Investment Associate, Compute
Company websiteprimary.vc (Primary, opens in new tab)
Base salary $155K to $175K
Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in San Francisco, CA
You apply on the employer's own site. Six Figure Work does not handle applications.
- LocationSan Francisco, CA
- WorkplaceHybrid
- Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
- Last checked (1 h ago) · observed since
About this job
About Primary
Primary is a seed-stage venture capital firm dedicated to delivering exceptional support to the founders of transformational businesses. By pairing meaningful investment resources with the largest portfolio impact team of any seed investor, our portfolio companies have reached an industry-best seed-to-A graduation rate.
About the Role
We’re hiring an investment associate to help build out our compute practice in San Francisco. Our compute practice sits at the center of the firm’s next chapter - we led the seed round in Etched, now valued at $21B, and have a broader compute portfolio with investments across memory, advanced packaging, quantum, and biological compute.
You will be working directly with Brian Schechter and Gaby Lorenzi. You’ll source, diligence, and help originate investments across the full compute stack - including software and hardware opportunities in thermals, advanced packaging, cooling, power, data center management and token efficiency. We’re looking for a technical person, who studied computer science, electrical engineering, or a comparable degree, who has spent time inside startups in the past, and is looking to be a part of building a growing investment practice in one of the most consequential markets of our time – compute. Prior investing experience is not required. Deep technical understanding of compute is also not required.
We're hiring for learning velocity, genuine curiosity about compute, and a deep network in San Francisco to support your growth, not a finished resume. This is a career-defining bet for the right person: help plant Primary's flag in San Francisco and grow into one of the firm's next great investors.
Based in San Francisco, Hybrid in-office 3x/week
What You'll Do
Source and build relationships with founders, engineers, and operators across the San Francisco compute and AI ecosystem
Run diligence on prospective investments - technical differentiation, competitive dynamics, market sizing - alongside the compute pod
Represent Primary and our Compute100 efforts across community events, dinners, and podcast tapings to build the firm's brand and network in the Bay Area
Help develop and pressure-test investment theses across the compute stack
Support the existing compute portfolio, including Etched, as needed
Build and maintain a running map of high-signal people and companies worth tracking
Help extend Primary's reach into the technical communities - Neo, top engineering orgs, research labs - that produce the next generation of compute founders
About You
Must be available to work full-time in SF with periodic travel to NYC
2-4 years of experience with at least 1-2 years of experience in a production engineering role at a leading tech company, AI lab, or high-growth startup
Computer Science degree or equivalent experience
Deeply plugged into the San Francisco technical and AI scene
Genuine, self-directed curiosity about compute
Comfortable operating with real ambiguity and building process where none exists yet
Down-to-earth, collaborative, and able to build trust quickly
Source: Primary on Ashby · View original posting (opens in new tab)
Pay in context
This role's base floor ($155,000) is above 51% of the 669 Finance & Accounting roles in California listed on this site; 7 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $150,000; the middle half runs from $120,800 to $190,000.
Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 6, 2026.
This listingInvestment Associate, Compute$155K to $175K
Incubation Associate, Compute$175K to $200K
Community & Content Manager, Compute$120K to $140K
Head of AI$300K to $400K
Chart as a table
| Role | Published base |
|---|---|
| Investment Associate, Compute (this listing) | $155K - $175K |
| Incubation Associate, Compute | $175K - $200K |
| Community & Content Manager, Compute | $120K - $140K |
| Head of AI | $300K - $400K |
Observed changes
- First observed on the employer's board
- Began meeting the published-salary criteria
- Observed since
- Employer-stated posting date
- 2026-09-14
Where this pay comes from
Location as the employer wrote it: San Francisco, CA
USD 155,000 – 175,000 · 1 YEAR · Salary
- Method
- Structured pay field published by the employer
- Checked
- Rule set
- us-base-v2
The employer's job board publishes this pay as a dedicated data field. We read the field directly; no interpretation was needed.
What we verified
- The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
- The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
- The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.
We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.