Principal Architect, AI Labs

Enboarder; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 230,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

AI Labs is seeking deeply technical, product-savvy AI architects to evaluate AI technology before acquisitions and to accelerate portfolio companies after acquisition. You will operate across two critical moments in the deal lifecycle, providing independent technical depth during diligence and helping build shared capabilities across the portfolio.

We value principal-level engineering or architecture expertise in AI, ML, and production-scale AI products, with the ability to rapidly understand

Qualifications

• Extensive track record in AI/ML at senior levels.
• Deep understanding of AI architectures, training, inference, and data.
• Ability to rapidly grasp unfamiliar tech stacks and identify true differentiation.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical and AI diligence for potential acquisitions and investments.
• Critically evaluate architecture, data strategy, infrastructure, security, and debt.
• Interview and score DeepTech talent.
• Assess build-vs-buy questions and defensibility of tech and IP.
• Partner with founders, CTOs, and engineering leaders during diligence.
• Identify technical risks and translate into actionable recommendations.
• Identify opportunities to adopt shared AI technologies and standards.
• Serve as senior technical advisor across the AI Labs portfolio.

Skills

AI architecture

ML systems

Production AI

Startup experience

Technical judgment

Job description

AI Labs aims to grow Salesforce into America’s next $1.5T AI mainstay, from ASICs to Agents. We’re looking for deeply technical, product-savvy AI architects who can operate across two critical moments in the deal lifecycle: evaluating AI technology before it is acquired, licensed, or invested in by a larger firm, and accelerating that company after acquisition.

These leaders will provide independent, in-IDE technical depth during M&A or investment diligence, while helping build common DeepTech capabilities, models, and infrastructure that portfolio companies can leverage after joining AI Labs.

What You'll Do

• Lead technical and AI diligence for potential acquisitions and strategic investments. (Formal diligence experience is not required.)
• Critically evaluate (by testing, studying, using, and remixing) architecture, models, data strategy, infrastructure, security, scalability, technical differentiation, and technical debt.
• Interview and score DeepTech talent.
• Assess build-vs-buy questions and the defensibility of a company's underlying technology, team, and IP.
• Partner directly with founders, CTOs, and engineering leaders during diligence.
• Identify material technical risks and opportunities and translate them into clear recommendations for AI Labs leadership.
• Identify opportunities for portfolio companies to adopt shared AI technologies, evaluation frameworks, infrastructure, standards, and services, only where doing so creates material leverage.
• Identify capabilities that should be built once across AI Labs, rather than repeatedly by individual companies, and the technical and nontechnical tradeoffs.
• Serve as a senior technical advisor across the AI Labs portfolio without becoming a centralized bottleneck.

What We're Looking For

• Principal/Distinguished-level engineering or architecture experience in AI (both basic and applied), ML, and production-scale AI products.
• Deep understanding of modern AI architectures, models, training/post-training and inference, data, evaluation, infrastructure, production systems, and how technical choices shape product outcomes.
• Ability to rapidly understand unfamiliar technical stacks and distinguish true technical differentiation from implementation detail.
• Experience working with startup/founder-led engineering teams.
• Strong technical judgment combined with deep product taste and pragmatic business thinking.
• Experience with technical diligence, DeepTech investing, acquisitions, or startup evaluation is nice to have. (Having shipped differentiated AI/ML products matters more.)

Team Values

• Distill
• Always be learning
• Invest in relationships
• Bravery without bravado