Head of Applications

TwelveLabs builds the intelligence layer for video, enabling multimodal AI models to understand video across sight, sound, and motion. Our technology powers production-scale AI workloads in media, entertainment, sports, security, and government. Backed by over $200M from top VCs like Index Ventures and NEA, as well as enterprises like Nvidia and Amazon, we are a global team with offices in San Francisco, Seoul, New York, and London.

About The Role

TwelveLabs has developed the foundational intelligence layer for video, including shared infrastructure, multimodal models, and an agent harness for understanding and reasoning over video. The next phase is transforming this technology into accessible products for users without requiring technical expertise. As Head of Applications, you will define where TwelveLabs should focus, identify high-impact use cases, and build products that customers adopt and pay for. You will own the application layer end-to-end—from customer discovery to product development, launch, adoption, and growth. This is a builder-GM role requiring hands-on leadership across product, engineering, and team-building.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategy for TwelveLabs' application layer: determine which users, workflows, and features to prioritize—and what to avoid.
• Identify a focused wedge through direct customer discovery, rapid prototyping, and disciplined market testing.
• Ship AI-native applications for non-technical users, leveraging TwelveLabs' core models, agent harness, and infrastructure.
• Define application-specific evaluations, success criteria, reliability thresholds, human review processes, and launch guardrails.
• Own the full outcome of shipped applications, including activation, engagement, retention, monetization, and customer value.
• Build a fast learning loop between users and the product, using data and behavior to refine workflows, interfaces, and model experiences.
• Act as the internal customer for platform and model teams, defining required capabilities, APIs, latency, quality, and reliability.
• Partner with Design, Research, Engineering, Product, Commercial, Revenue, and Partnerships teams to take products from prototype to adoption.
• Work closely with lighthouse customers while converting insights into reusable products, not one-off implementations.
• Recruit and lead a lean, high-performing team with the versatility to move from idea to production.
• Establish a culture of speed, craft, direct user contact, and clear accountability while keeping the team lean.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in product and product leadership roles, preferably at early to mid-stage software companies.
• Proven track record of building and growing a product from zero to meaningful adoption, with clear accountability for outcomes.
• Exceptional product judgment: ability to identify critical workflows, simplify complex technology, and avoid distractions.
• Technical fluency to collaborate with engineers and researchers on architecture, model behavior, latency, evaluation, reliability, and cost.
• Understanding of AI-native product realities: probabilistic behavior, evaluation design, trust, human review, privacy, and tradeoffs between quality, latency, and cost.
• Experience designing or leading growth loops that improve activation, retention, distribution, or monetization—not just acquisition.
• Strong recruiting skills and experience building early teams of high-performing, low-ego individuals.
• Hands-on leadership: you use the product, engage with users, analyze data, and drive quality through direct involvement.
• Ability to move quickly, create evidence, make decisions, and pivot based on feedback without confusing activity with progress.
• Clear communication across research, engineering, design, and go-to-market teams to resolve cross-layer tradeoffs efficiently.

What Success Looks Like

• First 90 Days:
  • Develop a clear view of the most promising users, workflows, and distribution paths.
  • Narrow focus to one or two application wedges using market-attractiveness and right-to-win filters.
  • Put working prototypes in users' hands and establish a weekly build-measure-learn cadence.
  • Define application-specific evals and set quality, trust, latency, and cost thresholds for production.
  • Establish the boundary and operating rhythm between the application team and shared infrastructure/model teams.
  • Close the first critical hires for the applications team.
• First 3 Months:
  • Launch a real product to a focused user base, not just a demo or technology showcase.
  • Demonstrate repeated use and measurable customer value in the chosen workflow.
  • Establish instrumentation for activation, engagement, retention, quality, and cost to serve.
  • Show measurable user ROI, such as time saved, content found, decisions accelerated, or workflows completed.
  • Convert early customer-specific work into reusable workflows, templates, integrations, or capabilities.
  • Translate application needs into prioritized improvements for core models, agent harness, and infrastructure.
  • Build a small team capable of discovering, building, launching, and iterating with minimal coordination overhead.
• First 6 Months:
  • Establish at least one application with a credible path to product-market fit and durable distribution.
  • Turn early adoption into repeatable growth and monetization.
  • Develop a clear portfolio thesis for future products based on learnings, not speculation.
  • Make the application layer a compounding advantage for the company by sharpening platform, models, customer understanding, and go-to-market.

Backgrounds That Could Fit

There is no single required path. You may come from one of these backgrounds:

• A product leader who has repeatedly shipped zero-to-one products and stayed accountable for growth post-launch.
• A product growth leader with strong technical depth and a record of improving the product, not just optimizing funnels.
• A growth or product engineering leader who became the owner of a product and business outcome.
• A founder or early startup leader who found a wedge, shipped the product, won the first users, and built the first team.

What matters is the combination of product taste, technical fluency, growth instinct, and the ability to build a team and business from the ground up.

Benefits

• An open and inclusive culture and work environment.
• Opportunity to work closely with a collaborative, mission-driven team on cutting-edge AI technology.
• Full health, dental, and vision benefits.
• Extremely flexible PTO and parental leave policy; office closed the week of Christmas and New Year’s.
• Monthly wellness stipend.
• Annual Learning & Development stipend to invest in your growth.
• Global offices in San Francisco, New York, and Seoul, with coworking memberships for remote team members.
• VISA support where applicable.
• Transportation stipend (SF & NY onsite only).
• Daily meals provided (SF & NY onsite only).