[Hiring] Growth Marketing Lead @Gray Swan AI

Role Description

We're looking to hire a Growth Marketing Lead to act as the de facto head of marketing for our flagship product - Arena. You'll own the full participant funnel: how people discover Arena, sign up, join their first challenge and come back for the next one.

This is a hands-on, product-led growth-type of role. Each Arena challenge is a new launch and a new chance to test channels, messages and audiences. You'll decide where to spend, run fast experiments, double down on what works and cut what doesn't. You'll work closely with product, research and partnerships, but you'll operate independently and own the outcomes.

We're looking for someone who ships fast, understands the user journey in detail and is comfortable being both the strategist and the person doing the work.

What You'll Do

• Own the Arena funnel
• Map and instrument the full participant journey, from first visit through registration, first challenge, repeat participation and top performers
• Find the biggest drop-off points and work with product to fix them (onboarding, landing pages, emails, in-product prompts)
• Own acquisition, activation, engagement and retention metrics, and the dashboards that track them
• Run channel experiments for every challenge
• Treat each challenge launch as a growth experiment, with a clear hypothesis, target audience, channel mix and success metric
• Test channels across paid social, creators and influencers, technical communities, partnerships, events and owned channels
• Scale the channels that drive qualified participants and cut the ones that don't, including reallocating budget mid-campaign
• Launch and scale new channels
• Stand up new acquisition channels from scratch: set up tracking, run the first tests and decide whether to scale or kill each one
• Build and manage creator, influencer and partner programs, with ROI tracked for each
• Work with AI lab partners and internal teams to get the most visibility out of each challenge
• Segment and target the right audiences
• Define and prioritize audience segments (security researchers, AI and ML engineers, prompt engineers, students, hobbyists) by value and conversion
• Tailor messages, channels and offers to each segment
• Use behavioral data to re-engage lapsed participants and develop high performers
• Grow engagement and retention
• Run lifecycle programs (email, Discord, in-product) that turn first-time participants into repeat competitors
• Use community activity and challenge outcomes to create content that drives participation and credibility
• Feed user insights back into product and challenge design

Success in Your First 90 Days

• Map the current Arena funnel and identify the three biggest growth levers
• Audit existing channels and spend, and cut or reallocate anything that isn't performing
• Run channel experiments on at least two challenge launches and report what you learned
• Launch at least one new acquisition channel
• Set up weekly reporting on registrations, activation, repeat participation and cost per break
• Deliver measurable growth in qualified challenge participation

Qualifications

• 6+ years in growth or performance marketing, including time at a PLG or consumer startup
• A track record of growing users through experimentation, with specific numbers you can point to
• You know funnels well: you can find a drop-off, form a hypothesis, ship a fix and measure it
• Comfortable with data. You can build your own dashboards and analysis without waiting on a data team
• Experience launching and scaling several acquisition channels and managing a budget against ROI
• Experience segmenting audiences and tailoring campaigns to each segment
• You ship fast, prioritize ruthlessly and are comfortable stopping work that isn't paying off
• You operate independently and can be the most senior marketer for a product

Bonus Points

• Experience marketing to developers, security researchers or other technical audiences
• Experience with competitions, hackathons, bug bounties or other community-driven programs
• Experience growing a Discord or similar online community
• Familiarity with AI, AI safety or cybersecurity
• Hands-on experience with conversion rate optimization, lifecycle or email tools, or product analytics tools

Benefits

• A competitive compensation package designed to reward impact and incentivize growth. Our compensation philosophy is informed by our current valuation and recent industry data.
• Salary: $175,000-$220,000 plus a competitive equity package in a startup with real revenue and globally recognized customers
• 401(k) with up to 4% matching
• 28 days of annual leave (vacation plus holidays)
• Health, dental and vision coverage
• Catered lunches (Pittsburgh office)
• Flexible work arrangements
• Visa sponsorship for exceptional candidates

Typical Interview Process

• 🔎 Application review. We read everything.
• 🗣 Recruiter screen. We learn about you, and you learn about us.
• 🧑‍💻 Hiring manager interview.
• 📊 Growth case presentation. You'll get a real Arena challenge scenario. Present how you'd analyze the funnel, pick channels and segments, set up experiments and decide what to cut.
• 🗣 Experience and culture interview.
• 😇 Reference checks. We'll contact 3–5 references you provide, including at least one former manager.
• 📃 Offer. If it's mutual, we move fast.