IMPONEXPO BUILDER COHORT
AI • Engineering • Product • Data • Research
Imponexpo is expanding its core building team with a select cohort of exceptional technologists, researchers, designers and systems thinkers.
Our existing team has been developing products, research, technical systems and intellectual infrastructure around the future of connected commerce. We are now entering a stage that requires additional depth in artificial intelligence, engineering, product, data and research.
The Imponexpo Builder Cohort is a distinct entrepreneurial pathway for highly capable people who want meaningful ownership, unusually high responsibility and the opportunity to help accelerate important work already underway.
This is not an internship, volunteer programme or conventional salaried position. It is designed for people who want to help build an ambitious technology company during a consequential stage of its development.
WHAT YOU MAY WORK ON
We are particularly interested in exceptional people across:
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Large Language Models, post-training and evaluation
- AI agents and intelligent systems
- Software and platform engineering
- Distributed systems and technical architecture
- Product design and AI-native user experience
- Data engineering and knowledge systems
- Knowledge graphs and entity intelligence
- Computational and applied research
Potential areas of responsibility may include:
- AI Science and AI Systems
- Principal AI & Platform Engineering
- Product Design Architecture
- Commerce Data & Graph Systems
- Knowledge Systems & Research Engineering
Titles and scope will reflect demonstrated capability, responsibility and contribution.
HOW BUILDERS WORK
Builder Cohort members will work closely with the Founder & CEO and the existing Imponexpo team on some of the company’s most important technical, product and research challenges.
The Founder continues to lead Imponexpo’s vision, product architecture and strategic direction. Builders are being added to deepen that work, challenge it intelligently and take increasing ownership of specialized areas requiring exceptional expertise.
We are not looking for people who simply wait for tasks.
We want people who can receive a difficult problem, understand the objective, investigate deeply, question assumptions, identify trade-offs, propose stronger approaches and move from thinking to implementation without constant supervision.
A strong Builder should eventually become one of the people Imponexpo relies upon for exceptional judgment within his or her discipline.
CAPABILITY MATTERS. CHARACTER MATTERS TOO.
We are deliberately looking for good people, not simply impressive CVs.
Technical brilliance without integrity is not enough.
We value people who are trustworthy, intellectually honest, resilient, respectful and curious. People who can disagree strongly without becoming destructive. People who share credit, protect confidential information, admit mistakes and change their minds when better evidence appears.
We want people who make strong teammates stronger.
We do not want internal politics, unnecessary ego, territorial behaviour or people who become difficult when circumstances are no longer comfortable.
The people around you matter when you are trying to build something difficult.
THE BUILDER ECONOMIC MODEL
The Builder Cohort is an equity-focused entrepreneurial pathway and is separate from Imponexpo’s professional salaried employment track.
During the initial formation period, the Builder arrangement may involve limited or no cash compensation from Imponexpo.
Candidates considering this pathway should therefore have a realistic way to support themselves independently if necessary. This may include savings, consulting, freelance work, part-time employment, an existing business, investments, household income, service or gig work, or another lawful and non-conflicting source of income.
We respect honest work.
What matters is that outside activities do not create conflicts of interest, compromise Imponexpo’s confidential information or intellectual property, compete improperly with the company, or prevent a Builder from fulfilling agreed responsibilities.
Selected Builders will be considered for meaningful ownership in Imponexpo. Significant Builder equity is expected to follow a structure generally including:
- Monthly vesting thereafter
- Confidentiality and intellectual-property obligations
- Normal dilution through future financing rounds
Final terms will depend on role, responsibility, contribution, corporate structure, jurisdiction and applicable law.
Candidates who require salary compensation from the beginning should pursue Imponexpo’s professional employment opportunities rather than the Builder Cohort.
INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY
As Imponexpo continues to develop and concentrate key members of its core team, selected Builder Cohort members should be willing and realistically able to travel or relocate when their role requires closer collaboration with the team.
We are looking for people who can build effectively across borders and who are open to going where the work, team and stage of the company require them to be.
Any specific arrangements will be discussed directly with shortlisted candidates at the appropriate stage.
LANGUAGES
Professional English is important.
Mandarin Chinese and French speakers are particularly welcome.
You do not need to speak all three languages. Additional languages are also valuable as Imponexpo is being built for global markets.
WHO WE WANT TO MEET
You may be a senior engineer, AI researcher, product designer, technical founder, data specialist, research engineer, open-source contributor or an unusually capable emerging talent.
You may come from a major technology company, research institution, startup or unconventional background.
You may have built a company that succeeded.
You may have attempted one that failed and become substantially better because of it.
You may have built impressive systems without a famous employer on your CV.
Prestige alone does not determine our interest.
We care about evidence of capability, ownership, judgment, learning velocity and character.
Show us what you built.
Show us how you think.
Show us what you learned when something failed.
Show us what you can take responsibility for.
YOU MAY THRIVE HERE IF YOU:
- Have built difficult things before
- Can operate effectively in ambiguity
- Take ownership without requiring constant supervision
- Move comfortably between research, reasoning and implementation
- Can challenge assumptions respectfully and intelligently
- Are willing to learn beyond the boundaries of your previous role
- Care deeply about quality
- Remain constructive when things become difficult
- Want responsibility rather than simply a title
- Want to help shape important systems while consequential decisions are still being made
WHY THIS STAGE MATTERS
There is a difference between joining a company to operate systems that already exist and joining while important systems are still being shaped.
Imponexpo already has a substantial body of product, research, technical and strategic work underway.
We are expanding because the scale of the opportunity now requires additional exceptional people capable of taking that work significantly further.
The people who succeed in the Builder Cohort will not simply inherit responsibilities. They will help define and build important parts of the institution.
HOW WE SELECT
We expect the Builder Cohort to remain deliberately small.
We would rather leave a position open than give meaningful ownership to someone who does not meet the standard.
Candidates will be evaluated across four primary dimensions:
Capability - Can you do difficult work at a high level?
Ownership - Can you carry an important problem without constant supervision?
Learning Velocity - How quickly can you become excellent at something you do not yet understand?
Character - Can exceptional people trust you and enjoy building difficult things with you?
HOW TO APPLY
Please submit your CV or LinkedIn profile together with relevant evidence of your work.
Depending on your discipline, this may include GitHub repositories, products, portfolios, research, publications, technical writing, open-source contributions, design work, previous startups, experiments or independent projects.
Please also answer briefly:
- What is the hardest thing you have personally built, designed, researched or solved?
- What area could you take serious ownership of at Imponexpo?
- Why does an equity-focused builder pathway interest you?
- If Imponexpo initially provided no salary under the Builder pathway, how would you realistically support yourself while continuing to contribute?
- Tell us about a serious disagreement you had with a teammate, manager, or founder. How did you handle it?
- What kind of teammate are you when something important is failing?
- Would you be willing and realistically able to travel or relocate if your role later required closer collaboration with Imponexpo’s core team?
- Which languages do you speak and at what level?
A FINAL NOTE
We are not expanding because Imponexpo needs people to tell us what company to build.
A substantial body of product, research, technical, and strategic work already exists.
We are expanding because the opportunity in front of us requires additional exceptional people capable of increasing what Imponexpo can build, how quickly we can build it and how far we can take it.
We are looking for a small number of people who can help Imponexpo grow materially.
If you are looking for ownership, difficult problems, exceptional collaborators, and the opportunity to help build something with global ambition, we would like to hear from you.
Imponexpo
- The Artificial Superintelligence Research and Innovation Company for Connected Commerce.
