Founder Brand & Partnerships Lead

Cymbiotika; San Diego (CA); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

401(k) with company match

Paid holidays and PTO

Flexible work-from-home Fridays

Wellness perks

Employee product discounts

Catered team lunches

Job summary

Cymbiotika in San Diego, CA is seeking a highly autonomous Founder Brand & Partnerships Lead to shape Durana Elmi’s personal brand as a founder, not an influencer. You will build a culturally relevant world around her across fashion, wellness, beauty, and culture, identifying opportunities and converting them into real partnerships.

Working with the Personal Brand & Social Media Manager, you’ll manage outreach, calendars, events, and collaborations, while protecting Durana’s time and voice.

Qualifications

• 4–7+ years of experience across personal brand, founder relations, brand partnerships, PR, or a founder’s office.
• Experience working directly with a founder, executive, or high-profile individual.
• Strong relationships across brands, fashion, beauty, wellness, hospitality, media, and culture.

Responsibilities

• Shape and execute the broader positioning and growth strategy for Durana's personal brand.
• Build a thoughtful ecosystem across fashion, wellness, beauty, business, hospitality, travel, motherhood, and culture.
• Identify events, dinners, trips, speaking opportunities, podcasts, press moments, and collaborations.
• Proactively bring opportunities that strengthen her positioning.
• Develop and manage strategic personal partnerships that feel organic.
• Build relationships with brands, editors, publicists, stylists, hospitality partners, and cultural connectors.
• Manage inbound opportunities and make recommendations on pursue/decline.
• Work with the Personal Brand & Social Media Manager to translate opportunities into social presence.
• Maintain a forward-looking calendar of cultural moments and launches.
• Own outreach, scheduling, logistics, gifting, briefs, and execution.
• Ensure Durana is prepared with context and information for every opportunity.
• Protect Durana's time and positioning by saying no when needed.

Skills

Self-starter

Operator

High taste

Culturally fluent

Resourceful

Socially intelligent

Discreet

Organized

Low ego

Proactive

Collaborative

Job description

About Cymbiotika
At Cymbiotika, we believe that wellness starts with trust. That’s why we’re committed to creating supplements that are not only effective but also transparent. From the moment you pick up one of our products, you’ll know exactly what’s inside—no hidden ingredients, no confusing labels. We take pride in using only the highest-quality ingredients, carefully sourced and backed by science, to ensure you’re getting the best of nature and innovation in every supplement.

About Cymbiotika
At Cymbiotika, we believe that wellness starts with trust. That’s why we’re committed to creating supplements that are not only effective but also transparent. From the moment you pick up one of our products, you’ll know exactly what’s inside—no hidden ingredients, no confusing labels. We take pride in using only the highest-quality ingredients, carefully sourced and backed by science, to ensure you’re getting the best of nature and innovation in every supplement.
We understand that health is personal, which is why our supplements are designed to work with your body, not against it. By focusing on bioavailability and using advanced liposomal delivery systems, we ensure that your body can absorb and use the nutrients to their fullest potential. Our goal is simple: to help you feel your best, with products you can trust, made with ingredients you feel good about.
With Cymbiotika, you’re not just taking a supplement—you’re joining a community of people who value wellness, science, and the power of transparency. We’re here to empower you on your journey to better health, every step of the way.

Role Summary
We are looking for a highly autonomous, culturally plugged-in Founder Brand & Partnerships Lead to help build and manage the next chapter of Durana Elmi’s personal brand.
Working directly with Durana and in close partnership with her Personal Brand & Social Media Manager, this person will help build a thoughtful, culturally relevant world around her as a founder.
The goal is not to turn Durana into an influencer. It is to position her as a modern founder and tastemaker—someone who naturally sits at the intersection of wellness, fashion, beauty, business, motherhood, travel, and culture.
Her presence should feel elevated but effortless, aspirational but personal, and never overly commercial.
This role requires someone who can take a loose thought and run with it. You should be comfortable operating with significant autonomy, identifying what needs to happen, figuring out how to make it happen, and staying several steps ahead. Durana should not have to manage the person responsible for supporting her brand.

Key Responsibilities

• Help shape and execute the broader positioning and growth strategy for Durana's personal brand.
• Build a thoughtful ecosystem around Durana spanning fashion, wellness, beauty, business, hospitality, travel, motherhood, and culture.
• Identify the events, dinners, trips, speaking opportunities, podcasts, press moments, collaborations, and cultural moments Durana should be part of.
• Proactively bring Durana opportunities that strengthen her positioning rather than waiting for opportunities to come inbound.
• Develop and manage strategic personal partnerships and brand relationships that feel organic to Durana's life and point of view.
• Build meaningful relationships with brands, founders, editors, publicists, stylists, hospitality partners, and cultural connectors.
• Manage inbound personal brand opportunities and make thoughtful recommendations around what Durana should pursue, decline, or explore.
• Work closely with the Personal Brand & Social Media Manager to ensure real-world opportunities, partnerships, travel, events, and cultural moments translate naturally into Durana's social presence and storytelling.
• Maintain a forward-looking calendar of relevant cultural moments, launches, events, travel, fashion moments, and opportunities.
• Own outreach, follow-ups, coordination, scheduling, logistics, gifting, briefs, and execution surrounding personal brand opportunities.
• Ensure Durana walks into every opportunity prepared, with the context and information she needs, without having to chase it down herself.
• Protect Durana's time and positioning by understanding that the right no can be just as valuable as the right yes.

How You Will Partner
This role and the Personal Brand & Social Media Manager will operate as close counterparts. You will primarily own the external world around Durana—relationships, partnerships, PR, appearances, opportunities, cultural positioning, and execution.
The Personal Brand & Social Media Manager will primarily own how Durana's world is translated across her social channels, including content, storytelling, community, and day-to-day social presence. The two roles should operate seamlessly together so that Durana's real-world presence and digital presence feel like one cohesive brand.

The Vision
Durana's personal brand should feel like an extension of who she already is—not a manufactured persona. She is a founder first. Her personal brand should build equity around her taste, perspective, lifestyle, relationships, leadership, and the world she has created without turning every moment into an advertisement.
We want to build the kind of founder presence where people are genuinely interested in what she's wearing, where she's going, what she's building, who she's spending time with, what she's learning, and what she thinks. The right person understands the nuance between being visible and overexposed, between being aspirational and inaccessible, and between building influence and simply becoming an influencer.

Who You Are

• A self-starter. You don't wait for a detailed list of instructions before moving.
• An operator. You're equally comfortable identifying the opportunity and figuring out how to make it happen.
• High taste. You instinctively understand what feels chic, elevated, relevant, and culturally credible.
• Culturally fluent. You know what's happening across fashion, beauty, wellness, hospitality, media, entertainment, and the internet.
• Highly resourceful. If you don't know how to make something happen, you figure it out.
• Socially intelligent. You understand how to navigate founders, executives, brands, creatives, and high-profile personalities.
• Discreet. You understand the trust required when working closely with someone's personal life and brand.
• Extremely organized. You can manage multiple moving pieces while maintaining attention to detail.
• Low ego. You're comfortable being the person behind the scenes making everything happen.
• Proactive. You're consistently thinking two or three steps ahead.
• Collaborative. You know how to build alongside another strong owner without creating silos or territorial lines.

Qualifications

• 4–7+ years of experience across personal brand, founder relations, brand partnerships, PR, VIP relations, fashion, beauty, wellness, hospitality, entertainment, or a founder's office.
• Experience working directly with a founder, executive, or high-profile individual is strongly preferred.
• Strong relationships across brands, fashion, beauty, wellness, hospitality, media, and culture.
• Strong understanding of modern founder positioning and personal brand building.
• Exceptional communication, organization, discretion, and follow-through.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently in a fast-moving environment.

Work Location & Schedule
This position follows an enforced hybrid schedule, requiring team members to be present in our San Diego, California office at least four days per week (Monday–Thursday). Fridays are available for remote work. This role also requires attendance at all in-person monthly team meetings and quarterly company events, as well as occasional travel for partnerships, events, industry opportunities, and other business needs.

Physical Requirements
This role primarily involves office-based work and requires the ability to occasionally lift, carry, or move items up to 20–30 pounds, such as files or office supplies. Employees should be able to sit or stand for extended periods and perform frequent computer-based tasks, including prolonged exposure to a computer screen.

Compensation & Total Rewards
The salary range for this position is $110,000-135,000 annually. Final compensation will be determined based on experience, skills, and qualifications relevant to the role.
Cymbiotika offers a comprehensive total rewards package designed to support employee wellness, growth, and work-life balance. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage with employer-paid plan options, 401(k) with company match, paid holidays and PTO, flexible work-from-home Fridays, wellness and fitness perks, employee product discounts, catered team lunches, team-building events, and additional lifestyle benefits!