Strategic Projects Lead - Stem
AfterQuery
OnSite
San Francisco
Public Relations
Advertising
Job Score
90 pts
On-site model (+70)
Public Relations (+10)
Advertising (+10)
About AfterQuery
AfterQuery is an applied research lab curating data solutions for foundation model development. We serve every frontier AI lab with the mission of delivering the best data to power the best models. In doing so, we can make expertise that once took a lifetime to build available to anyone who needs it.
Our customers are the ones building the foundation models themselves and our work sits directly in the loop of how those systems improve. This is a rare opportunity to join a company at a defining moment in AI. We are YC's fastest unicorn, valued at $3.2 billion. We're based in San Francisco and backed by leading investors including Altos Ventures, BoxGroup, and Y Combinator and angels from Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta Superintelligence Labs, and Microsoft AI.
Why Apply
Massive Opportunity: We are YC's fastest unicorn valued at $3.2 billion and we're not slowing down.
Founding Impact: You will own and architect core infrastructure systems that power our platform from the ground up.
Equity & Growth: Competitive salary and meaningful equity. As we scale, you’ll have the opportunity to shape the engineering organization and lead major technical initiatives.
Strong Team: Our founding team has experience from Citadel Securities, Meta, Google, Silver Lake, and Morgan Stanley — work alongside world-class engineers and researchers.
Key Responsibilities
Project and client management: Work with the world’s leading AI organizations to build next-generation data solutions that push the limits of model capability, while directly driving revenue.
Manage expert teams across domains: Lead and coordinate highly specialized contributors across fields like finance, software engineering, law, and more to create high-quality outputs at scale.
Shape how AI systems are trained: Design dataset specifications that directly influence how frontier models are evaluated and improved. Your taste and judgement will shape what foundation models become.
Drive high-impact execution end-to-end: Own critical projects from idea to delivery. From scoping, executing, iterating, and shipping in a fast-moving, high-stakes environment, you will touch it all.
Gain top tier operational experience: Support the team across a range of operational initiatives that will directly contribute to the future of AfterQuery. You will work across multiple parts of the business in the same week, ranging from building, analyzing, coordinating, and executing where needed most.
Required Qualifications
PhD (completed or ABD) in biology, chemistry, mathematics, data analytics/statistics, or a related STEM field — or equivalent demonstrated excellence as an IOI, IMO, or USAPhO medalist, ICPC or USACO finalist, or Putnam top 500 finisher
Background in scientific research, computational modeling, experimental design, or quantitative/statistical analysis within your field
Deep understanding of core fundamentals in your discipline along with strong quantitative and systems-level reasoning
High agency and strong work ethic; comfort defining problems and thriving with minimal direction in ambiguous situations
Demonstrated leadership excellence and strong communication abilities
Genuine passion for AI and an entrepreneurial inclination
Demonstrated competitive success (e.g., publications, research awards, fellowships, or the medals/finals listed above)
Preferred Qualifications
Prior experience with Python, R, or another language used for data analysis
Familiarity with how LLMs are trained, fine-tuned, or evaluated
Familiarity with AI tools and workflows
Company Benefits (For Eligible Employees):
Health Insurance: Medical, Vision, Dental
401(k) with Employer Match
Daily Meals: Daily UberEats Stipend
Monthly Wellness Stipend
Commute Covered
We are an equal opportunity employer committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. Employment decisions are made without regard to legally protected characteristics under applicable federal, state, or local law.
We comply with applicable pay transparency requirements and provide compensation ranges based on the position, qualifications, experience, and other relevant factors. Reasonable accommodations are available to qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs, as required by law. This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed and is not an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, qualifications, or working conditions associated with the position. We reserve the right to modify this job description as business needs change.
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About Public Relations
The Public Relations (PR) area focuses on managing the reputation, image, and communication of an organization with its various stakeholders (such as clients, investors, employees, media, and the community). PR professionals develop corporate communication strategies, manage media relations (press relations), organize institutional events, and work in image crisis prevention and management.
About Advertising
The Advertising area is aimed at the planning, creation, and delivery of communication campaigns to promote brands, products, ideas, or services. Professionals in the sector work in advertising agencies or in-house marketing departments in creative fields (art direction, copywriting), strategic planning, account management, and media buying.
Discover Other Areas
Understand the scope of work, key skills, and tools used in different career areas.
About Technical Support
Technical Support is essential to ensure customer satisfaction and retention. Support professionals resolve technical issues, document solutions, and identify patterns that can lead to product improvements.
Key skills include troubleshooting, customer service, technical documentation, ITIL knowledge, and ticketing tools (Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom).
Technical support has evolved from a reactive to a proactive function, with high-level professionals working in Customer Engineering and Support Engineering.
About Product Owner
The Product Owner (PO) is the professional responsible for maximizing the value of the product delivered by the development team. They act as the voice of the customer and stakeholders, managing and prioritizing the product backlog, defining clear user stories, and ensuring the team works on the most valuable items for the business.
Key skills include backlog management, user story writing, prioritization (Mascow, RICE), agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban), and stakeholder communication. Knowledge of tools like Jira, Trello, Azure DevOps, and Miro is essential.
Product Owners are highly sought-after professionals in the technology market, working collaboratively with Scrum Masters, Product Managers, and engineering teams to drive agility and continuous value delivery.
About Traffic Analyst
The Traffic Analyst (paid media/performance specialist) is the professional responsible for creating, managing, and optimizing sponsored ad campaigns on digital platforms such as Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and TikTok Ads. They monitor conversion metrics, analyze return on investment (ROAS), perform A/B testing on ads and landing pages, and manage the marketing budget to maximize lead generation and qualified sales.
About Cloud Solutions
The Cloud Solutions area is responsible for designing, implementing, and managing cloud infrastructure and services (AWS, Azure, GCP) for companies. Cloud professionals architect scalable, secure, and cost-optimized solutions, from data center migrations to serverless and multi-cloud architectures.
Key skills include IaC (Terraform, CloudFormation), containers (Docker, Kubernetes), serverless (Lambda, Cloud Functions), managed databases (RDS, DynamoDB, BigQuery), cloud networking (VPC, CDN, load balancer), and security (IAM, WAF, KMS). Knowledge of FinOps, cloud governance, and AWS/Azure/GCP certifications is a differentiator.
Cloud Solutions professionals in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master multi-cloud architectures, FinOps, and can optimize costs while maintaining performance and security. The field offers opportunities from cloud engineer to cloud solutions architect, head of cloud, and chief cloud architect.
About Engineering
Software Engineering goes beyond traditional development, focusing on scalability, performance, and system architecture. Software engineers are responsible for designing infrastructures that support millions of simultaneous users.
Skills include microservices architecture, DevOps, cloud computing, application security, and performance optimization. Knowledge of containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and CI/CD is increasingly required.
Senior software engineers are rare and highly compensated professionals, with opportunities at major global tech companies.
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