Research Program Manager

ABOUT AFTERQUERY

AfterQuery https://www.afterquery.com/ is an applied research lab curating data solutions for foundation model development. We serve every frontier AI lab with the mission of delivering the best data to power the best models. In doing so, we can make expertise that once took a lifetime to build available to anyone who needs it.

Our customers are the ones building the foundation models themselves and our work sits directly in the loop of how those systems improve. This is a rare opportunity to join a company at a defining moment in AI. Forbes reported that we could be YC's fastest unicorn, reportedly raising at a $3.2 billion valuation. We're based in San Francisco and backed by leading investors including Altos Ventures, BoxGroup, and Y Combinator and angels from Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta Superintelligence Labs, and Microsoft AI.

WHY APPLY

Massive Opportunity: Forbes reported that we could be YC's fastest unicorn, reportedly raising at a $3.2 billion valuation, and we're not slowing down.

Founding Impact: You will own and architect core infrastructure systems that power our platform from the ground up.

Equity & Growth: Competitive salary and meaningful equity. As we scale, you’ll have the opportunity to shape the engineering organization and lead major technical initiatives.

Strong Team: Our founding team has experience from Citadel Securities, Meta, Google, Silver Lake, and Morgan Stanley — work alongside world-class engineers and researchers.

OVERVIEW

AfterQuery is hiring a Research Program Manager to run the operations behind its research programs: public benchmark releases, collaborations with academic and industry partners, and the research roadmap. You own the coordination, external relationships, and progress tracking that keep the program moving, and you are welcome to contribute to the research itself, from benchmark design to co-authoring publications.

This is a technical, hands-on role, not a pure coordination one. You will read results tables, run evals, sanity-check numbers before they go public, and turn loosely specified research needs into engineering and operational roadmaps. You will also be the program's voice to external partners, so clear writing and confident communication across researchers, executives, and academics are as important as technical fluency. You work daily with researchers, engineers, domain experts, and go-to-market partners.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serve as the point of contact for collaborations with academic and industry partners, including fellowships, grants, and joint research projects, and run each from scoping through delivery.
• Coordinate benchmark releases end to end, from launch checklist through publication, and keep releases on cadence.
• Maintain AfterQuery's leaderboards and benchmark sites, and verify every result before it goes to a community leaderboard or publication.
• Track progress across all active research projects. Anticipate resourcing gaps and technical bottlenecks, unblock projects that fall behind, and escalate with a clear recommendation when a timeline or scope needs to change.
• Coordinate the expert pool for upcoming benchmarks: forecast expert needs, manage capacity, and keep contributor logistics running.
• Write the program's external and internal communications: launch briefs, partner updates, planning documents, and status memos that turn technical detail into clear, actionable summaries.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 1-3+ years in research operations, technical program management, or a similar role in a fast-moving research or engineering organization.
• Technical background in computer science, machine learning, statistics, or a related field, with working Python and SQL.
• Evaluation literacy: you have taken part in evaluating a product, an agent, or a foundation model, can read a results table, and can tell when a number should not be trusted.
• Excellent written and verbal communication. You can distill a technical result into a summary a partner, executive, or academic collaborator can act on, and you write documents people actually read.
• A track record of running cross-functional programs end to end, including managing external partners, contractors, or collaborators.
• Comfort with ambiguity and building processes from scratch, and the judgment to keep processes light so researchers stay effective.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Graduate degree or research experience in a technical field.
• Contributed to a benchmark, dataset, or evaluation project in any role.
• Familiarity with public leaderboards or open research communities.
• Exposure to programs with external partners, such as fellowships, grants, or academic collaborations.
• Exposure to expert or annotator pools, or other human-data work.
• Comfort with lightweight dashboards or building small tools with AI assistants.

COMPANY BENEFITS (FOR ELIGIBLE EMPLOYEES)

• Health Insurance: Medical, Vision, Dental
• 401(k) with Employer Match
• Daily Meals: Daily UberEats Stipend
• Monthly Wellness Stipend

We are an equal opportunity employer committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. Employment decisions are made without regard to legally protected characteristics under applicable federal, state, or local law.

We comply with applicable pay transparency requirements and provide compensation ranges based on the position, qualifications, experience, and other relevant factors. Reasonable accommodations are available to qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs, as required by law. This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed and is not an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, qualifications, or working conditions associated with the position. We reserve the right to modify this job description as business needs change.