Founding Marketing Lead

AUTOPILOT; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 100,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Base salary + annual bonus potential

Equity: stock options

Health, Dental, Vision insurance

401(k)

Flexible PTO

Travel reimbursement

Team & culture events

Job summary

Autopilot, a Chicago-based startup, seeks a content-driven marketer who owns storytelling, customer proof, and brand presence to earn trust in the market. You will develop case studies end-to-end, craft thought leadership, and manage editorial calendars for social and live events.

You will collaborate with Demand Gen, Sales, and Customer Success to surface top stories, optimize campaigns, and produce assets that feed paid channels, SEO, and nurture programs.

Qualifications

• 4–10 years in content marketing, brand, events, or a marketing generalist role with a content focus.

Responsibilities

• Write and manage email campaigns across HubSpot (newsletters, product updates, customer announcements).
• Own website copy, landing pages, and content on owned platforms to stay on-brand.
• Lead editorial calendar for social (IG, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook) and coordinate with design/video teams.
• Develop customer case studies from interviews to finished assets for multiple formats.
• Build thought leadership content that resonates with enterprise buyers and supports paid campaigns.

Skills

Content marketing

Organizational skills

Project management

Storytelling

Tools

HubSpot

Asana

Job description

Location: Chicago, IL Headquarters

Type: Full-time, in office

Company Stage: Early-stage / startup

We’re a small, fast-moving team building something genuinely new. The right person for this position is highly organized, naturally prioritizes the work that moves the top line, and doesn’t need a fully built playbook to get started. Early-stage startup life means shifting priorities, lean resources, and high expectations — and that energizes you rather than slows you down. If you’re looking for a structured corporate environment with defined processes and a large support team, this probably isn’t the right fit. If you want real ownership, real impact, and the chance to build something from the ground up, keep reading.

About Us — Our Mission & Vision

At Autopilot, our mission is to free people up to do what they do best by automating everything else. We are building the infrastructure layer that powers autonomy in motion across the physical world — including sports, fitness, logistics, healthcare, and more. Our systems help robots move, record, deliver, train, and connect in real-world environments that have historically lacked modern tooling. Our values are simple and non-negotiable: Do Good. Have Fun. Make Money. We believe these are mutually reinforcing, and we work hard to uphold them as we grow.

We move fast, operate scrappy, and care deeply about building something that works.

Benefits

You will be eligible to participate in company benefits and perks, which currently include:

• Base Salary + Annual bonus potential
• The total compensation range for this role is $100,000–$200,000. This range reflects total target compensation, which includes base salary and bonus potential. Where a candidate falls within the range depends on factors such as experience and skills.
• Equity: Early-stage ownership through stock options. A chance to build meaningful value as we scale.
• 100% Employer-covered Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k) — Company-administered plan
• Flexible PTO — Time off as needed, coordinated with your team
• Travel Reimbursement — Reimbursed in accordance with company policy, where role-related travel is required
• Team & Culture Events — Team offsites, social events, and company-sponsored activities

Benefits and policies may be updated from time to time at the company’s discretion.

The Role

We’re looking for a content-driven marketer who owns the storytelling, proof, and brand presence that earns Autopilot trust in the market. You’ll develop customer case studies from interview to final asset, build thought leadership content that positions Autopilot as a serious player in facility automation, own our presence at trade shows and live demo events, and manage the editorial calendar across social channels. Your work feeds directly into the demand gen and sales motions — case studies close deals, event collateral supports demos, and the content you produce gets pulled into paid campaigns, email sequences, and SEO. This is a writing-forward, operationally organized role for someone who can produce polished content independently, manage external contributors, and move between long-form narrative and a punchy one-pager without losing quality.

What You’ll Own

Email Marketing & Platform Content

• Write and manage email campaign content across HubSpot — newsletters, product updates, customer announcements, and nurture sequences — ensuring every send reflects the brand voice and is built to convert
• Own content creation and management across Autopilot’s owned platforms: website copy, landing pages, and any home-grown tools or portals where content needs to stay current and on-brand
• Partner with the Demand Gen Manager on campaign briefs, ensuring content assets are ready when campaigns need them — not after
• Treat email and platform content as a distribution system — every piece should have a clear audience, goal, and call to action

Social & Community

• Own the editorial calendar for Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook — with a clear content mix of customer proof, product education, and industry engagement
• Manage content production workflows in Asana — coordinating with video, design, and external contributors
• Capture and repurpose content from live demos, events, and customer visits into social and digital assets

Content, Storytelling & Thought Leadership

• Own the development of customer case studies end-to-end — identifying candidates, conducting interviews, writing narratives, and producing final assets formatted for multiple uses: long-form PDF, sales one-pager, email asset, web page, and social snippet
• Build out Autopilot’s library of customer proof: before/after stories, ROI documentation, deployment outcomes, and facility operator testimonials — assets that will be critical to closing enterprise deals
• Coordinate with Customer Success and Sales to surface the strongest stories and get access to the right contacts
• Develop thought leadership content that positions Autopilot as a credible player in facility automation and robotics operations — writing that speaks the language of enterprise buyers, not just product marketing
• Build and maintain a content calendar that balances evergreen authority-building with timely industry commentary
• Identify and pursue placement opportunities across industry publications, trade show blogs, and partner channels

Brand & Messaging Support

• Maintain brand consistency across all content, channels, and materials
• Write and edit across formats: web copy, email campaign content, ad creative briefs, social captions, and internal enablement docs
• Support content that feeds paid campaigns, SEO, and email sequences
• Support sales enablement content — battle cards, objection handling guides, and product one-pagers for the sales team

Event Marketing

• Own Autopilot’s presence at trade shows, industry events, and customer demos — from planning through post-event follow-up
• Produce event collateral: one-pagers, demo scripts, signage, and leave-behind materials
• Coordinate logistics for events — booth materials, travel, scheduling, lead capture setup, and post-event nurture handoff to Demand Gen
• Identify net-new events worth pursuing as Autopilot’s vertical strategy expands into logistics and enterprise
• Support live demo events and customer showcase moments with polished materials and organized logistics

What We’re Looking For

You’re an organizer, not just a creator

• You can manage a content calendar and hold contributors accountable to it
• You’ve coordinated event logistics — and know that the details (lead capture form, leave-behinds, post-event email) matter as much as the strategy
• Thrives under pressure — early-stage startup pace doesn’t rattle you, it motivates you. You’ve operated in environments where the priorities shift, the resources are lean, and the expectations are high

You’re ambitious and career-oriented

• You’re not here for a maintenance job. You see this as a place to build something and grow with it
• You understand that content at a startup isn’t just blog posts — it’s sales ammo, brand positioning, and customer trust
• Wired for speed — you make decisions with imperfect information, ship work, and iterate rather than waiting for everything to be perfect
• Highly organized with a multiplier mindset — you instinctively prioritize the work that moves the top line, not just the work that fills the calendar

Experience

• 4–10 years in content marketing, brand, events, or a marketing generalist role with a demonstrated content focus
• HubSpot proficient — you know your way around campaigns, lists, workflows, and reporting without needing a tutorial
• Startup or early-stage company experience strongly preferred — you’ve built without a large team or a big budget
• AI-native in your day-to-day — you default to tools like Claude, ChatGPT, or similar to move faster, write better, and solve problems before asking for help