About the role
Who we are
Foundation models transformed text and images. Structured data - the largest and most consequential data format in the world - stayed untouched, until now. What LLMs did for language, we're doing for tables.
We pioneered tabular foundation models: TabPFN v2 was a Nature cover story, has passed 3.5M+ downloads and 7,500+ GitHub stars, and runs in production from detecting lung disease with Oxford Cancer Analytics to preventing train failures with Hitachi. The hardest problems - millions of rows, real-time inference, entirely new modalities - are still open, and no one else is working on them at this level.
We're a small, highly selective team of 40+ with backgrounds from Google, DeepMind, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Jane Street, and CERN, led by Frank Hutter, Noah Hollmann, and Sauraj Gambhir, and advised by Bernhard Schölkopf and Turing Award winner Yann LeCun.
In July 2026, less than 18 months after our €9M pre-seed, we joined SAP as an independent frontier AI lab - same team, mission, and open-weights models, now backed by more than €1 billion over four years.
About the Role
As our Founder Associate, you sit in the founders' office and work directly with the founders and Chief of Staff to shape and execute the initiatives that drive Prior Labs' growth. You get real ownership of business functions, with broad exposure across the company, from strategy to execution.
We run our business functions with defined areas of ownership: Growth, Sales & Enablement, Marketing & Community, and People Ops. You pick up ownership across these areas based on what the company needs and where you're strongest, and you go deep where you have the most impact.
Everything we do is AI-first, so you'll spend less time on the grunt work and more time building the systems that make it obsolete.
Core Areas of Impact
Below are examples of what you could own:
Growth
Leads that reach Prior Labs get qualified, enriched, scored, and routed automatically. You own that engine, make it better, and find the next channel.
Own the inbound pipeline end to end
Remove the manual steps that are left: better scoring, smarter routing, more automation
Build the pipeline reporting the founders and sales team actually use
Test new channels: data sources, outbound angles, our first paid experiments
Own tracking and attribution, so we know where pipeline actually comes from
Sales Enablement
Our sales team talks to some of the largest companies in the world. You build everything around their conversations so they can focus on selling.
Automate call prep: short briefings so no one walks into a call cold
Own decks, case studies, battle cards, and demo assets
Keep POCs on track: milestones, follow-ups, next steps
Turn closed deals into reference stories and case studies
Ops & Automation
We think most internal work can be automated with today's AI, and your job is to do it.
Pick the most annoying recurring workflow each month and automate it
Build agents and automations across our stack: HRIS, CRM, Notion, Slack
Own the internal tooling landscape: what we use, how it connects
Prototype fast: a working script this week over a perfect system next quarter
Ship things the whole company uses daily
Expansion & People Ops
We're doubling headcount across 2 countries, and everything behind that is being built right now. If you're obsessed with people, culture, and process building, this is your playground.
Help open our new offices and set up new countries
Own onboarding end to end, from signed contract to a solid first week
Take clunky people processes, redesign it, ship it
Make our HRIS the single source of truth, with automations doing the boring parts
Run the operational side of hiring: scheduling, candidate communication, interview logistics
What We're Looking For
You're a resourceful, adaptable, and self-driven builder who thrives in a fast-paced startup environment. We're looking for someone with the potential to grow into a future leader of the company. You have:
Essential Background
A Bachelor's or Master's degree in Business Administration, Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field, or you've done the work without the credential
1-2 years of experience in consulting, venture capital, start-ups or similar roles
An AI-first way of working: you try new tools the moment they come out, you know where they save time, and you know where your own judgment still has to take over
High agency: you ship a v1 quickly, iterate, and don't wait for a brief to figure out what needs doing
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a focus on execution
Structured and reliable: when you own something, it's handled
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, in English
What Makes You Special
Experience working in or with early-stage startups
You've built automations, agents, or internal tools that people actually used
Background in machine learning, data science, or related technical fields
Familiarity with open source, foundation models, or data science ecosystems
Proven ability to manage cross-functional projects or initiatives
Interest or experience in sales enablement, content creation, or community building
Location
Berlin, a global tech hub and one of Europe's most dynamic cities
On-site
Benefits
Competitive compensation package
30 days of paid vacation + public holidays
Comprehensive benefits including healthcare, transportation, and fitness
Real ownership from day one, with a manager who has time for you
An AI-first way of working, with the tooling and budget to match
Work with state-of-the-art ML architecture, substantial resources and a world-class team
Life at Prior Labs
You'll work alongside researchers and builders who hold themselves to a very high bar - in the quality of their work and in how they work with each other. We move fast and still take the time to do things right.
Our teams are based in Berlin, Freiburg, and New York - when you're working on something as hard as TabPFN, being in the same room matters. But great people come from everywhere, and in exceptional cases we're open to remote, which usually means frequent travel to one of our offices. Wherever you're based, the whole company comes together regularly for offsites to build and celebrate together.
Our Commitments
The best products and teams are built by people with a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds. We welcome applications from all identities and walks of life - especially if you've ever felt discouraged by "not checking every box" - and provide equal opportunities regardless of gender, sexual orientation, origin, disability, or any other trait that makes you who you are.
We care about how your data is handled - see our Recruiting Data Privacy page
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