Growth Lead

MeritFirst; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 90,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

MeritFirst is seeking a Growth Lead to architect the company's talent-assessment platform and identify key job categories where MeritFirst can become the best place to discover talent. You will convert real work into compelling assessments, build flagship programs, and run competitions or events that attract exceptional candidates and engage employers.

You will collaborate with founders, hiring managers, and talent leaders to explain how MeritFirst's signal informs hiring decisions and to

Qualifications

• Unusually high-agency generalist with ownership and urgency.
• Ability to move between strategy, growth, partnerships, recruiting, operations, and storytelling.
• Experience building something from zero, not just optimizing an existing channel.
• Ability to persuade candidates and hiring leaders to adopt a new signal.
• Strong taste for programs, competitions, events, and experiences that attract participation.

Responsibilities

• Identify role categories with employer demand and large pools of overlooked talent.
• Build relationships with founders, hiring managers, and talent leaders to secure opportunities and explain MeritFirst's signal.
• Find and activate exceptional people through diverse channels beyond traditional recruiting.
• Collaborate with product, assessment experts, hiring managers, and practitioners to turn roles into rigorous assessments and challenges.
• Create competitions, cohorts, showcases, and events that attract ambitious candidates and gain employer attention.

Job description

Growth Lead

Better talent allocation has been a major source of American growth - when capable people reach the work where they can contribute most, workers rise and companies get more productive. MeritFirst is building the infrastructure to make that the default: objective, efficient ways for people to demonstrate critical thinking, problem-solving, and execution, so companies hire on demonstrated ability rather than pedigree alone.

We're looking for a Growth Lead to build that system. You will identify job categories where MeritFirst can become the best place to discover talent and attract exceptional candidates. You will turn real work into compelling assessments, build flagship programs and competitions around them, and work with companies to convert demonstrated ability into interviews, offers, and successful hires.

What you'd be doing

• Identify role categories with meaningful employer demand, large pools of overlooked talent, and skills that can be demonstrated objectively.

• Build relationships with founders, hiring managers, and talent leaders. Secure real opportunities and help companies understand how MeritFirst's signal should inform their hiring decisions.

• Find and activate exceptional people through communities, referrals, partnerships, content, schools, trade programs, creators, and channels that do not look like conventional recruiting.

• Work with our product team, assessment experts, hiring managers, and exceptional practitioners to turn popular roles into rigorous, efficient assessments and realistic work challenges.

• Create competitions, cohorts, showcases, and in-person or online events that ambitious candidates want to participate in - and that employers pay attention to.

Who we're looking for

• You are an unusually high-agency generalist who operates with extreme ownership and a maniacal sense of urgency.

• You can move between strategy, growth, partnerships, recruiting, operations, and storytelling.

• You have built something from zero - not merely operated a mature channel or inherited an existing playbook.

• You can persuade both an exceptional candidate to bet on a new platform and a skeptical hiring leader to act on a new signal.

• You have strong taste for programs, competitions, events, and experiences people genuinely want to join.