Founding Deployment Strategist, Supply Chain AI

Founding Deployment Strategist, Supply Chain AI

On-site (San Francisco, CA) · $160K–$250K · 2 openings

About the company

An early-stage AI startup building infrastructure for autonomous supply chain agents, AI that monitors supplier data, surfaces insights human teams would otherwise miss, and executes procurement and planning workflows directly inside Fortune 500 manufacturers and government organizations. The founding team's work grew out of academic research on AI-driven optimization, and the platform is already live with major industrial customers, with strong land-and-expand traction. The team is very small and tight-knit, working in-person with deep founder involvement in every deployment.

The role

You'll own the full deployment motion for AI agents going live inside large manufacturers and government organizations, acting as the connective tissue between new and existing customers. This means running discovery, scoping use cases, building business cases, and handing off to the engineering team once a pilot is signed. This is a true founding seat: you'll be building the methodology itself from scratch alongside the CEO and CTO directly, with no layers of management and no existing playbook to follow.

What you'll do

• Lead discovery with new manufacturers, sitting in on intro calls, surfacing pain points, and defining exactly what the platform can solve for them
• Build demos on top of the platform using AI-assisted tools to showcase solutions to prospective customers
• Build and present business cases with clear ROI to win new pilots and expand existing accounts
• Project-manage deployments across a manufacturer's IT, procurement, and supply chain teams alongside the engineering team
• Support engineering on existing customer expansions, scoping new workflows and quantifying ROI for land-and-expand growth

What you must bring

• A strategy consulting background at a top-tier firm, at the pre-MBA/BA level, with genuinely structured problem-solving and enterprise stakeholder management skills, or direct deployment/field experience at an enterprise AI or software company, or strong strategic partnerships/business development experience with a track record of driving revenue-generating deal flow in enterprise AI deployment (this last path does not require a heavy engineering background)
• Hands-on experience with manufacturing, industrials, supply chain, or defense clients — genuine on-site, operational experience, not just deck-building
• Real executive presence — you've been in the room with senior stakeholders and can hold your own with both operators and C-suite executives
• AI fluency, with genuine comfort using tools like Claude or Cursor to build demos and automate work independently
• Based in or willing to relocate to San Francisco, on-site five days a week, with 15–30% international travel (primarily Europe and Asia)
• 1–3 years of relevant experience

Nice to have

• Private equity due diligence experience on industrial assets (manufacturing, supply chain, or logistics operations)
• A bachelor's degree from a top-tier university

Compensation & logistics

• $160K–$250K base salary plus competitive equity
• On-site five days a week in San Francisco
• 15–30% international travel required, primarily to Europe and Asia
• 2 openings
• Not open to any visa sponsorship — candidates must already be authorized to work in the US

This isn't the right fit if

• Your background is purely deck-and-slide consulting with no hands-on, operator-facing work or go-live ownership
• You have no customer-facing experience at all, having worked exclusively in internal or back-office roles
• You have zero exposure whatsoever to manufacturing, industrials, supply chain, or procurement