Search Lead

• Geographic Recruitment & Partnerships (66% of the time - ⅔ of time): Build a strong recruitment ecosystem in your assigned geography by cultivating relationships, identifying strategic partners, and directly engaging promising entrepreneurs.
• Local Ecosystem Building: Conduct thorough research and mapping to identify key organizations, universities, incubators, community groups, and influencers in the assigned geography.
• Partnership Development: Build relationships with local nominators and organizations that can refer qualified candidates.
• Virtual & In-Person Event Hosting: Organize and lead virtual info sessions and recruitment events for the assigned geography.
• Direct Headhunting: Proactively identify and reach out to highly promising entrepreneurs through LinkedIn, network referrals, and personalized engagement.
• In-Person Presence: Attend community events, pitch the Fellowship, and represent Watson Institute in your region.
• Fellow Review (15% of time): Review and screen applications from the assigned geography.
• Conduct preliminary interviews with prospective Fellows.
• Manage the candidate pipeline in Salesforce for the assigned geography.
• Maintain communication with applicants.
• Data Management & Analysis (7% of time): Report weekly on progress, challenges, and leads.
• Track recruitment metrics for the assigned geography.
• Collaboration & Reporting Structure (12% of the time): Attend the Fellowship recruitment team meeting to share updates, coordinate across geographies, and align on strategy.
• Review the assigned geography's progress, troubleshoot challenges, and receive guidance on recruitment approach in weekly 1:1.

• Network Builder: Natural ability to cold-reach into communities, build trust quickly, and establish partnerships from scratch.
• Public Speaker: Comfortable presenting to groups (virtual and in-person), hosting events, and pitching compellingly on the spot.
• Hunter Mentality: Proactive, doesn’t wait for applications to come in. Goes out and finds compelling candidates directly.
• Self-Directed: Can work independently without hand-holding
• figures things out, problem-solves, manages own time across 25 hours/week.
• Mission-Aligned: Genuinely passionate about Watson Institute’s work and can authentically represent it in their community.

• Local Connections: Already embedded in the assigned geography OR has strong experience building networks in that region (especially for international sites).
• Entrepreneurial Experience: Has started something, worked at a startup, or maintains meaningful ties to entrepreneurship or innovation ecosystems.
• CRM Comfort: Familiar with Salesforce or similar (or able to learn quickly).
• Content & Outreach Experience: Experience with content creation, paid media, or digital marketing campaigns.
• Technical Skills: Proficiency in Excel, strong email communication, rapid follow-up, and comfort with data analysis.
• Community Orientation: Passion for building community and forging meaningful relationships in recruitment environments.

Competitive contractor compensation according to experience: $13,750.00. Compensation is paid monthly via Gusto.