Head of Data & AI

About the job

• Position:  Head of Data & AI

• Location(s): Paris

• Salary range (base): 95 - 120k€

• Type of Contract: CDI

• Direct reporting line: CTO

• Start date: ASAP

About OSS Ventures

OSS Ventures is an industrial-focused venture platform.
We build and invest in vertical companies transforming industrial operations through software and AI. Backed by >50M€ in assets under management, OSS supports 22+ companies whose products are used daily by over 100.000+ users in 3.800+ factories.

The role

Why we need you

We are scaling our portfolio and need a strategic yet hands-on leader to own our Data & AI vision. This person will solve the critical challenge of ensuring our startups aren't just experimenting with AI, but are deploying scalable, secure, and profitable LLM and agentic systems. If we don't fill this role with someone who possesses both a strong builder mindset and sharp business sensitivity, our startups risk building disjointed, costly AI features rather than structural, market-leading differentiators.

What you'll do

In a nutshell

You will define, lead, and guarantee Data and Artificial Intelligence excellence across the OSS Ventures portfolio, acting as a hands-on builder and coach to help our startups scale while expanding our core venture-building model.

Your main responsibilities

• Own the Portfolio Data & AI Strategy: Define the vision (Modern Data Stack, LLM architectures, RAG, agentic frameworks) and ensure all AI use cases align with business objectives and unit profitability.

• Drive Execution & Quality: Supervise MLOps and LLMOps execution, proactively identifying and mitigating AI risks like hallucinations, bias, and data security.

• Coach & Elevate Founders: Guide startups through critical phases (0→1 POCs, scaling workflows, AI due diligence for fundraising) and help them recruit top-tier tech talent.

• Upskill the Tech Community: Transform our broader "Tech Team" into an "AI-First Team" by democratizing ML/AI concepts, establishing prompt engineering standards, and leading a transversal Data/AI Guild.

• Build the OSS Tech System: Design scalable playbooks (RAG MVPs, multi-agent architectures) and natively integrate agentic AI as a structural lever for B2B product differentiation.

On a day-to-day basis, you will:

• Intervene in a targeted, hands-on manner in startups facing complex LLM integration or data engineering challenges.

• Arbitrate structural technological decisions alongside founders (e.g., proprietary vs. open-source models, build vs. buy).

• Track performance indicators across the portfolio (ROI of AI features, accuracy, latency, adoption).

• Work with the Head of Product and Venture Ops to prioritize tech upskilling where business impact is highest.ompany and customers. Get them excited for the role

Who you'll work with

You report directly to the CTO, ensuring the Data/AI stack integrates perfectly with the overall technical architecture. You will be a C-level partner to startup founders and a mentor to their local Lead Data/ML engineers. You own the transversal algorithmic vision and have the autonomy to arbitrate on structural data and AI decisions across the studio.

What success looks like

• At 30 days: You have audited the current Data/AI stacks across the portfolio, built relationships with key founders, and identified the top 3 immediate technical bottlenecks.

• At 90 days: You have deployed your first scalable playbooks and successfully upskilled the first cohort of developers in the AI-First program.

• At 6 months: You can demonstrate clear, trackable ROI and performance improvements in AI features across multiple startups, and the Data/AI Guild is a thriving, self-sustaining community.

Your profile

Must-haves (non-negotiable - if you don't have these, this role isn't for you)

• A Builder Mindset & Business Sensitivity: You don't just advise from the sidelines; you jump into the code to troubleshoot and build, while constantly translating complex tech architectures into tangible B2B SaaS revenue and ROI.

• Generative AI & Agentic Systems Mastery: Advanced, practical experience with LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral), RAG architectures, and frameworks like LangChain, LlamaIndex, AutoGen, or CrewAI.

• C-Level Stakeholder Management: Proven ability to navigate big enterprise clients, project confidence, and lead sensitive discussions on Data Privacy and AI Governance.

• Early-Stage Pragmatism: Ability to operate with speed in a 0→1 startup environment while simultaneously thinking about portfolio-scale standardization.

Years of experience

• 5+ years in Data Science, Machine Learning, and Data Engineering.

• 2+ years managing multi-level Data/Tech teams.

• Experience in early-stage startups and B2B SaaS environments.

We'll teach you what you don't yet know about

• The specific mechanics and internal methodologies of the Venture building model.

• Manufacturing 

This role is probably not for you if...

• You want a purely strategic, ivory-tower advisory role and are unwilling to get your hands dirty in the actual execution.

• You build AI for the sake of AI and don't care about mastering compute costs, token management, or overarching business profitability.

• You need a highly structured, perfectly defined, slow-moving corporate environment to be effective.