Special Projects

Architect Labs; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity

Direct with founding team

Job summary

Architect Labs, a frontier AI silicon company in Palo Alto, seeks a hands-on Special Projects generalist who partners with founders to tackle high-priority challenges across finance, legal, HR, recruiting and operations. You transform ambiguous problems into concrete plans and drive them to completion with limited direction.

This role emphasizes judgment, execution, and building scalable systems using automation.

Qualifications

• Ability to translate ambiguous problems into concrete plans and drive them to completion.
• Strong budgeting and contracting awareness.
• Experience coordinating with founders, legal, HR, and finance teams.
• Proactive, autonomous problem-solver with exceptional judgment.

Responsibilities

• Own critical projects end to end, turning priorities into plans and coordinating stakeholders.
• Support financial planning, budgets, reporting, and vendor management.
• Drive legal and people operations, working with external counsel on contracts and compliance.
• Build scalable systems using AI and automation to improve operational efficiency.
• Go beyond function boundaries and take ownership of urgent, cross-functional issues.

Skills

Generalist mindset

Operations management

Budgeting

Project coordination

Job description

Architect is a frontier AI lab for custom silicon. We partner with frontier labs, clouds / neoclouds, physical AI companies, and advanced fabs to tape-out custom chips co-designed for next-generation AI workloads. Our goal is to compress end-to-end software to silicon timelines, and maximize intelligence per watt and per dollar for the world. We are a small exceptional team across silicon, systems, software and frontier AI. Our team have led research teams at nearly every frontier AI lab, and at some of the most complex SoCs in the world.

What You'll Do

As a member of Special Projects at Architect, you'll work closely with the founders and leadership team to tackle the company's highest-priority business challenges. You'll be the person who can take an important, ambiguous problem- whether in finance, legal, HR, recruiting, or operations-figure out what needs to happen, and drive it to completion. This is a hands‑on, high-trust role for a resourceful generalist who combines exceptional judgment with relentless execution.

• Own critical projects end to end: Turn loosely defined priorities into clear plans, coordinate stakeholders, and deliver results without waiting for a playbook.
• Keep the business running: Support financial planning, budgets, reporting, purchasing, vendor management, and operational decisions.
• Drive legal and people operations: Work with external counsel and advisors on contracts, compliance, and corporate matters; help with recruiting, onboarding, and HR processes.
• Build leverage: Create simple, scalable systems, using AI and automation wherever they meaningfully improve how the company operates.
• Go wherever the problem is: Anticipate bottlenecks, handle urgent issues, and take ownership of work that doesn't neatly fit into any one function.

What We'd Like to See

• Exceptional agency and follow-through: You have a track record of making difficult things happen, often with limited direction or resources.
• Strong business fundamentals: You can navigate budgets, contracts, hiring processes, and operational tradeoffs, and know when to bring in specialists.
• Structured, pragmatic problem-solving: You learn unfamiliar topics fast, prioritize effectively, and can turn ambiguity into action.
• Outstanding judgment and discretion: You handle sensitive information with care and communicate clearly with founders, teammates, and external partners.
• A true generalist mindset: No problem is beneath you, no task is automatically someone else's, and you're equally comfortable with strategy and execution.
• Bonus: Experience as an early startup operator, founder, chief of staff, or in a demanding finance, consulting, or business-operations environment.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and equity.
• Fast-paced startup with autonomy and visible impact.
• The opportunity to work directly with the founding team and help build the operating foundation of a frontier AI and silicon company.