Strategic Projects Lead_CNTR

We're looking for a hands-on operator to take ownership of high-impact, cross-functional projects at a fast-growing AI infrastructure startup. Reporting directly to the CEO, you'll ramp up within your first week and take end-to-end ownership of key data pipelines and the delivery of RL (reinforcement learning) environments for strategic customers and projects.

This role sits at the intersection of engineering, operations, and go-to-market, and is built for someone who wants to build operational processes from scratch rather than inherit them. It's an execution role, not a strategy or advisory one: you'll run your own analysis in SQL or Python rather than routing every question to an engineer.

You'll report progress directly to the founders and work on some of the highest-impact problems in the company. This is a great fit for someone coming from investment banking, private equity, consulting, or a prior strategic projects role who is excited to build in a lean, high-ownership environment.

Details

Schedule: Full time

Location: San Francisco, CA (Onsite)

Start: ASAP

Duration: Long-term

About the project: The company is a YC-backed startup building data infrastructure for the AI industry, including reinforcement learning environments that frontier AI labs use to train and evaluate their models. The mission is to bridge the gap between AI and the multi-trillion-dollar knowledge work economy.

The founding team brings experience from leading AI and tech companies, including Scale AI and Uber, as well as a previously founded and successfully exited AI company. The organization is small and deliberately lean, built around a high-talent-density team with a strong culture of ownership.

The team is early-stage (seed funded, founded in 2025) and moving quickly, with a flat structure where individual contributors have direct visibility to the founders. Work is fast-paced, ambiguous at times, and centered on solving real operational and technical problems rather than managing process.

You have

• 2 to 5 years of experience in investment banking, private equity, or management consulting, or prior experience in a Strategic Projects Lead role
• A strong technical background; a CS degree is ideal, and at minimum, the ability to run data analytics in SQL or Python
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to own ambiguous, cross-functional projects end-to-end, balancing speed against quality
• An entrepreneurial mindset and excitement for building things from scratch
• Strong communication skills and a bias toward ownership
• Availability to work in person in San Francisco full-time
• Ideally, 2+ years leading a team, developing product or operational processes, or working as a software engineer
• Ideally, prior experience at startups or high-growth companies, in consulting, or tackling operational challenges
• A plus: experience with human data or applied AI, specifically post-training or RL
• A plus: prior Strategic Projects Lead experience at a data company

What to do

• Own end-to-end execution of RL environment delivery for strategic customers and projects
• Own key data pipelines end-to-end, starting after a one-week ramp
• Lead cross-functional projects spanning engineering, operations, and go-to-market
• Build operational processes from scratch where none currently exist
• Report progress directly to the founders on some of the highest-impact problems at the company
• Run independent data analysis in SQL or Python to support decision-making