Head of AI

Head Of AI

Location: Remote, United States | Type: Full-time, permanent | Pay: $250,000 to $300,000 base, plus a 15 to 20% annual bonus and equity

Authorization: U.S. citizens and Green Card holders only. No visa sponsorship available.

Our client builds technology for manufacturers that need better visibility into the health of critical equipment. The company combines sensor hardware with predictive analytics to surface potential failures weeks before they happen, helping customers avoid unplanned downtime and keep plants running. The business is growing quickly, well backed, and built for the long term.

About The Role

This is a build role. AI work is already underway across the business, but it lives in disconnected efforts: a model in one corner, an experiment in another, a prototype somebody fit in between other priorities. You'll turn that into a real operating capability, with a clear strategy, practical guardrails, and outcomes the business can measure.

You'll report to the CEO and own AI end to end. That includes setting the strategy through 2027, building the team that can execute it, and making clear calls on what the company should build, buy, or stop doing.

You'll also inherit the Data Science function. The technical core of the work is strong: physics-based models applied to high-frequency sensor data to detect anomalies in rotating equipment and turn them into reliability intelligence customers can act on.

This role sits across strategy and hands-on technical leadership. You'll be in architecture discussions and model reviews, and you'll also be the person presenting AI impact to the leadership team and the board. If you want only one side of that equation, this probably isn't the right role.

What You'll Do

• Define and own the company's AI strategy, tied to the product roadmap and revenue plan through 2027
• Build and lead the AI organization across Machine Learning Engineering, ML research, and AI Engineering, including hiring, structure, and leveling
• Stand up the operating system for AI: intake, prioritization, evaluation criteria, and governance guardrails for tooling and data access
• Direct the evolution of the company's physics-based anomaly detection and reliability intelligence models
• Work closely with Product, GTM, Customer Success, and Operations to identify the AI applications that improve customer outcomes, and shut down the ones that don't
• Set the metrics that show AI impact, then report on them to the executive team

What You'll Bring

• 10+ years leading AI, ML, or data science teams, including responsibility for hiring and org design
• A track record of shipping large-scale technical initiatives in companies that move quickly and change often
• Hands-on fluency with modern AI, production ML systems, and MLOps. You can still read the code and challenge the approach
• Business judgment that connects technical decisions to customer value and revenue, not just model performance
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, Engineering, or a related field

Nice To Have

• Advanced degree (MS, PhD, or a technology-focused MBA)
• Background in industrial technology, predictive maintenance, or manufacturing
• Deep experience with time-series data, signal processing, and anomaly detection
• AWS and modern cloud data platform experience

Why Join Us

This role offers a rare mix: a clean slate on AI strategy, direct access to the CEO, and a problem space where model performance has obvious physical consequences. When anomaly detection works here, a plant stays online. That's a much tighter and more tangible feedback loop than optimizing for clicks.