Strategic Events Lead

Goodfire
San Francisco, US
On-site

Who this role is best for

Geared toward senior events professionals comfortable with building high-signal experiences for technical AI audiences in a San Francisco-based, in-person setting.

Best fit for

  • Strategic event planners who can design substantive gatherings for AI researchers and engineers.
    — “create events that feel substantive to AI researchers, ML engineers, CTOs, Heads of AI
  • Operational leaders capable of managing end-to-end event strategy in a fast-moving startup environment.
    — “comfort building a function from scratch in a fast-moving environment
  • Cross-functional collaborators who can translate event outcomes into actionable GTM insights.
    — “partner closely with research, GTM, and field teams

Things to consider

  • Requires in-person presence in San Francisco HQ five days a week with limited remote flexibility.
    — “We are in person 5 days a week
  • Demands high operational precision across multiple event formats and audience types.
    — “manage vendors, budgets, run-of-show, speaker prep, attendee experience

How to stand out

  • Showcase specific examples of events you've designed for technical or research-oriented audiences.
    — “Experience creating events for technical audiences, developer communities, AI/ML teams
  • Highlight your ability to connect event outcomes to measurable business impact.
    — “connect events to pipeline, account engagement, market learning
  • Demonstrate your strategic approach to building event programs from the ground up.
    — “building the event motion for a new category
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Lead

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • design high-signal experiences for AI researchers, ML engineers, CTOs, Heads of AI, and other deeply technical buyers
  • execute with precision to manage vendors, budgets, run-of-show, speaker prep, attendee experience, follow-up, and every operational detail
Typical background
experience planning and executing high-quality B2B events, field marketing programs, community programs, or executive gatherings

Skills & requirements

Required

Event PlanningEvent ExecutionProject ManagementAudience JudgmentEvent StrategyField MarketingCommunity ProgramsExecutive Gatherings

Preferred

B2B EventsField Marketing ProgramsCommunity ProgramsExecutive Gatherings

Stack & domain

Event PlanningEvent ExecutionField Marketing ProgramsCommunity ProgramsExecutive GatheringsProject ManagementVendor ManagementBudget ManagementRun-of-showSpeaker PreparationAttendee ExperienceFollow-upOperational DetailsEvent StrategyEvent CalendarEvent FormatsEvent AudiencesEvent GeographiesEvent QualityEvent PrecisionEvent MomentumEvent PipelineEvent Market NarrativeEvent Relationship BuildingEvent Market LearningEvent PlaybooksEvent ProgramsEvent SystemsEvent RelationshipsEvent ConversionEvent AttendanceTasteOperational RigorStrategic JudgmentHigh-signal EventsDeeply Relevant EventsWorth Attending EventsHigh-quality B2b Events

About the role

Original posting from Goodfire via Greenhouse

About Goodfire

Goodfire is a research company using interpretability to understand, learn from, and design AI systems. Our mission is to build the next generation of safe and powerful AI—not by scaling alone, but by understanding the intelligence we're building.

Scaling has proven powerful, but today's approach is fundamentally limited: we can't meaningfully understand, debug, or shape what models learn. Every engineering discipline has been gated by fundamental science and AI is at that inflection point now.

We're advancing the science of how AI systems actually work. Treating models as black boxes is an unnecessary handicap—we have access to the structures inside them, and understanding those structures lets us steer what models learn, make them safer and more useful, and extract the vast knowledge they contain. Our goal is to make AI that can be understood, debugged, and shaped like software.

Goodfire is a public benefit corporation headquartered in San Francisco with a team of the world’s top interpretability researchers and engineers from organizations like OpenAI and DeepMind. We're backed by over $200M from B Capital, Menlo Ventures, Lightspeed, Eric Schmidt, and others.

About the role

We're looking for an Events Lead to design the moments where Goodfire's work becomes tangible to the most technical people in AI. This role demands taste, operational rigor, and strategic judgment: the ability to create events that feel high-signal, deeply relevant, and worth attending for researchers, engineers, and technical executives.

This is a cross-functional role where you will own our events strategy end to end: intimate dinners, research salons, conference programs, field events, partner gatherings, and the systems that turn those moments into lasting relationships. You won't be optimizing a legacy events calendar; you'll be building the event motion for a new category.

Our audience is selective and highly technical. You'll need to understand what they care about, partner closely with research, GTM, and field teams, and execute with enough precision that every event advances our market narrative, strengthens relationships, and creates meaningful pipeline.

Key responsibilities

Own the events strategy and calendar: identify the moments, formats, audiences, and geographies where Goodfire should show up

Design high-signal experiences: create events that feel substantive to AI researchers, ML engineers, CTOs, Heads of AI, and other deeply technical buyers

Execute with precision: manage vendors, budgets, run-of-show, speaker prep, attendee experience, follow-up, and every operational detail that determines quality

Build targeted invite and attendance strategy: partner with GTM, demand gen, and field teams to reach the right accounts and convert attendance into relationship momentum

Measure and improve the motion: connect events to pipeline, account engagement, market learning, and repeatable playbooks for future programs

What you’ll bring

Required experience

Experience planning and executing high-quality B2B events, field marketing programs, community programs, or executive gatherings.

Strong project management skills and the ability to run many operational details without losing sight of strategy.

Excellent taste and audience judgment; you know how to make an event feel substantive, polished, and not generic.

Scrappiness, urgency, and comfort building a function from scratch in a fast-moving environment

Preferred qualifications

Experience creating events for technical audiences, developer communities, AI/ML teams, infrastructure buyers, or research organizations.

Background as an early events, field marketing, community, or demand generation hire at a high-growth startup.

Experience with conference strategy, speaker programming, executive dinners, private roundtables, or partner events.

Ability to translate event outcomes into account insights, pipeline reporting, and next-step GTM actions

Our values

Goodfire is looking for individuals who embody our values and share our deep commitment to making interpretability accessible. We are building a team first and foremost.

Put mission and team first

All we do is in service of our mission. We trust each other, deeply care about the success of the organization, and choose to put our team above ourselves.

Improve constantly

We are constantly looking to improve every piece of the business. We proactively critique ourselves and others in a kind and thoughtful way that translates to practical improvements in the organization. We are pragmatic and consistently implement the obvious fixes that work.

Take ownership and initiative

There are no bystanders here. We proactively identify problems and take full responsibility over getting a strong result. We are self-driven, own our mistakes, and feel deep responsibility over what we’re building.

Action today

We have a small amount of time to do something incredibly hard and meaningful. The pace and intensity of the organization is high. If we can take action today or tomorrow, we will choose to do it today.

Where we work

We are hiring for this position in our San Francisco HQ. We are in person 5 days a week, with one company-wide remote week per month.

What we offer

This role offers market competitive salary, equity, and competitive benefits.

Most importantly, you'll have the opportunity to join a vital mission at an important point in its trajectory — we are developing groundbreaking technology with a world-class team on the critical path to ensuring a safe and beneficial future for humanity. If you want to do your life’s work with us, even if you believe you do not meet every single requirement, apply now.

Source: Goodfire careers (Greenhouse)

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