Tenex builds frontier AI that works in the real world. Our strategists sit with C-suite leaders, find where AI adds the most value, and drive it into production.
We were founded in New York City in 2025. We are currently 70 people and will reach 140 by the end of the year. We build for Fortune 500 companies across media, healthcare, retail, finance, and sports.
Anthropic, OpenAI, and Cursor build the frontier. As their trusted implementation partner, we turn technology into reliable systems businesses use every day.
You’ll own client workstreams end to end: find where AI adds real value, define what gets built, drive adoption, and keep proving out the business results. You’ll report to an Engagement Manager and will partner with a Forward Deployed Engineer who owns architecture and delivery.
We look for strategists who:
Have changed how a team works, and can explain what they changed, why, and what happened.
Turn unclear business problems into requirements, priorities, and a plan an engineer can act on.
Can explain technical tradeoffs to a CEO
Use AI tools daily to solve problems
You will learn to run diagnostics that surface real value drivers, scope engagements an engineer can build against, and manage transformation rollouts and adoption.
The strategists we put in front of clients are the product, so hiring is the most important decision we make each week. Our strategists have worked at firms like McKinsey, Bain, Deloitte, EY, PWC, Accenture, and have founded AI consultancies of their own.
Four-week diagnostic across claims, underwriting, and customer operations for a national insurer. We identified the ten highest-return AI opportunities, presented a roadmap, and delivered the first two.
Two-week sprint to define an agent’s requirements for a healthcare system. We Prototyped it with engineering and managed its rollout across three hospitals.
AI training program built across a private equity firm’s portfolio. We developed the playbook, led training, and prepared internal champions to carry the work forward after the engagement ended.
Base $130K-$180K • Quarterly bonus $5K-$15K
Tenex is intense by design. The pace is fast, and the standards are high. People share what they learn, challenge each other, and step in to help, so the bar is high and so is the support.
This is probably not the right place if you want a narrow scope, a predictable pace, or distance from customers. It is built for strategists who want responsibility, hard problems, and a steep learning curve. We work from our New York City office five days a week and travel to client sites about once a month
We’re bootstrapped and profitable, and we reinvest what we earn into tools, research, and products of our own. Over time, that’s how we build a modern-day Bell Labs: a place where solving today’s problems gives us the means to tackle bigger ones.
Medical insurance with PPO and HSA options, plus dental and vision
HSA, Healthcare FSA, and commuter benefits
100% employer-paid life and AD&D insurance
100% employer-paid long-term disability insurance
Responsible PTO: take what you need
We work from our New York City office five days a week. Expect to travel to client sites approximately once a month.
Skills Required
- 5 to 10 years at the intersection of strategy, operations, product, or workflow design (consulting, AI-native company, or fast-growth startup preferred)
- Track record of redesigning a workflow or process with clear outcomes
- Daily, hands-on use of modern agentic AI stack (Claude, Cowork, ChatGPT, Cursor, Lovable, Zapier/n8n, etc.)
- Strong discovery and diagnostic skills to surface how work actually happens
- Proven ability to engage credibly with C-suite executives and engineering teams; translate between them
- Bias to ship — rapidly prototype and automate manual workflows
- High ownership, low ego, and a builder's instinct
- Ability to design and run sprints, partner with engineering to build prototypes, and drive adoption post-launch
- Travel to client sites about once a month
- Work in person from New York City office five days a week
- Background as Chief of Staff, ops lead, PM at AI-forward company, management consultant, service designer, or founder
- Published writing, public speaking, or other public artifacts on applied AI
What We Do
This AI thing, it’s real. As real as mobile, the internet, and each of the major paradigm shifts in technology that came before it. In fact, we think it’s more real. More powerful. More disruptive to how we work & how businesses operate. This leaves you with a choice. Disrupt yourself. Or be disrupted by others. Because as the cost of intelligence approaches zero, businesses will need to transition from AI-absent to AI-native if they want to stay relevant and succeed.
