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Founding Director Jobs in Santa Rosa, CA (NOW HIRING)

Nirva

Visual & Motion Designer

Sonoma, CA · On-site

$100K - $200K/yr

Backed by Lightspeed and South Park Commons, recognized at CES within 90 days of founding, and ... Director and Marketing team. WHAT YOU'LL OWN Create digital visuals across web, social, campaigns ...

New

Nirva

Visual & Motion Designer

Santa Rosa, CA · On-site

$100K - $200K/yr

Backed by Lightspeed and South Park Commons, recognized at CES within 90 days of founding, and ... Director and Marketing team. WHAT YOU'LL OWN Create digital visuals across web, social, campaigns ...

New

SANTA ROSA COMMUNITY HEALTH

CLINICIAN LEAD

Santa Rosa, CA

$218K - $263K/yr

Medical Director SALARY RANGE: MD/DO $218,010 - $263,380 DOE NP/PA $ 142,996 - $ 203,643 DOE Join ... Since our founding date, over 40,000 children, youth, families, adults, and elders rely on SRCH for ...

SANTA ROSA COMMUNITY HEALTH

CLINICIAN LEAD

Santa Rosa, CA · On-site

$218K - $263K/yr

Medical Director SALARY RANGE: MD/DO $218,010 - $263,380 DOE Join Us ! United in heart, health, and ... Since our founding date, over 40,000 children, youth, families, adults, and elders rely on SRCH for ...

Santa Rosa Community Health

CLINICIAN LEAD

Santa Rosa, CA · On-site

$218K - $263K/yr

Medical Director SALARY RANGE: MD/DO $218,010 - $263,380 DOE Join Us! United in heart, health, and ... Since our founding date, over 40,000 children, youth, families, adults, and elders rely on SRCH for ...

Constellation Brands

Quality Control Manager

Napa, CA · On-site

$100 - $154/hr

Our ability to stay on the forefront of consumer trends has fueled our success since our founding ... Direct resolution of field and consumer quality reports as it relates to bottling activities.

Readdy

Technical User Support Intern

Sonoma, CA · On-site

$16.75 - $21.50/hr

You'll work directly with our Community Manager and have a direct line to the founding engineering team * Strong performers will help shape our support playbook from scratch: this role is the first ...

New

Readdy

Technical User Support Intern

Santa Rosa, CA · On-site

$16.50 - $21/hr

You'll work directly with our Community Manager and have a direct line to the founding engineering team * Strong performers will help shape our support playbook from scratch: this role is the first ...

New

Calpine

Maintenance Technician III

Middletown, CA · On-site

$69.51 - $70.34/hr

Since its founding in 1984, Calpine has led the power industry in its unwavering commitment to ... Prepares all reports as directed by management and plant procedures. Ensures compliance with all ...

Constellation Brands

Quality Control Manager

Sonoma, CA · On-site

$100K - $153K/yr

Our ability to stay on the forefront of consumer trends has fueled our success since our founding ... Direct resolution of field and consumer quality reports as it relates to bottling activities.

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Founding Director information

What are some of the unique challenges a founding director faces when building and leading a new organization?

As a Founding Director, one of the main challenges is balancing strategic vision with hands-on operational duties, since you are often responsible for both setting long-term goals and managing daily operations. Building a strong team from the ground up and establishing a positive organizational culture require significant effort and adaptability. Additionally, securing funding and cultivating stakeholder relationships are crucial in the early stages, often demanding persistent networking and resourcefulness. Founding Directors also need to be comfortable adapting quickly to change, as early-stage organizations frequently pivot in response to market feedback or unforeseen obstacles.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a founding director, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Founding Director, you need strong leadership skills, strategic vision, and a solid background in business development or a relevant industry, often supported by advanced degrees or entrepreneurial experience. Familiarity with budgeting software, project management tools, and legal compliance systems is typically required. Exceptional communication, resilience, and the ability to inspire and motivate teams are standout soft skills in this role. These capabilities are crucial for setting organizational direction, driving growth, and establishing a strong foundation for long-term success.

What is the difference between Founding Director vs Program Manager?

AspectFounding DirectorProgram Manager
Required CredentialsTypically advanced degrees, leadership experience, industry knowledgeRelevant bachelor’s or master’s degree, project management certifications often preferred
Work EnvironmentLeadership role in startup or new organization, strategic planningOversees specific projects within organizations, operational focus
Employer & Industry UsageFounding organizations, startups, nonprofitsVarious industries, including nonprofits, corporate sectors, government

The Founding Director is a high-level leadership role responsible for establishing and guiding a new organization or initiative, often requiring strategic vision and industry expertise. In contrast, a Program Manager focuses on managing specific projects within an organization, ensuring they meet goals and deadlines. While both roles require strong organizational skills, the Founding Director has broader responsibilities related to organizational development and leadership.

What does it mean to be a founding director?

A founding director is a person who helps establish and lead a new organization or company from its inception. They are involved in setting the vision, making key decisions, and often hold a significant leadership role during the early stages of the organization’s development.

What are popular job titles related to Founding Director jobs in Santa Rosa, CA?

For Founding Director jobs in Santa Rosa, CA, the most frequently searched job titles are:

What job categories do people searching Founding Director jobs in Santa Rosa, CA look for?

The top searched job categories for Founding Director jobs in Santa Rosa, CA are:

What cities near Santa Rosa, CA are hiring for Founding Director jobs?

Cities near Santa Rosa, CA with the most Founding Director job openings:

Founding Director jobs near you
Infographic showing various Founding Director job openings in Santa Rosa, CA as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 79% Full Time, 18% Part Time, and 2% Contract. Highlights an 89% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 8% Remote job distribution.

Applied AI Researcher

Morpheus Talent Solutions

Santa Rosa, CA • On-site

Other

Posted 3 days ago

New

Job description

Applied AI Researcher - Model Evaluation & Data Strategy


San Francisco (in-person preferred; open to remote across US, UK, Australia, and Europe) · Retained search - confidential client


The engagement

Morpheus has been exclusively retained to lead the search for a founding Applied AI Researcher on behalf of an early-stage, profitable AI research company.


About the client


An early-stage AI research company that works with leading AI labs to find where frontier models fail and build the expert human data that fixes them. They run a vetted network of 5,000+ top-1% specialists across finance, medicine, law, engineering, music, and other domains - competing on the quality of expert judgment, not the scale of cheap labeling.


Backed by a top pre-seed fund and angel investors who are founders and senior researchers at leading frontier AI labs. Already profitable.


The role


A founding, research-first seat - a genuine thought partner on evaluation and data strategy, not someone who coordinates other people's research, and not client-facing or delivery. You'll design evaluations, form and test hypotheses about model failure, and define the datasets, rubrics, reward signals, and quality controls that move performance - then work with engineers to turn them into scalable programs. Publishing is core to this role, not a perk - you'll be expected to author and present research that positions the company as a research partner to the field, so a prior publication record is essential.


What you'll do


  • Design evaluations for generative, reasoning, tool-use, and agentic systems across modalities - text, audio, vision - where technique and domain expertise differ meaningfully by modality.
  • Own real experimental design: hypothesize where a model breaks, build the eval to test it, and quantify what's actually failing.
  • Build RL environments and reward signals in close partnership with engineers.
  • Recommend SFT data, preference data, expert demonstrations, critiques, and eval sets.
  • Build quality systems - calibration, blind review, adjudication - that hold up in non-deterministic domains.
  • Run pilots that prove whether an intervention moves performance, and publish work that positions the company as a research partner to the field.


What the client is looking for


  • A track record of published research - you've authored papers at venues like NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, or EMNLP (or comparable). This is a research seat with a mandate to publish, so a demonstrated publication record is essential.
  • Genuine experimental-design experience - you've designed studies and evals, not just executed someone else's rubric.
  • Comfort operating in non-deterministic domains and with novel, fast-moving research frameworks.
  • Agentic evaluation proficiency; RL environment experience, ideally built alongside engineers.
  • Cross-modal understanding - awareness that audio, text, and vision each demand different techniques.
  • Strong Python, model APIs, and structured datasets; solid grounding in benchmark design, human eval, rubric development, and statistical analysis.
  • Familiarity with SFT, preference optimization, RLHF/RLAIF, reward modeling, synthetic data, or LLM-as-a-judge.
  • Strong technical writing and the ability to drive ambiguous research independently.


Nice to have


Experience at an AI lab, foundation-model company, or post-training team; expert-data or human-eval program design; multimodal/coding/agentic eval work; public benchmarks or eval frameworks.


The reality - worth knowing up front


This is an early, high-momentum team that currently works a six-day week: Saturdays are fully remote and self-directed, no set hours - most people use them as a heads-down research day. Compensation is $200K-$350K base + equity; visa sponsorship available.


To apply


Apply here or message me directly. I represent this search exclusively and will share the company name, team, and full details confidentially with candidates who are a strong fit.

Apply