Head of Data Science & AI Lead/Co-Founder

Bask Health; New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company is launching an internal AI venture and seeks a co-founder to lead technical vision and product development. This role involves building a data science practice, recruiting talent, and aligning with stakeholders to drive growth and innovation in AI.

Benefits

Equity & Co-Founder Status

Autonomy & Resources

Growth & Impact

Qualifications

• Founded or co-founded an AI or data-centric startup.
• 3+ years in data science or ML engineering roles.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute AI/LLM technical strategy.
• Recruit, mentor, and manage data scientists and ML engineers.
• Present technical plans and coordinate with stakeholders.

Skills

Leadership

Data Science

Machine Learning

Collaboration

Fundraising

Education

Master's or PhD in Computer Science

Statistics

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Airflow

TensorFlow Serving

Job description

Head of Data Science & AI Lead/Co-Founder

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Role Overview

We're launching an internal AI/LLM venture and seeking a true co-founder who will lead our technical vision, drive product development, and build a world-class data science practice. You'll partner directly with leadership, own the roadmap for the products, and help spin out a high-growth AI startup from within our organization.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technical Leadership: Define and execute the end-to-end AI/LLM technical strategy—from data ingestion and model selection to fine-tuning, scaling, and deployment.
2. Product Development: Collaborate with product management to translate market needs into AI features; prototype rapidly and move to production.
3. Team Building: Recruit, mentor, and manage data scientists, ML engineers, and AI researchers. Establish best practices for MLOps, A/B testing, and monitoring.
4. Incubation & Operations: Set up infrastructure, tooling, and processes to support agile experimentation and continuous iteration within the incubator.
5. Stakeholder Alignment: Present technical plans, milestones, and trade-offs to executive sponsors; coordinate with legal, security, and compliance for data governance.
6. Go-to-Market Support: Work alongside go-to-market teams to craft demos, pilot programs, and proofs-of-concept that showcase our LLM capabilities to early customers.
7. Equity & Ownership: Act as a true co-founder with an equity stake—aligning long-term incentives on growth, fundraising, and exit strategies.

Required Qualifications

1. Proven Co-Founder/Leadership Experience: Founded or co-founded at least one AI or data-centric startup, or led a ground-up AI initiative with demonstrable impact.
2. Deep Data Science Expertise: Example: Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Statistics, or related field; 3+ years in data science or ML engineering roles.
3. LLM Mastery: Hands-on experience fine-tuning, evaluating, and deploying large-language models (e.g., GPT, LLaMA, Mistral) at scale.
4. Production-Grade ML Ops: Expertise with infrastructure (Kubernetes, Docker), data pipelines (Airflow, Prefect), and model-serving frameworks (TensorFlow Serving, TorchServe).
5. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Track record partnering with product, design, and commercial teams to ship AI-driven features under tight timelines.
6. Fundraising Savvy: Comfortable presenting technical vision to investors and participating in pitch decks, due diligence, and board meetings.

Preferred Experience

• Successful exit or fundraising round in an AI-focused venture
• Open-source contributions in NLP or ML communities.
• Familiarity with prompt engineering frameworks and evaluation metrics for generative AI.

What We Offer

• Equity & Co-Founder Status: Significant founder equity in the new venture alongside a competitive salary.
• Autonomy & Resources: Backing from our parent company's engineering, design, and go-to-market teams plus a dedicated R&D budget.
• Growth & Impact: A rare opportunity to incubate a cutting-edge business from day one and shape the future of AI within a growing organization.