Principal Builder

Lever, Inc.; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 230,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Carried interest

Virtual shares in AI Fund

Job summary

AI Fund in Mountain View, CA is seeking a Principal Builder who blends technical depth with strategic judgment to validate new AI‑driven startup ideas and co‑found teams with elite founders and corporate partners.

You’ll drive ideas from initial concept through a 12‑week Build, shaping market opportunities, business models, and go‑to‑market plans, and you’ll decide which bets to pursue and which to end, with long‑term incentives and carried interest.

Qualifications

• Technical ability and real understanding of frontier AI.
• Experience as an engineer, product manager, product designer, or founder.
• Proven track record working with elite founders and executives.
• Strong written and verbal communication with mature opinions.
• STEM or research degree from a top research university, or equivalent rigor.

Responsibilities

• Work with commercial partners, including corporates, VCs, and LPs, and with elite founders to identify, shape, and validate new company ideas.
• Build the business case for ideas that hold up: market sizing, business model, go-to-market plan, and a clear written thesis for the company.
• Decide which ideas to bet on, based on the size of the market opportunity and how uniquely AI can solve it.
• Help recruit the founder. Explain the idea to potential founders and Engineers in Residence, and help bring the right person on to lead the Build.
• Drive AI Fund's co‑founding of companies with partners and founders, mainly through product, user, and go-to-market guidance during the 12‑week Build.
• Build the recommendation on whether AI Fund should invest at the end of the Build, then support the AI Fund partner on follow‑on investment and portfolio support.

Skills

Frontier AI understanding

Hands-on coding

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive communication

Education

STEM or research degree

Job description

Mountain View, CA | AI Fund | Full-time

AI Fund is a venture studio founded by Dr. Andrew Ng in 2017. We build AI companies from the ground up with corporate partners, investors, and elite founders, backed by a fund from top-tier global corporations and VC firms. Our purpose is to build AI companies that move humanity forward.

A Principal Builder decides which bets are worth making. The core of the role is technical insight applied to business judgment: seeing how a deep tech idea can uniquely solve a market need, and bringing the intellectual heft that elite founders and corporate partners respect in a co‑founder. You drive each idea forward until it's either falsified and ended, or handed to a newly formed company.

What you'll do

• Work with commercial partners, including corporates, VCs, and LPs, and with elite founders to identify, shape, and validate new company ideas.
• Build the business case for ideas that hold up: market sizing, business model, go-to-market plan, and a clear written thesis for the company.
• Decide which ideas to bet on, based on the size of the market opportunity and how uniquely AI can solve it.
• Help recruit the founder. Explain the idea to potential founders and Engineers in Residence, and help bring the right person on to lead the Build.
• Drive AI Fund's co‑founding of companies with partners and founders, mainly through product, user, and go-to-market guidance during the 12‑week Build.
• Build the recommendation on whether AI Fund should invest at the end of the Build, then support the AI Fund partner on follow‑on investment and portfolio support.

What you need

• Technical ability, a real understanding of frontier AI, and hands‑on experience coding with AI.
• Experience as an engineer, product manager, product designer, or founder, including scrappy 0-to-1 work.
• A track record of working with top talent, such as elite founders and senior executives, where both sides earn each other's respect and you make efficient use of their time.
• The ability to communicate with rigor, persuade through influence, and carry strong opinions with maturity.
• A STEM or research degree from a top research university, or an equivalent background where you've built the same rigor.

Who this is for

• A technically deep person whose business judgment is their strongest asset. This role shapes ideas, influences founders, and pushes AI Fund forward.
• Someone who still builds on weekends, at hackathons or on side projects, and who works well with everyone from elite founders to corporate partners.

$230,000 - $275,000 a year

Long-term incentives, including carried interest and virtual shares in AI Fund.

At AI Fund, we are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information (including characteristics and testing), military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analysing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.