Founding Strategic Projects Lead

Palo Alto / Menlo Park, CA · On-site (5 days) · Full-time Compensation: $130,000–$175,000 base + uncapped OTE + competitive equity

Our client is a reinforcement-learning-model (RLM) data company selling premium, high-margin data to frontier AI labs, recently backed by a top-tier venture firm. The founders currently do the strategic-projects work themselves, spending most of their day with labs ensuring data quality. Two differentiators: an uncapped commission structure (unlike some competitors), and each strategic-projects lead personally carries $20–30M of ARR with extreme ownership. Average contract value is ~$2M, with some projects in the seven figures.

Founded 2025 · 7–8 people (Seed) · Industry: AI Tools

The client is hiring its first Finance-track Founding Strategic Projects Lead to own the end-to-end delivery of frontier AI-lab finance projects. The work keeps financial-modeling chops sharp — not on real-world transactions, but building RLM training data based on financial models (LBOs, comparables). The take-home is a difficult, unstructured Excel modeling exercise that filters heavily for fit.

Tech stack: Excel-based financial modeling (LBOs, comparables).

• 2–5 years of investment banking or private equity
• Excel modeling plus LBOs
• High grit and creative problem-solving
• On-site in Palo Alto / Menlo Park, 5 days a week
• Weekends optional; the team is in the office

• A top investment bank (e.g., Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JPM, Evercore, Centerview, Lazard, Moelis, or comparable) or top PE firm (e.g., KKR, Blackstone, Apollo, Carlyle, or comparable) with 2+ years' tenure
• A boutique PE firm with a strong reputation and demonstrated impact
• A strong school and strong bank combination
• Demonstrated grit: side projects, competitive academic achievements, athletics, or other high-intensity backgrounds
• Excitement about uncapped commission and willingness to grind for maximum upside

• Uncapped upside: an uncapped commission structure — a real differentiator versus some competitors
• Extreme ownership: each lead personally carries $20–30M of ARR across customer projects
• A founding seat: the first Finance-track Strategic Projects Lead, reporting directly to the founder with significant autonomy
• Backing: recently raised from a top-tier venture firm

• Location — Palo Alto / Menlo Park, CA
• Work policy — On-site, 5 days/week
• Compensation — $130,000–$175,000 base + uncapped OTE + competitive equity
• Visa sponsorship — Not available
• Employment type — Full-time