Applied Research - Team Lead

About Firsthand

Firsthand is building the industry's first AI-powered Brand Agent platform that transforms how advertisers and publishers engage with consumers, anywhere online. Through Brand Agents, Firsthand leverages a company's knowledge to support consumers at any point in their journey – answering questions, solving problems, and guiding decisions – while keeping the company in control of their brand experience.

Firsthand's founding team brings unparalleled expertise in building transformative adtech platforms. Co-CEOs Jon Heller and Michael Rubenstein previously created ventures that now power the advertising businesses of today's tech giants: DoubleClick Ad Exchange became the foundation of Google's $200B+ advertising business, AppNexus evolved into Microsoft Advertising's global platform, and FreeWheel (acquired by Comcast) transformed streaming TV advertising. This track record of creating industry-defining companies uniquely positions Firsthand to pioneer the next evolution in consumer engagement.

Built with a focus on control and security, Firsthand's platform safeguards a company's data, voice, and customer relationships. At its core, Lakebed™ – our AI-first data and knowledge rights management solution – powers custom Brand Agents that transform protected company information into dynamic, personalized consumer engagements, seamlessly integrated into the user's online experience.

Firsthand is headquartered in NYC. Most team members come to the office to work together three days a week.

About the Role

We are seeking an innovative AI Leader to spearhead our product's latest LLM/AI technology. You will lead a team of engineers, guiding them through the research, development, and deployment of cutting-edge machine learning and large language models (LLMs). You should also be hands-on and thrive in a startup environment with a high degree of freedom and ambiguity.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead a team of engineers in experimenting, developing, and deploying advanced machine learning solutions and LLMs for our production systems.

• Drive the full life-cycle of ML systems development from conception through deployment and beyond, ensuring these systems' continuous optimization and enhancement.

• Stay at the forefront of AI technology by exploring and implementing the latest advancements in machine learning to elevate our systems' capabilities.

• Provide strategic direction and mentorship to your team, fostering a collaborative and innovative environment.

Who You Are:

• Over 7 years of professional experience in the machine learning field, with a strong emphasis on leadership and team management.

• Deep understanding of software engineering principles and proficiency in Python, ML frameworks, ML experiments, and MLOps tools. Deep learning and reinforcement learning experiences are strongly preferred.

• Exceptional communication and collaboration abilities.

• Extensive experience with machine learning systems in production, particularly within the NLP/LLM domain.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills and an unwavering attention to detail.

• Self-driven and highly motivated to take ownership of projects and drive them to completion.

• Advertising or marketing-related experience is a strong plus.

How to Apply

If you are ready to embark on an exhilarating journey at the forefront of AI, seize this incredible opportunity and apply here. We eagerly anticipate hearing from you!

Note: Compensation and equity will be market-competitive for well-capitalized, early stage startups and will be discussed during the interview process.