This role is for the AI2 Incubator, an organization that supports founders in creating AI-first startups. Learn more about AI2 Incubator at ai2incubator.com.
A portfolio company of the AI2 Incubator
OUR MISSION
Some people wake up and worry about what they’re going to have for lunch. Others wake up and worry about having to leave a country they call home.
We’re on a mission to reshape the (broken) process of immigration in the U.S. and we need *your* help, to help millions of people.
WHO WE ARE
We are a team of people that have dedicated our lives to simplifying the lives of others through the power of technology. We use traditional and generative AI to simplify, streamline, and humanize the immigration journey.
WHAT YOU’LL DO IN THIS ROLE
We are on the hunt for a founding Chief Technology Officer (CTO) who believes in our mission and will play a foundational role in shaping our AI-driven product. You will define our technological vision and:
- Work as part of the founding team to conceptualize, iterate, and refine our product roadmap.
- Influence and execute our product vision, ensuring our platform stands out as a leader in transforming immigration services.
- Engage actively with our user base, incorporating their feedback to ensure our platform remains relevant, user-friendly, and effective in addressing real-world needs.
- Lead the charge in recruiting and nurturing a top-tier engineering team, thus laying the foundation for our startup’s sustained growth and innovation.
Your expertise and vision will be instrumental in bringing our dream to fruition, ensuring that our platform is not just another tool, but a game-changer in the realm of immigration technology.
TYPICAL QUALIFICATIONS
We firmly believe that the most exceptional candidates can't be boxed into traditional criteria. If our vision resonates with you or you are looking for a challenge, we urge you to reach out. This role demands a thorough expertise in building scalable AI systems, but more critically, a fervor for rapid adaptation and learning.
Tech Skills
- Proficiency in designing, developing, and deploying scalable systems using languages and platforms such as Python, Node.js, and cloud services.
- Familiarity with modern software development practices, including CI/CD, containerization, and orchestration tools.
- Excitement about the latest developments in AI and machine learning, and an eagerness to apply them in novel ways to disrupt the immigration domain.
- Desired: Experience with large-scale data storage and processing using cloud platforms
Experience
- A deep sense of empathy for users, reflecting a genuine understanding of the challenges and needs in the immigration journey.
- Prior experience in a leadership tech role at a technology-driven startup or company.
- Proficiency in AI-based tech solutions, familiar with prevalent tools, languages, and frameworks.
- Hands-on experience in shaping product specifications, streamlining workflows, and designing rigorous testing frameworks.
- While we don't bind candidates to a strict number of years or degree requirements, a demonstrated comprehension of end-to-end AI application in real-world scenarios is crucial.
- Desired: Ideally, you've spearheaded a tech, AI, or computational division or project in a startup or recognized company.
Approach
- Unwavering focus on customer needs.
- A flexible mindset, ready to pivot directions swiftly based on product or market dynamics.
- Comfort in both team collaborations and autonomous work settings.
- Stellar communication abilities and an enthusiasm to be an integral member of a compact, dedicated team.
WHY YOU’LL LOVE WORKING WITH US:
Our founders have strong reputations as thoughtful, forward-thinking colleagues and mentors who cultivate talent. We’ll think intentionally and collaboratively about your career and how we build our team. Our founders’ experiences in workforce development and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to our approach.
- Impact — Our platform will accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and therapy development to advance human health. The opportunity to build something from the ground up, define a new product, and lead a team over time in a space that has a real, positive impact.
- Early employee impact —. As a member of the very early team, you will play a pivotal role in helping shape our product, team, and culture. For the rest of our days, no matter how many thousands of people join after you, you will always have that honor and distinction. It looks great on a resume, too.
- Early stage equity — A benefit of joining early. None of us (not our founders, nor the Allen Institute for AI Incubator) would be here if we didn’t think that our company will create tremendous value over time.
- Access to unique learning opportunities — With the Allen Institute for AI Incubator as a cofounder, our team gets access to talks by leading AI researchers/paper authors, access to knowledge sharing amongst the community of hundreds of engineers that work for ai2incubator.com companies, and much more.
- Salary — We are a pre-seed startup and salaries will be modest, and comparative to other pre-seed startups, until we raise. You can expect salary raises that bring you closer to market as we raise money and grow. Plus, you’ll have the energy and excitement of a startup and the unique benefits and learning opportunities of taking an early risk.
- Flexible location and hours – We are whole people with whole lives and expect that you are, too. We’ll trust each other to make progress as a team, in times and places that work for everyone. Preference for Seattle area. Travel to Seattle will be required from time to time – it’s a beautiful city!
- Visa support - We can provide visa support.
About the AI2 Incubator:
The AI2 Incubator helps entrepreneurs come up with ideas, find co-founders, engage pilot customers, refine their product, work with research paper authors to incorporate the latest A.I. techniques into their technology, and raise millions of dollars in venture funding. They have a strategic relationship with the Allen Institute for A.I.—a world-leading research institute with over 200 A.I. PhDs, researchers, engineers, and support staff—allowing them to dive deep into the latest tech and access one of the most talented groups of researchers.
What We Do
We help entrepreneurs form new teams and build AI-first startups.
We bring together world-class engineers, researchers, and entrepreneurs to create new companies together from scratch. We help them come up with ideas, find co-founders, engage pilot customers, define their product, incorporate the latest A.I. techniques into their technology, and raise millions of dollars in venture funding.
Over the last six years, we have created 20+ companies that are collectively worth $750M+ in valuation, have collectively raised $150M+ in venture funding, and have collectively created 500+ jobs. Even more impressively, more than half of that growth occurred in the last year.
But beneath those numbers, the missions of those companies are even more important. These startups are helping immigrants to improve their communication skills (Yoodli), helping scientists to significantly accelerate cancer research (Ozette and Modulus), helping A.I. practitioners monitor critical algorithms in the wild (WhyLabs), helping business ops and legal teams to be much more efficient (Lexion), helping millions of creators to more easily produce voice content (WellSaid), turning your smartphone into a powerful medical device (MeasureLabs), and so much more.
Our unique advantages come from our core team's expertise and our exclusive partnership with the Paul Allen Institute for A.I. (aka "AI2"). Created in 2014 by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, AI2 has 200+ PhDs, researchers, engineers, professors, and support staff—and is well known for its contributions to the A.I. research community including 600+ papers, 20+ best paper awards, and numerous products/open source offerings including SemanticScholar, AllenNLP, and more.
