Fractional COO / Operating Partner for AI Ventures

We are looking for a senior fractional operator for an initial 90-day engagement to lead the validation of an AI character production business. The company has already invested capital and development effort into this space. What has not yet been established is a reliable operating model. The next 90 days are about answering one question: Can believable AI characters be produced deliberately, repeatedly and at a known cost, rather than occasionally through trial and error? Until that is answered, publishing, audience growth and monetisation are secondary. This is not a content-production role, and we are not looking for someone to personally operate every AI tool. We are looking for someone who can take ownership of the problem: assess what already exists, determine what needs to be tested, establish measurable standards, engage and manage the right technical specialists, control experimentation and spend, and give management a clear recommendation based on evidence. The 90-day mandate You will begin by auditing the existing characters, image libraries, accounts, tooling, workflows, platform access and prior investment. From there, you will establish a written standard for what constitutes an acceptable character asset, including identity consistency, facial geometry, skin texture, lighting behaviour and overall photographic credibility. You will oversee technical specialists in developing and testing a working generation and quality-control process capable of maintaining a character across different poses, environments, camera distances and lighting conditions, including short-form video. The methodology must then reproduce on a second character. We are specifically trying to distinguish a repeatable process from a workflow that happens to work well for one subject. The engagement will also establish measurable production economics, including: First-pass acceptance rate Rejection and retry rates Compute consumption Cost per usable asset Performance as production volume increases Alongside the technical validation, you will develop a documented method for assessing which character concepts warrant production, using observable market evidence rather than intuition alone. You will also be responsible for sourcing, briefing and overseeing specialist contractors where required. Contractor fees, compute, software and testing expenses are funded separately by the company. What we need to know by day 90 We are not expecting a fully scaled production business in 90 days. We are expecting enough evidence to make an informed investment decision. At the end of the engagement, management should be able to answer: Does the character-production methodology work reliably? Does it reproduce on more than one character? What percentage of generated assets are actually usable? What does each usable asset cost to produce? What are the principal technical or operational constraints to scaling it? Is there sufficient evidence to continue investing, or should the company change direction or stop? A recommendation to stop is an acceptable outcome. This engagement exists to establish what is true, not to validate previous decisions. Out of scope This is not a social media management, community management or content publishing role. Direct messaging, subscriber management, conversion and revenue operations, audience-growth execution and day-to-day content production are outside the initial mandate. Revenue and traction guarantees are also outside scope. The fractional operator owns the validation and operating process, while appropriately selected specialists perform work requiring deep technical execution. Engagement structure Initial term: 90 days Expected commitment: approximately 21 hours per month on average, weighted according to the requirements of the engagement. Structure: Three fixed-price monthly milestones. A separate company-funded operating budget will cover technical contractors, GPU/compute, software and testing. Continuation beyond the initial term will be determined following the day-90 review. Who we are looking for You may have worked as a fractional COO, operating partner, venture builder, product or technology executive, founder, or in another role where you were responsible for turning an uncertain opportunity into a measurable operating decision. We care less about title than evidence that you can: Operate effectively with founders in an ambiguous environment Understand technical systems well enough to challenge specialists without pretending to be one Design tests that produce decisions rather than endless experimentation Recruit and manage specialist contractors Establish KPIs and unit economics Control scope, sequencing and spend Distinguish technical progress from impressive demonstrations Make a clear continue/change/stop recommendation when the evidence warrants it Experience with generative AI, AI product development, technical validation or produc