AI Forward Deployed Strategist

AI Forward Deployed Strategist

Location San Francisco, CA 94114 Date Posted August 11, 2026 Job ID 15219 Employment Type Direct Hire

Scion Technology has been engaged to conduct a search for an experienced AI Forward Deployed Strategist for our client, an AI-driven software company transforming the global commodities industry in the Bay Area. This is a full-time position, hybrid in San Francisco.

POSITION OVERVIEW

We are hiring an AI Forward Deployed Strategist to own end-to-end customer deployments, transforming messy, real-world commodity trading workflows into production AI systems. You will be one of our first forward-deployed hires and one of the company's first ten employees. You will work directly with customers, engineering, and product while helping build our deployment function from the ground up. This is a hands-on individual-contributor role for someone who combines structured problem-solving, customer leadership, operational judgment, and genuine fluency with modem AI tools.

PERKS

• Meaningful ownership: As one of our first ten employees, you will directly shape our deployment methodology, tooling, and team.
• Compelling upside: Competitive cash compensation and meaningful early-stage equity in a company already serving enterprise customers.
• High-impact work: You will turn complex physical-world operations into production AI systems for one of the world's largest and most underserved industries.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own the complete deployment lifecycle across multiple customers, including discovery, scoping, configuration, user acceptance testing, launch, and go-live.
• Map customer workflows and operational pain points to our AI agent platform.
• Define data models, field mappings, business rules, agentic steps, deterministic logic, and human-review requirements.
• Lead kickoffs, working sessions, training, and UAT with stakeholders ranging from warehouse operators to VP- and director-level executives.
• Act as the internal project manager for each customer, maintaining momentum, surfacing risks, and driving ambiguous problems toward concrete outcomes.
• Translate deployment learnings into structured product feedback for engineering and product.
• Build implementation playbooks, templates, runbooks, and internal tools that help future deployments move faster.
• Use AI-assisted development tools such as Claude, Codex, and Cursor to prototype solutions and automate workflows.
• Travel to customer sites when necessary, including locations across the United States, Europe, and Asia.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Approximately 1-5 years of experience in deployment, implementation, consulting, business operations, strategy and operations, or a related customer-facing role.
• Demonstrated ownership of complex implementations from discovery through go-live.
• Strong project-management skills and the ability to manage several parallel deployments without losing momentum or detail.
• Genuine daily fluency with AI tools such as Claude, Codex, Cursor, or similar platforms.
• Evidence that you have personally built, automated, or prototyped workflows with AI-not solely used AI for writing and summarization.
• Comfort working with structured data, including CSV, JSON, field mappings, APis, and basic data models.
• Ability to troubleshoot workflows and reason about systems without depending on engineering for every issue.
• Clear communication across technical and nontechnical audiences, from frontline operators to executives.
• Comfort operating in an early-stage environment and remaining deeply hands-on as an individual contributor.
• Based in San Francisco or willing to relocate, with the ability to work from our office four days per week.
• Willingness to travel up to 30%, including internationally.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

This direct hire position offers a salary of $165,000-$240,000 annually. They offer a robust benefits package that includes comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, along with additional perks.

ABOUT OUR FIRM

Scion Staffing is a national award-winning staffing firm! Since 2006, we have had the pleasure of successfully placing thousands of talented professionals with amazing career opportunities. Through our innovative team building and recruiting solutions, we bridge the gap in executive leadership searches, direct hire recruiting, interim leadership placement, and temporary professional staffing. We are proud to be part of the Forbes lists of the Best Recruitment Firms and the Best Executive Search Firms in America. Additionally, Scion has been recognized as a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing firm as well as a top recruitment firm by The Business Times. Additional information about our firm can also be found online.

Scion Staffing, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and service provider and does not discriminate based on race, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, citizenship status, sexual orientation, disability, political affiliation or belief, or any other protected class. We are committed to the principles of Equal Opportunity Employment and are dedicated to making employment decisions based on merit and value, for ourselves, our client companies, and the candidates we represent. For opportunities located in a region that have enacted fair chance, arrest or conviction-based employment ordinances, Scion Staffing proactively follows the enacted guidance and considers for employment all qualified applications with arrest and conviction records. We engage in socially conscious business practices and believe that diverse, inclusive, and non-biased talent and recruitment processes are foundational to the success of Scion as well as every client organization with whom we partner.