Director of AI

Our client, an AI-driven startup within the manufacturing industry, is hiring a hands-on Director of AI to join their team in San Jose, CA. The successful candidate will play a key role in shaping the company’s AI vision, developing the knowledge graph, agentic systems and machine learning infrastructure that drive intelligent decision-making across global manufacturing operations.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development and evolution of the company’s AI and machine learning architecture.

• Build, deploy and scale production-grade knowledge graph systems that power intelligent decision-making.

• Develop advanced AI agents capable of reasoning across complex manufacturing, supply chain and operational datasets.

• Create intelligent planning, forecasting and decision-support solutions using real-time data.

• Collaborate closely with founders, engineers and customers to transform industry challenges into practical AI-powered products.

• Establish and maintain best practices for model development, deployment, evaluation, monitoring and governance.

• Support the growth of the AI function by helping to recruit, mentor and develop future AI and machine learning team members.

Skillset

• At least 6 years of experience in artificial intelligence, machine learning or applied research, with a strong record of delivering real-world impact.

• Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning or similar.

• Demonstrate a proven ability to build, deploy and scale AI and machine learning systems in production environments.

• Have hands-on experience designing, implementing and managing knowledge graph solutions at scale.

• Possess deep expertise in agentic AI, reasoning frameworks, retrieval systems or multi-agent architectures.

• Show a strong understanding of modern machine learning infrastructure, MLOps practices and model lifecycle management.

• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Track record of building and scaling enterprise SaaS products and platforms is a plus.

• Exposure to manufacturing, supply chain or industrial technology environments is a bonus.

Benefits

• Salary: $160,000-$180,000

• Meaningful Equity.

• Flexible hybrid working.