Research & Product Lead

Team size: 11-50 employees
Founded: 2022
Location San Francisco, CA Work Type In-person (5 days/week)
Employment: Full-Time
Experience: 5+ Years
Visa Sponsorship: None Available

We are hiring a Research & Product Lead to be a high-leverage generalist operator across the company. The role combines deep technical fluency with strong relationship skills, managing Sieve's most important customer accounts, driving cross-functional execution, and contributing wherever the company needs leverage. It sits at the intersection of product, applied research, customer engagement, and operations. You will be equally comfortable in a technical deep-dive as you are shaping roadmap priorities, navigating a commercial conversation, or building out scalable internal systems.

This role exists because client's customer base comprises the most technically demanding organizations in the world, and the team is scaling fast. Managing those relationships and the operations behind them requires someone who can operate as a peer with the engineers and researchers they work with, while also building the systems that let the company scale.

You are:
Experienced operators with existing AI lab relationships or a background at a human data company (Scale, Surge, Sapien, Mercor, Invisible, Toloka, Snorkel, Defined.ai, or similar)
5+ years out of consulting (MBB or top tier), banking, or as an APM at an AI company, paired with an engineering degree and demonstrable technical curiosity
Across both tracks, the universal filter is high curiosity and high EQ.

What You'll Own:
Build and manage relationships with frontier AI labs and highly technical customers
Translate customer needs into internal product and research priorities
Operate as a strategic partner to both external customers and internal technical teams
Drive cross-functional execution across research, product, operations, and partnerships
Help identify operational bottlenecks and implement scalable systems and processes
Support high-priority strategic initiatives across the company
Work closely with researchers, engineers, and leadership on ambiguous, fast-moving projects
Navigate technical conversations around datasets, model performance, infrastructure, and AI workflows
Help shape how Sieve scales customer engagement and internal operations as the company grows
Contribute wherever needed as a high-leverage generalist operator

Requirements
Excellent general problem solving skills
Bachelor's degree in computer science (or equivalent technical degree)
Strong understanding of ML and AI workflows, particularly around data pipelines and model training
Enough technical depth to hold substantive conversations with engineers and researchers at frontier AI labs
Familiarity with how data quality, pipeline architecture, and dataset composition affect model training outcomes
Excellent written and verbal communication that commands credibility with senior technical stakeholders
Comfort translating between engineering and business audiences fluently
High curiosity and high EQ
Scrappy and able to pick things up on the job in a fast-moving startup environment
In-person at client's SF HQ 5 days a week

Nice-to-Have
Senior track: existing relationships at AI labs or frontier model companies (highest-signal background for the senior track)
Senior track: background at a human data company (Scale, Surge, Sapien, Mercor, Invisible, Toloka, Snorkel, Defined.ai, Datasaur)
Generalist track: engineering degree paired with 1-2 years at MBB, top consulting, banking, or APM at an AI company
Background in video, media, or content-related technologies
Prior early-stage startup experience, especially as an early hire who saw a customer-facing function get built from zero
Experience in product, technical operations, or a customer-facing technical role

Benefits & Perks
Competitive compensation + equity
Health insurance
Free lunch and dinner

Interview Process
1. CV Approval
2. Application Review
3. Initial Screen
4. 2nd Round
5. Intro Chat with CEO
6. On Site Interview
7. Offer