Category Ventures is an early-stage investment firm based in San Francisco. We partner with founders building infrastructure, developer tools, and application software companies that shape how software is built and used.
We operate as a small partnership and value speed, technical depth, and independent judgment. Much of our work happens outside standard venture workflows.
Role Overview
We're hiring an AI Engineer to define and execute how the firm uses AI across sourcing, research, diligence, and internal operations.
This is a hands-on role. You will own the development of AI systems used daily by our team and portfolio, working directly alongside the Partners to identify where software can create meaningful leverage.
The goal is to compound the firm's judgment, speed, and ability to support our founders through durable software. Our Partners actively build software to this day, and you'll be in the trenches with them.
What You'll Do
- -Build and improve the internal systems that power how we source, evaluate, and support companies
Designing pipelines that surface interesting founders from technical communities
Developing agents that monitor emerging projects
Building interfaces that help the team synthesize diligence faster
- -Turn repeatable workflows into durable, AI-enabled software the team relies on daily
- -Ship fast, then harden systems for reliability and long-term use — you own the full lifecycle
- -Keep the team current on technical developments that matter to our portfolio and investment focus
- -Coauthor and publish technical content — rigorous, opinionated work that translates complex topics into clear, defensible investment theses
Who You Are
- -You've built and shipped AI-native software where modern AI capabilities are core to the system's design
- -You stay current with the latest AI models, frameworks and tooling and know how to evaluate and integrate them into production systems
- -You are a builder and are innately curious — you have a genuine interest in startups, developer tooling, and emerging technologies
- -You have strong engineering fundamentals and are comfortable owning production systems end-to-end
- -You've worked across application code, data systems, and external APIs — you're at home stitching together messy, unstructured data sources into something useful
- -You're high agency. Comfortable operating without a product manager or detailed spec. You identify what matters and go build it.
- -You are a strong communicator, both written and verbal. You can explain complex technical ideas clearly and contribute to high-quality written work.