Operator-In-Residence (OIR): AI Infrastructure (Software)

About the Company

Primary is a seed-stage venture capital firm dedicated to delivering exceptional support to the founders of transformational businesses. By pairing meaningful investment resources with the largest portfolio impact team of any seed investor, our portfolio companies have reached an industry-best seed-to-A graduation rate. The firm’s Incubation arm, Primary Labs, launched in 2019 to support the ideation, research and launch of new startups. Primary’s first three incubated companies will return its first fund many times over, and Primary is now primed for substantial growth in its Incubation efforts. Check out our blog post, “AI Accelerates Incubation Velocity” to learn more about Primary’s incubation philosophy.

About the Role

Primary Labs is looking for an Operator-In-Residence (OIR) to join Primary Labs with a focus on software opportunities within AI Infrastructure. This role is open to candidates based in the SF bay area who are willing to work in person in San Mateo 3+ days a week.

We’re amidst the biggest infrastructure build out in decades. Over $1T+ of capital will be deployed into AI infrastructure over the next decade, driven by explosive growth in compute demand. We believe the next wave of opportunity lies in the software layer to enable more AI innovation, performance, and efficiency – from new approaches in cognitive architecture and knowledge representation to developer tooling, model deployment, observability, cost management, and data infrastructure. As AI systems scale in speed & complexity, new software abstractions will be required to make them reliable, efficient and accessible.

The right person for this OIR role is a curious, adaptable software generalist who thrives at the intersection of business and technology. They’re strong on ideation, research, and execution — a doer who can both build and think strategically. Ideally, they bring experience across multiple AI software domains such as agent architecture, reasoning, benchmarking, reinforcement learning, world modeling, knowledge representation (knowledge graphs), AI kernel development (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Modular), or AI data engineering and MLOps. Above all, they must believe that there is a unique opportunity to build a multi-billion-dollar software business in the AI Infrastructure space.

What You'll Do

• Support Primary’s idea generation and vetting process

• Connect with academics and researchers and top institutions and learn about their work in order to explore opportunities for commercialization

• Conduct intensive market analysis, competitive landscaping and customer research

• Develop business models, product roadmaps, and go-to-market strategies for the most promising startup ideas

• Create pitch decks and other investor materials

• Join the company in its launch phase as a founding team member responsible for gaining initial traction, building out the rest of the team, and supporting business operations or go back to the drawing board with the Incubation program all over again

• Support Primary’s executive recruiters in identifying and closing your Co-Founders

About You

• Self-starter: you have an entrepreneur’s intrinsic motivation, capable of independently running with business ideas with substantial ambiguity

• Network-builder: you’re comfortable developing relationships with industry leaders from the ground up

• Entrepreneurial: you are eager to engage in the venture and startup ecosystem and have your finger on the pulse when it comes to new deals and emerging business models in the AI Infrastructure landscape

• Storyteller: you’re able to learn rapidly, develop a strong point of view, and communicate compelling narratives

• Commercially-minded: you are comfortable with financial models and concepts and can quickly assess the feasibility and scalability of a new venture idea

• Technical acumen: software generalist, ideally not wed to just one technology or market, with experience in AI software across agent architecture, reasoning, knowledge representation, etc.

• 4+ years of experience in the AI Infrastructure space as a Product Manager or Engineer with strong business sense