GTM and Community Lead

Why this work matters

Touchdown starts with people doing real work: teach the team, build one useful AI system, manage what runs, and measure what still breaks. We follow repeated limits through software, inference, kernels, memory, hardware, materials, and manufacturing research only when the evidence earns the next layer. The ambition is broad. The work is always bounded by a user, a test, and a receipt.

Overview

You will run the operating path between customers, technical teams, education, research, community, and in-person fieldwork. In-person events are a core part of this job, not an occasional marketing task. You will decide which rooms Touchdown should be in, build the right audience, produce the program with technical owners, operate the event on site, capture what happened, and convert the room into customer, research, recruiting, partnership, or community next steps. You will also own the CRM and commercial follow-through required to make that fieldwork compound.

What you will own

• Build and operate customer, research, partner, talent, and community pipelines with clean source and follow-up records.
• Research organizations, people, workflows, decision-makers, current systems, and the evidence behind a credible outreach question.
• Run discovery that identifies the user, accepted result, pain, budget, timing, technical owner, and next proof step.
• Coordinate proposals, scope, pricing inputs, diligence, follow-up, and handoffs with the technical owner responsible for delivery.
• Build an in-person field calendar across Touchdown-hosted workshops, technical meetups, conference activations, demos, dinners, campus programs, and industry gatherings.
• Own event operations end to end: objective, audience, invitations, registration, venue, vendors, budget, run of show, speakers, demos, signage, accessibility, safety, on-site staffing, capture, and contingency plans.
• Work with engineers and researchers to turn real systems, code, experiments, and educational material into sessions people can understand and use.
• Operate the room: welcome people, keep the program on time, facilitate useful introductions, capture questions and commitments, and handle problems without losing the experience.
• Complete fast post-event follow-up with sourced notes, qualified next actions, CRM updates, content assets, and a clear account of what the event produced.
• Turn public research, technical artifacts, customer lessons, and field feedback into clear distribution without exposing private work or overstating proof.

Technical territory

Founder-led and technical sales; account and stakeholder research; CRM operations; qualification and pipeline reporting; event strategy and production; venues and vendors; registration and attendee operations; workshops and education; technical demos; conferences and field activations; dinners and small-group programs; community partnerships; proposals and diligence; content capture; customer feedback; recruiting signal; and the operating handoff from an in-person conversation to scoped technical work.

Representative outputs

• A sourced account, partner, talent, and community system with current owners, evidence, stage definitions, next actions, and follow-up dates.
• Complete event briefs covering objective, audience, budget, venue, vendors, run of show, technical content, staffing, safety, capture, contingencies, and success criteria.
• Post-event and post-conversation records showing what was learned, what was promised, who owns the next action, and which opportunities are qualified.
• Accurate proposals, field reports, content assets, and operating dashboards that connect public interest to revenue, research, hiring, or documented learning.

What success looks like

• The pipeline is sourced, current, and tied to a real person, workflow, problem, and next action.
• Technical staff spend time on qualified conversations instead of vague interest.
• Every event begins with a specific audience and outcome rather than a vanity attendance target.
• Events run on time, the technical content is accurate, the room is well operated, and contingencies are handled.
• Event records show who attended, what they cared about, what was promised, who owns the follow-up, and when it is due.
• Events produce qualified meetings, applications, research questions, customer opportunities, partnerships, community growth, or documented learning.
• Claims remain accurate across outreach, proposals, public content, and partner conversations.

What you bring

• Track record in technical GTM, partnerships, community, events, or founder-led sales.
• Excellent account research, writing, discovery, follow-up, and operational discipline.
• Comfort learning AI systems, inference, and hardware well enough to ask precise questions without pretending to be the technical owner.
• Ability to distinguish a lead, conversation, qualified opportunity, proposal, paid scope, partnership, and public claim.
• Experience producing in-person events or field programs with real ownership of logistics, vendors, budgets, attendees, on-site operations, and follow-up.
• Calm judgment in a live room, including the ability to solve operational problems while protecting the attendee and speaker experience.
• Willingness to own the unglamorous work: lists, invitations, confirmations, load-in, setup, check-in, timing, notes, cleanup, CRM hygiene, and follow-up.
• Ability to work directly with a founder while building a repeatable operating process.

Helpful experience

• Developer, infrastructure, semiconductor, education, or research markets
• Technical workshops, conferences, demos, dinners, or campus programs
• Early-stage sales operations
• Partnership or ecosystem work
• Event budgeting, production, and vendor management
• Content capture and customer research

How the role works

• Full-time role.
• San Francisco / Bay Area preferred. Remote within the United States may be considered for the right person.
• This role requires regular in-person work in the San Francisco Bay Area and travel for selected events.
• Some programs will require evening or weekend availability, planned in advance.
• You will be responsible for both the visible program and the operational work before and after it.
• Scope, start date, and employment details are discussed during the process.