About Us:
At 1848 Ventures, we're not just building companies, we're shaping the future. As a venture studio focused on B2B SaaS startups powered by data and AI, we're on a mission to transform the SMB market in industries like construction, real estate, hospitality, retail, and restaurants. Our team of venture builders, data scientists, engineers, and designers leverage cutting-edge AI to build products that empower SMB businesses to succeed.
The Opportunity:
As our first Head of AI Knowledge Systems, you will architect a living, AI-powered system that turns insights into action. Your work will accelerate the pace of innovation across the studio, powering research, shaping strategy, and enabling our ventures to move faster and smarter.
This is a builder’s role. You will operationalize knowledge workflows using AI agents and human-in-the-loop systems, establish taxonomies and validation protocols, and ensure that structured knowledge evolves with market shifts.
You will power the studio’s ability to spot weak signals, synthesize research, revisit past failures, and generate differentiated ideas. Your work will live at the intersection of AI, content, and context delivered at the speed of startups.
What You’ll Do:
- Design and maintain 1848V’s “AI Knowledge Engine” to collect, validate, tag, and synthesize internal and external information (e.g., venture insights, research, transcripts, market trends, and historical learnings)
- Design and implement a structured taxonomy, metadata strategy, and refresh workflows across internal and external sources.
- Implement agentic systems and AI tools to automate knowledge ingestion and synthesis from structured and unstructured sources
- Identify and integrate real-time data feeds (RSS, APIs, transcripts, webhooks) into our research workflows.
- Drive the synthesis of multi-media insights (e.g., audio/video/text) into reusable strategic frameworks and venture signals.
- Create feedback loops between venture outcomes, idea generation, and research repositories to continuously improve venture quality.
- Serve as the point person for signal detection—identifying emerging trends or resurgent themes.
Who You Are:
- 7+ years in a strategy, research, or knowledge management role—bonus points for VC, consulting, or innovation environments.
- Experience with and deep curiosity about agentic AI systems and LLM-based knowledge tools.
- Strong sense for patterns across data, behavior, and narratives—especially in SMBs and vertical AI.
- Highly organized, systems-oriented thinker with the ability to translate chaos into clarity.
- Comfortable moving between high-level vision and prompt engineering.
What Does Great Look Like:
- Every research input or insight lives in one searchable system.
- Venture teams get decision-ready insights in hours, not days.
- The board sees signal analysis that ties 2025 ideas to unique patterns.
Why Join Us?
- Be a core part of pioneering how knowledge and AI intersect to build the future of SMB innovation.
- Operate at the center of value creation, where your insights and systems directly fuel new business ideas, strategic decisions, and product breakthroughs.
- Partner with a team of high-performing builders who are deeply committed to transforming overlooked industries.
- Play a foundational role in shaping how we synthesize, learn from, and act on information at the speed and scale of startups.
- Accelerate your career in one of the most exciting emerging domains: AI-powered knowledge systems for innovation.
- Make a lasting impact by designing the infrastructure that helps 1848 Ventures and the SMBs we serve spot what is next and act faster than ever.
Travel & Location
This role is a remote role. Occasional travel may be required for team collaboration.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
1848 Ventures celebrates diversity and is committed to inclusion. All qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or status as a protected veteran.
Similar Jobs
What We Do
Big challenges. Passionate people. Smart solutions. This is what you’ll find at 1848 Ventures. We help business owners manage uncertainty and discover opportunity in risk. We’re not aiming for incremental improvement – we’re breaking new ground. And when we see opportunity for innovation, we have the freedom, resources, and culture to make it happen.
We’re champions of business owners everywhere. After all, it’s this startup ethos and entrepreneurial spirit that 1848 Ventures – and our parent company, Westfield – was founded on. Westfield, a leading provider of commercial insurance, established 1848 Ventures in 2018 to expand beyond conventional property and casualty insurance products and address the broader risks small business owners face every day. We meet our customers where they are, partnering together to deliver digital solutions that improve their bottom line.
We know that in order to succeed, we need the right people to make it happen. We start by building a team with a diverse set of voices, backgrounds, and experiences. We’re looking for the innovators. The pioneers. The change agents. The people who aren’t afraid to ask, “What if…?” and try it anyway. This is the place for self-starters, go-getters, and anyone who wants to see a good idea become a great reality.
At 1848 Ventures, we help people build careers. Based in Northeast Ohio near Cleveland, our team members grow their creative and commercial skill sets, applying their talents to a wide range of portfolio concepts. And who we are drives what we do – our values empower a thriving culture that allows for true innovation, learning, and growth.
