GM, AI Ecosystem

As GM, AI Ecosystem at the Solana Foundation, you will be the Foundation's most senior presence in Silicon Valley and own Solana's growth strategy in the Bay Area end to end. This is a high-autonomy, high-visibility, capital-backed leadership role where you set regional strategy, control a dedicated budget, make funding decisions, and personally carry the relationships that determine whether the most ambitious AI and emerging tech companies build on Solana. Your defining mandate is to bridge Solana and the AI and emerging tech worlds, convincing builders that Solana is the chain to build the convergence of AI and crypto on.

What you'll do

• Own the Solana Foundation's entire strategy and presence in the Bay Area, set priorities, and be accountable for regional outcomes
• Build deep relationships across the AI/ML startup, research, and infrastructure communities, and make the case for building cutting-edge AI products and use cases on Solana
• Identify, cultivate, and activate the region's strongest builders, turning them into long-term Solana ecosystem participants
• Build trusted relationships with the Bay Area's top VCs, accelerators, and incubators to drive high-quality deal flow and co-investment into the Solana ecosystem
• Set the regional event strategy including hackathons, founder dinners, technical salons, and marquee side events at major conferences
• Forge partnerships across AI, fintech, and consumer tech that create compounding leverage for Solana's reach and narrative
• Represent the Foundation in high-stakes conversations with investors, founders, and press, and feed market intelligence back to global leadership to shape Solana's broader strategy

What you bring

• A decade or more of senior operating experience across venture capital, ecosystem leadership, company founding or scaling, or product and growth at a top-tier technology organization, with a track record others can point to
• Deep networks in the Bay Area with real, earned relationships among founders, investors, and operators that you can activate from day one
• Fluency in both crypto and AI: you understand Solana and can hold substantive conversations with AI founders and researchers about what they're building
• The judgment of a capital allocator: you tell signal from noise quickly, concentrate on the few relationships and bets that compound, and deploy resources where they'll matter most
• Exceptional communication and closing skills, the kind of person who earns trust in a single meeting
• Comfort with full ownership and ambiguity: you create your own surface area, set your own agenda, and don't wait to be told priorities
• Full-time residence in the San Francisco Bay Area (hard requirement)

Nice to have

• Demonstrated track record at the intersection of AI and crypto, with knowledge of where these communities overlap
• Existing, credible relationships in the AI/ML startup and research community
• Prior experience deploying capital through grants, investments, or an ecosystem fund, with accountability for outcomes
• Founder or early-operator experience

About the Solana Foundation

The Solana Foundation is a non-profit based in Zug, Switzerland, dedicated to the adoption, decentralization, and security of the Solana network. Solana is a high-performance blockchain delivering fast and friendly user experience without sacrificing security, working toward a world where individuals own their data, use permissionless networks, and transfer information and value freely.