About the Role

Blackbird is looking to hire a Marketing & Community Coordinator to support the Head of the Blackbird Foundation in unleashing magic and creativity in young people all across Australia and New Zealand.

The Blackbird Foundation is Blackbird’s philanthropic arm. We believe creativity is the meta skill and that most young people have it strangled out of them. Our future leaders are not just sitting in a university lecture hall or doing an internship at an investment bank. The next generation is also breaking down complex issues through rap on TikTok, peering through a camera lens, sitting at a piano composing, leaning over a workbench, painting, writing, or programming. Their passions are as diverse as they are dynamic, and they will be the ones to solve the most significant challenges we face tomorrow.

You will work alongside the Head of the Blackbird Foundation as we work to unleash creativity in young people. You will run marketing and community for the Foundation, which serves as an important strategic function in achieving our mission.

One key program we run is called Protostars. This is a microgrant that we give out to you people with passion projects. The aim of this program is to encourage young people to follow their passions and develop their skills. Read more about our thoughts on passion projects and have a look at some of the previous projects we have funded here and here.

Through storytelling, the Blackbird Foundation aims to help reshape what we understand about creativity, find people and organisations to fund and promote the work of the amazing people we fund. Storytelling is core to our success, and your work will play an important role in helping young people lead rich and meaningful lives.

Here is a brief overview of some examples of work you will own:

Overall for our Foundation:

• Build and execute the overall marketing strategy for the Foundation

• Develop, design and publish content and campaigns to share our stories and grow our audience across Substack and social media channels. For example:

  • Write and publish stories through our publication, Meta on substack

  • Create and publish social media campaigns

  • Write and publish internal newsletters

• Maintain and build out the Blackbird Foundation website

• Work to turn the Foundation into a magnetic force for creative people.

Protostars (grant program):

• Support the Head of the Foundation to run the Protostars program

• Build and execute the marketing and communications plan to drive awareness and applications for the program

• Help shape the Protostars product by experimenting with new ways to run the program and measure its outcomes

• Manage and continue to grow the Protostars community, including setting up the alumni community.

• Support the Head of the Foundation in producing an annual alumni event

Here is what success might look like in your first 6-12 months:

• Double Blackbird socials and newsletter numbers

• Increase the quality and quantity of applications for our protostars program

• Evolve our Blackbird Foundation website and ensure it’s in tip top shape

Position Requirements

Your background is less important than the key skills, which might include:

• Marketing & digital: Marketing strategy and plan development, with an emphasis on digital marketing.

• Communications: Excellent communication, both written and verbal, and the skills to creatively write with passion and personality

• Design: Graphic design skills and use of key tools like Canva, Figma and the Adobe Creative Suite

• Project management: Ability to structure a project, execute and autonomously run projects from beginning to end. High ownership of deliverables is a must have.

• Community management: Community building, connecting and talent sourcing. Also includes managing communication across messaging platforms, content management, reporting and more.

• Attention to detail: High attention for all the details and grit to do repetitive work when i’s required.

We’re looking for someone who is as passionate as us about creativity and young people - just like this incredible cohort in our most recent Protostars season. You must have a high ownership mentality and the ability to take responsibility for goals and outcomes.

This role is full-time, you can work remotely or from Surry Hills, Auckland or Melbourne with the flexibility to work from home.

Working at Blackbird

We believe that building a diverse and inclusive team is critical to Blackbird’s success. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. We use Applied to ensure every applicant gets an equal chance of success.

We offer:

• Flexible working: Whether it’s working from home or leaving early to pick up the kids from daycare or school.

• Generous parental leave: Generous (and equal) parental leave: We know family comes first, and we are proud to offer 20 weeks of parental leave for all parents, with no minimum tenure. In addition, we offer IVF, adoption and surrogacy leave. We also continue to pay superannuation and vest carried interest for up to 12 months of parental leave, and offer a supportive return-to-work policy to help with the ramp back.

• Learning & Development Budget: Our team is hungry to continuously learn and you’ll receive a budget to spend on whatever you’d like to learn - from coding courses to meditation.

• Unplugged weekends: We work hard without letting work get in the way of life. We’ve implemented no Slack or emails on weekends, so you can switch off and enjoy yourself.

Blackbird is a Pledge 1% member —  we pledge 1% of our time, equity and profits to help not-for-profit causes in our community. Through Pledge 1%, we established the Blackbird Foundation to supercharge the creative capabilities of young people.

In 2021, we were recognised in top 5 technology workplaces in the AFR Best Places to Work List, as well as winning Best Employee Experience.

About Blackbird

Blackbird is Australia's biggest venture capital fund whose mission is to supercharge Australia and New Zealand’s most ambitious founders. We do this by raising venture capital funds, investing into the best startup companies and helping them succeed. We have a portfolio valued at over $7B, including some of the most successful Australian and Kiwi startups such as Canva, Safety Culture and Culture Amp.

We are inspired by investment firms such as Berkshire Hathaway and Bridgewater Associates. Like the companies we back, we want to build a business that lasts for decades and produces excellent returns for our investors. Most of all, we want to support our region’s most talented founders build category-defining technology companies.

We’ve written a lot about what we love at Blackbird, so check out our blog if you want some more information about us. In particular, you should read about our mission and values, our master plan, Blackbird’s Operating Principles (BOPs) and what we look for in founders.