF AI scene with a deep personal network.
• Proven track record of selling into major AI labs.
• Experience in enterprise B2B sales or strategic partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Own Rapidata's go-to-market strategy in the Bay Area.
• Build relationships with AI researchers and procurement leaders.
• Act as the face of Rapidata in the SF AI community.

Skills

Relationship building

B2B sales

Communication

Technical understanding of AI

Job description

About Rapidata

Rapidata is building the world's most scalable API to human intelligence. We deliver high-quality data annotation, preference feedback, and model evaluation at internet speed - distributing micro-tasks to over 20 million active annotators across 192 countries. The world's leading AI labs use Rapidata to generate RLHF training data, run model evaluations, and collect human preference signals that make their models better.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Zurich, Rapidata is backed by top-tier VCs and growing fast. We're now opening our first US office in San Francisco - at the heart of where AI is being built.

About the Role

The Bay Area is ground zero for AI. Dozens of frontier AI labs are clustered within a few miles of each other, and they all need high-quality human feedback data at scale. That's where you come in.

We're looking for a GTM Lead to be Rapidata's first full-time presence in San Francisco. We already have customers in the valley, and your job is to turn that foothold into a real US business. You know the labs, the researchers, and the procurement teams. You've been part of this community for years. You understand how frontier AI companies buy, what they need, and who to talk to. You'll deepen the relationships we've started and open the ones we haven't yet, building the commercial foundation of what becomes Rapidata's US operation.

This is a high-ownership, high-impact role. Our founders will rotate to SF regularly, and you'll work hand-in-hand with them to shape how Rapidata wins the US market. If you want to be the person who scaled Rapidata's US business from early traction to real momentum, this is that role.

What You'll Do

• Own Rapidata's go-to-market in the Bay Area, from first contact to signed contract at the major AI labs
• Build and deepen relationships with AI researchers, ML engineers, and procurement leaders at the frontier AI labs
• Be an on-the-ground resource for our existing Bay Area customers, providing responsive support during US hours and keeping them unblocked across time zones
• Act as the face of Rapidata in the SF AI community: attend events, build reputation, and generate pipeline through presence and trust
• Open and run Rapidata's first San Francisco office, establishing operations, culture, and ways of working
• Work closely with the founders to align on strategy, deals, and product feedback from customers
• Feed customer and market insights back into the product roadmap
• Build the pipeline for a future US team, identifying and helping hire the first SF-based teammates as the business grows

What We're Looking For

• Based in the Bay Area and active in the SF AI scene - you're embedded in the community and known within it, not starting from zero
• Proven track record selling into or partnering with major AI labs or frontier AI companies
• Deep personal network in the SF AI ecosystem - researchers, ML leads, and procurement contacts who know and trust you
• Experience in enterprise B2B sales, business development, or strategic partnerships - ideally in AI, data, or developer tools
• Ability to work independently and figure things out
• Strong communicator who can translate technical value (data pipelines, annotation quality, RLHF) into business outcomes
• Willingness to travel to Zurich regularly to work with the founders and team

Nice to Have

• Prior experience at an AI data, labeling, or RLHF company (e.g., Scale AI, Surge, Labelbox, Mercor)
• Existing relationships in the AI research or ML infra procurement space
• Technical background or deep familiarity with how generative AI model training pipelines work
• Experience setting up or helping to build a new office or geographic expansion

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity, you're joining early and that matters
• The opportunity to build something real: Rapidata's entire US commercial presence starts with you
• Work directly with the founding team: high visibility, high impact, genuine ownership
• Travel to our Zurich HQ for key moments
• Hardware budget tailored to your preferences