Uncork Capital is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that helps founders build category-defining companies from the earliest stages. For more than two decades, through multiple boom-and-bust cycles and across the tech landscape, the firm has backed over 275 companies, including Fitbit (NYSE: FIT, Google), Sendgrid (NYSE: SEND, Twilio), Eventbrite (NYSE: EB), Poshmark (NASD: POSH), and Postmates (UBER), as well as fast-growing startups like Human Interest, LaunchDarkly, Carrot Fertility, Tailscale, Loft Orbital, Hallow, Wrapbook, Crossbeam, Fountain, GPTZero, Nuon, Ivo, Numeral, and Final Round. Today, Uncork continues to support the next generation of builders shaping industries across AI, SaaS, infrastructure, consumer, and frontier tech.

We’re looking for an Investment Associate with a strong technical background to join our team. The ideal candidate combines a strong foundation in computer science with hands-on experience in technical roles – such as engineering, machine learning, data science, or product management. This is a rare opportunity to apply your technical expertise in a new context while gaining exposure to seed-stage investing. You’ll work directly with the Partners and play a key role in every stage of the investment process, from sourcing and diligence to supporting portfolio companies.

What You'll Do

Source New Investments Like a Hacker

Associates play a key role in discovering new investment opportunities. Build or leverage tools that help us spot under-the-radar gems before others do. Represent Uncork at demo days, AI meetups, and the places where great builders gather.

Evaluate Investment Opportunities (with a Technical Angle)

You’ll help lead the charge on diligence by diving into early product builds and codebases to help assess technical quality and differentiation. You’ll also evaluate founding teams, conduct customer calls, and perform market research.

Support Portfolio Companies

You’ll work closely with our team of Partners to advise founders, especially on the technical stuff (e.g. helping founders choose between frameworks, tools, or models). In addition, you’ll help founders navigate other early challenges such as go-to-market strategy, technical hiring, or fundraising prep.

What We're Looking For

You Might Be a Fit If You:

Are fluent in code. (CS degree or self-taught hacker -- both welcome)
Have 2-5 years of technical work experience (engineering, ML, data science, technical product management)
Have worked at or founded an early-stage startup
Love experimenting with new tech and hacking on side projects
Are organized and self-directed — you can own a project from start to finish
Are excited to work in a small, collaborative, high-trust team

Bonus Points

Exposure to venture capital or early-stage investing
Plugged into key startup ecosystems

What You’ll Learn

Being an Associate is a crash course in how startups get built and how to spot the magic early. At Uncork, you’ll be at the center of the action, and you’ll develop

Pattern Recognition for Breakout Startups: You’ll sharpen your investor intuition by seeing hundreds of early-stage pitches and actively participating in investment team debates. You’ll gain insight into why we support certain founders and how we determine which startups have the potential to become billion-dollar companies. You’ll learn how to quickly separate noise from signal and what it really takes for an idea to break out.
Learn to Build from the Best Founders: You’ll see firsthand how the best founders turn scrappy beginnings into real traction — how they prioritize, build, and adapt when resources are limited and time is short. These insights are invaluable if you’re thinking about starting your own company one day.
Your Network: You’ll meet incredible founders, operators, and investors who will become collaborators for years to come. These people could become teammates, co-founders, or investors in your future ventures.

Whether you’re thinking of starting your own company one day or want to keep investing in the next generation of founders, this role will teach you how to spot, support, and scale the ideas that matter.

Uncork Benefits

Health, Dental, and Vision: Uncork’s benefits are offered through SequoiaOne. Uncork pays 100% of premiums for medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family. Domestic partners are not covered under the plan per Sequoia’s payroll plan.
Basic Life Insurance & AD&D, Group Short-Term & Long-Term Disability Insurance
Flex PTO Plan
401k: Safe Harbor Match of up to 6% plus an Additional Match of up to 4%, totaling up to 10% of annual salary.
Carrot Fertility: Carrot is a benefit designed to support your unique parenthood journey. Carrot is not health insurance but rather provides resources to make family forming more accessible to everyone.
Monthly Allowances: Cell phone, Internet, WFH lunch, Wellness, and Transportation
Beautiful views of the San Francisco bay and delicious meals in our newly updated office by the Embarcadero

Uncork Capital is an equal opportunity employer.

Apply now

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