Community Lead
About the Role
This is a hands-on Community Lead role at an early-stage ambient AI startup, reporting directly to the GM. You'll own the community end-to-end - building and operating the full funnel from new user to passionate evangelist - and serve as the critical bridge between the community and cross-functional product, R&D, and hardware teams.
What You'll Do
Build and nurture an active community across Discord, X, Reddit, and other emerging platforms where users naturally gather.
Design and test the concrete mechanics - recognition systems, referral programs, early access tiers - that convert power users into active advocates.
Mobilize the community at high-impact moments such as product launches, user research initiatives, and marketing campaigns.
Gather rich community feedback and translate it into actionable product signal for the roadmap.
Coordinate in-person events and experiences that deepen community bonds.
Work across time zones with distributed R&D, hardware, and supply-chain teams to keep community insights flowing into product development.
Define scope and make independent operational decisions - there is no pre-built playbook.
What We're Looking For
2+ years building and scaling an online community for a B2C or prosumer product into a measurable driver of engagement or retention.
Proven ability to design and test community mechanics that turn power users into active advocates - not just hope it happens organically.
Experience mobilizing communities for specific campaigns or moments and coordinating effectively with Growth, Marketing, and Product teams.
Hands-on platform management experience across Discord, Reddit, X/Twitter, or similar, including moderation, engagement strategy, and feedback collection.
Comfortable making independent calls, resolving community issues, and operating without existing playbooks or frameworks.
Track record of converting community feedback into actionable product insights with demonstrated impact on retention or engagement metrics.
Experience working across distributed or cross-timezone teams, particularly coordinating feedback loops between community and product development.
Experience coordinating in-person events or activations is a plus.
Fluency in Mandarin Chinese or other languages relevant to international community management is a strong plus.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary range: $150,000 - $180,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.
Location
Hybrid (3 days per week in office) in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.