Audio Media Partnerships Lead

📋 Description

• • Protege Inc. is at the forefront of solving a critical challenge in the Artificial Intelligence landscape: the acquisition of high-quality, diverse, and privacy-centric training data. The current methods for obtaining this data are notoriously time-consuming, prohibitively expensive, and frequently result in unsatisfactory outcomes. Protege's innovative platform is designed to streamline this process, enabling the secure, efficient, and privacy-preserving exchange of AI training data, thereby unlocking the potential for AI development.
• • This role of Audio Media Partnerships Lead is a pivotal position within Protege, focused on significantly expanding our network of content owners and bolstering the foundation of our licensing business. It is a relationship-centric, mission-critical opportunity for an individual with a profound understanding of the audio media ecosystem and a passion for integrating valuable content into the future of AI.
• • The primary responsibility will be to identify, engage, and secure strategic partnerships with rights holders across a wide spectrum of audio content. This includes, but is not limited to, podcasts, audiobooks, conversational audio, specialized industry-specific audio (such as legal, medical, or financial content), and multilingual audio assets. The successful candidate will be instrumental in articulating Protege's vision to potential partners, structuring mutually beneficial licensing agreements, and serving as their primary, trusted point of contact as their content becomes integral to groundbreaking AI products.
• • This position is based in the United States and requires a proactive approach to business development and partnership management.
• • Key responsibilities encompass a broad range of activities designed to drive growth and ensure successful collaborations:
• • **Partnership Development:** This involves meticulously identifying high-value audio content owners across various formats, including podcasts, audiobooks, conversational audio, vertical-specific recordings (legal, medical, financial, technical, etc.), foreign language content, and user-generated content (UGC) audio. The goal is to align these assets with Protege's strategic data and licensing priorities. You will be responsible for crafting and executing comprehensive strategies to win these partners and integrate them into the Protege network, managing the entire lifecycle from initial sourcing and pitching through to negotiation and closing of licensing agreements. No opportunity will be too large or too small, as you will support leadership and the broader content partnerships team in achieving ambitious organizational goals.
• • **Relationship Management:** A core aspect of this role is building and nurturing strong, trust-based relationships with a diverse array of audio content partners. This includes podcast networks, audiobook publishers, enterprise content producers, multilingual media companies, and specialty audio libraries. You will act as the long-term account lead for these partners, overseeing aspects such as usage, renewals, and identifying strategic growth opportunities. A key function will be to educate partners on the rapidly evolving AI landscape and clearly articulate how their unique content contributes to cutting-edge innovation and the advancement of AI capabilities.
• • **Cross-Functional Execution:** This role requires seamless collaboration with various internal teams to ensure the successful integration and utilization of audio assets. You will work to ensure that audio assets meet the stringent technical requirements for AI training, including format, transcript accuracy, metadata completeness, and quality thresholds. Close collaboration with legal teams will be essential for shaping deal terms and ensuring that partner agreements are both commercially sound and compliant. Furthermore, you will partner with product and licensing teams to effectively match the supply of audio content with the demand from AI builders, and work with the marketing team to highlight key partnerships and enhance Protege's visibility within the audio media ecosystem.
• • Success in this role will be measured through tangible achievements across different timeframes. Within the first 30 days, the focus will be on gaining context, establishing credibility, and designing a robust pipeline. By 60 days, the objective is to demonstrate traction, generate deal flow, and solidify market positioning. The ultimate goal within 90 days is to secure meaningful deal wins, showcasing mastery of the pitching process and delivering significant supply to the Protege platform.
• • Protege fosters a culture of rapid, yet thoughtful, progress. We are biased towards action and continuous learning. We operate as a lean, high-trust team where every member has significant ownership, and clarity and autonomy are paramount to our success. We approach our work with seriousness and dedication, but maintain a sense of humility and celebrate our achievements. Our team is characterized by kindness, directness, and inclusivity, with a commitment to providing early and frequent feedback to foster mutual growth. At our core, we are builders – resourceful, hands-on, and driven to create momentum. You will be surrounded by individuals who are passionate about impact, challenge you to think bigger, and are genuinely excited about the future we are building together.