Marketing Lead

Blackhawk Talent; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Blackhawk Talent is seeking a Founding Growth & Technical Community Lead in San Francisco. You will own the go-to-market for US product releases, build an engaged technical community, and partner with researchers, developers, and leadership to drive adoption.

You will orchestrate events, manage conferences, and coordinate with cloud and hardware ecosystems to generate pipeline and impactful case studies. Strong written communication and independence are essential in a fast-moving environment.

Qualifications

• 4-7 years of experience in growth, developer relations, technical community, ecosystem marketing, or closely related function.
• Experience with AI, ML, robotics, infrastructure, developer tools, or deeply technical software company.
• Proven ability to build awareness, engagement, and adoption within technical communities.
• Ability to communicate credibly with engineers, researchers, developers, and decision-makers.
• Demonstrated history of creating and executing programs independently.

Responsibilities

• Lead US go-to-market execution for product releases and drive early researcher adoption.
• Develop an engaged technical user community across channels (Discord, Slack) through education and events.
• Create systems to understand the community and identify commercial opportunities.
• Build an events strategy around meetups, hackathons, workshops, and ecosystem gatherings.
• Manage participation at major AI/ML/robotics conferences with demos and post-event follow-up.
• Develop joint marketing with cloud, hardware, and ecosystem partners.
• Serve as the primary US contact for external PR support and senior stakeholder coordination.
• Establish university and research partnerships with leading labs and groups.
• Create lab presentations, campus programs, and ongoing relationships with academia.
• Build a customer advocacy program with case studies, references, and speakers.
• Represent the company on LinkedIn and X during launches and events, engaging researchers and technical teams.
• Conduct regular conversations with users to understand adoption, friction, and willingness to pay, feeding insights to Product.

Skills

Growth

Developer relations

Technical community

Ecosystem marketing

Event planning

Product-led growth

Communication

Job description

Founding Growth & Technical Community Lead

We're looking for a hands-on growth and community builder who knows how to earn attention and drive adoption among highly technical audiences. This is an early, high-ownership hire for someone who can move comfortably between researchers, developers, partners, customers, and company leadership.

The ideal candidate has 4-7 years of experience across growth, developer relations, community, ecosystem, or technical marketing within AI, developer tools, infrastructure, robotics, or a related technology environment. You should be able to speak credibly with ML and robotics practitioners while also turning community engagement into measurable product adoption and commercial opportunities.

What You'll Own

• Lead go-to-market execution for U.S. product releases, building early researcher adoption and tracking the journey from initial interest through activation, onboarding, retention, and recurring usage.
• Develop an engaged technical user community across channels such as Discord and Slack through product education, office hours, technical updates, discussions, and direct user engagement.
• Create a structured system for understanding the community, including who is actively using the product, what challenges they are encountering, and which relationships could develop into commercial opportunities.
• Build an events strategy around technical meetups, hackathons, workshops, executive dinners, and ecosystem gatherings that generate both product engagement and qualified pipeline.
• Manage the company's participation at major AI, ML, robotics, and technology conferences, including demonstrations, booth strategy, executive meetings, event programming, and post-event follow-up.
• Develop joint marketing initiatives with major cloud, hardware, and technology ecosystem partners, coordinating content, events, speaking opportunities, and collaborative programs.
• Serve as the primary U.S. contact for external PR support, coordinating timely responses, media opportunities, analyst conversations, and executive preparation.
• Establish the first version of a university and research partnership program, initially developing relationships with leading robotics, AI, and world-model research groups.
• Create opportunities for lab presentations, campus programs, student engagement, research collaborations, and ongoing relationships with academic communities.
• Build a customer advocacy program that turns successful users into case studies, references, testimonials, event speakers, and other market-facing proof points.
• Represent the company across LinkedIn and X during U.S. launches, conferences, community events, and other important moments while actively engaging relevant researchers and technical teams.
• Conduct regular conversations with users to understand adoption patterns, product friction, unmet needs, willingness to pay, and potential improvements, then communicate those insights directly to Product.

What We're Looking For

• 4-7 years of relevant experience in growth, developer relations, technical community, ecosystem marketing, or a closely related function.
• Background with an AI, ML, robotics, infrastructure, developer tools, or deeply technical software company.
• Demonstrated success building awareness, engagement, and adoption within developer, researcher, or other technical communities.
• Ability to communicate credibly with machine learning engineers, robotics researchers, developers, and technical decision-makers.
• Experience independently creating and executing programs rather than simply supporting an established marketing organization.
• Strong understanding of product-led and community-led growth and the ability to connect engagement activities to measurable adoption and pipeline.
• Experience planning technical events, hackathons, conferences, meetups, or ecosystem programs.
• Comfortable working directly with founders and taking ownership in an environment where processes are still being created.
• Strong written communication and ability to represent a technical company publicly.
• Experience working with universities, academic research groups, laboratories, or strategic technology partners is highly desirable.