Community Associate

Alpaca Health; New York (NY); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Flexible PTO

Dinner when working late

Equity

Job summary

Alpaca Health is hiring a Community Associate to build and run the Herd, Alpaca's family and ambassador community. You will shape a human, belonging-focused experience that turns families into a trusted growth engine through referrals and community-led events.

You will own recruitment, onboarding, incentives, and activation, creating spaces and moments where families feel seen, heard, and connected. This is a hands-on role at a compassionate, startup-paced company.

Qualifications

• Self-starter who builds from scratch.
• Empathetic leader who earns trust from families and teammates.
• Creative thinker with attention to detail to make belonging feel cared for.
• Ideas for making belonging feel special, with ability to turn into a real program with real numbers.
• Balance between human and systems thinking.
• Moves fast, owns outcomes, and acts without needing permission.
• Care deeply about families navigating autism care.

Responsibilities

• Build and run the ambassador program end to end: recruitment, onboarding, incentives, points, recognition, and swag families are proud to wear.
• Design the whole experience so it feels human and genuine, never transactional.
• Create online spaces, recurring touchpoints, and events to keep families connected.
• Provide ambassadors what they need to host, share, and welcome new families.
• Turn connection into referrals by building systems that reward happy families.
• Track ambassador growth, engagement, and referrals driven by the community.
• Be the voice of the family by feeding insights back to brand, product, and leadership.
• Fight for the family experience across the company.

Job description

Build the Herd. You turn Alpaca families into a real community that supports each other, and brings in the next family.

ABOUT ALPACA HEALTH

Alpaca Health helps clinicians become entrepreneurs, starting in autism care. We give BCBAs the software, payer contracting, and back-office muscle to launch and scale their own practices, so power in healthcare shifts back to the people actually giving the care.

We have raised over $14M from investors like Core Innovation Capital, Adverb Ventures, and South Park Commons. We serve hundreds of families and are growing 30% month over month.

We also move fast. Last week we threw a festival for 600 people, planned in under two weeks, with real alpacas on site. That is the energy around here. If that sounds like your kind of chaos, keep reading.

THE ROLE

We are hiring a Community Associate to build and run the Herd, Alpaca's family and ambassador community. You are the person who makes families feel like they belong to something, not just a service, and who turns that genuine connection into our most trusted growth engine: families telling other families.

It takes a village, and you are the one building it. You will own the ambassador program end to end, grow the community, and be the voice of our families inside the company. This is a role for someone who leads with heart and has the creativity to make belonging feel special. A members-only family retreat, a private podcast for parents, a recognition program that makes an ambassador genuinely proud: you will dream these up and build them, while keeping everything feeling real, never like a referral funnel.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Own the Herd

• Build and run the ambassador program end to end: recruitment, onboarding, incentives, points, recognition, and swag families are proud to wear

• Design the whole experience so it feels human and genuine, never transactional

Grow the Community

• Create the online spaces, recurring touchpoints, and (with our events team) the gatherings that keep families connected

• Give ambassadors what they need to host, share, and welcome new families, and make it easy and joyful

Turn Connection Into Referrals

• Build the systems that make it natural and rewarding for happy families to bring in the next one

• Track ambassador growth, engagement, and the referrals the community drives

Be the Voice of the Family

• Bring what you hear in the community back to brand, product, and leadership

• Fight for the family experience across the company

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• In 90 days: The ambassador program has clear onboarding, incentives, and recognition, the first cohort of ambassadors is genuinely engaged, and the community has a home (online space plus a regular rhythm of touchpoints).

• In a year: A growing, self-sustaining community that families are proud to belong to, and a measurable, meaningful share of new families arriving through the Herd.

WHO YOU ARE

• You are a self-starter who builds from scratch. There is no playbook for this yet; you will write it.

• You lead with empathy and people trust you quickly, families and teammates alike.

• You have taste and creativity, and you sweat the details that make people feel cared for.

• You are full of ideas for making belonging feel special, and pragmatic enough to turn them into a real program with real numbers, without killing the warmth.

• You are equally strong on the human side and the systems side.

• You move fast, own outcomes, and do not wait for permission.

• You care deeply about families navigating autism care, and it shows in everything you make.

BONUS POINTS

• You have built or grown a real community before (brand, patient, creator, membership, or otherwise)

• Experience with ambassador, referral, or loyalty programs

• Lived or close experience with the autism or special-needs community

WHY JOIN

• Direct exposure to company building at an early stage

• Real ownership of the community from day one

• The chance to materially change life for families and clinicians

• A learning curve few roles can match

Compensation & Benefits:

• Competitive salary

• Meaningful equity

• Health benefits

• Flexible PTO

• Dinner when working late