Gradial is a Seattle-based developer of an AI-native content operations platform and marketing work system that automates end-to-end digital marketing workflows.
<div class="content-intro"><p>Gradial is the marketing operations system of work that helps marketers and creatives move from idea to execution faster. Our platform orchestrates across martech stacks, workflows, and people to automate marketing execution, cutting execution time, so marketers focus on the work only humans can do: shaping brands, understanding customers, and creating the work that moves people.</p> <p>Backed by leading investors, we’re building software that adapts to the user, not the other way around. We move with urgency, operate with ownership, and solve hard problems from first principles. If you want to do ambitious work, take real responsibility, and help define the future of AI-native content operations, you’ll do your best work here.</p></div><h3><strong>The Role</strong></h3> <p>Gradial is hiring its first Product Marketing Lead to define the category and build the product marketing function from the ground up. You’ll own how we position the company to executives, buyers, operators, analysts, and the market at large. This is a foundational role reporting to the Founder and Chief Growth Officer, built for someone who joined an early-stage startup and drove it through a significant scale phase as a category-defining business.</p> <p>You’ll shape the narrative across our full portfolio, from core platform positioning to launches, customer stories, competitive strategy, and analyst relations. You’ll work closely with founders, product, sales, and customers to ensure Gradial tells one clear story everywhere it matters. We’re looking for someone with strong instincts, sharp judgment, and high conviction who knows how to make a new category feel inevitable.</p> <h3><strong>What You’ll Own</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Define and defend Gradial’s positioning across the portfolio, ensuring our homepage, pitch, launches, and market narrative tell one clear story</li> <li>Name and shape the category before someone else does through sharp messaging, proprietary research, and language that sticks in the market</li> <li>Own product and company messaging for executives, buyers, operators, and technical stakeholders across every major channel</li> <li>Lead product launches as narrative moments, building the storyline, proof points, founder content, customer voice, and go-to-market coordination end to end</li> <li>Build competitive positioning that helps us win in live deals against adjacent platforms, established incumbents, and agency alternatives</li> <li>Partner closely with Sales to sharpen differentiation, strengthen objection handling, and improve win rates where it matters most</li> <li>Turn customer wins into category-defining stories by building a repeatable engine for case studies, named talks, videos, PR moments, and co-marketing assets</li> <li>Talk to customers and power users frequently, using those insights to refine messaging, uncover proof points, and keep our story grounded in reality</li> <li>Own analyst relations across top industry firms, shaping how the market understands the category and where Gradial fits</li> <li>Hold a high bar for clarity and consistency, protecting the company from diluted messaging as we scale</li> </ul> <h3><strong>What We Need</strong></h3> <ul> <li>5+ years of product marketing experience in B2B SaaS, ideally in a product-led or category-creating company</li> <li>Experience joining an early-stage startup, roughly under 250 employees, and driving it through a significant scale phase as a category-defining business</li> <li>Strong track record owning positioning, launches, competitive strategy, customer storytelling, and sales enablement</li> <li>Exceptional writing and storytelling skills with the ability to create sharp narratives that influence buyers, operators, analysts, and internal teams</li> <li>Ability to translate complex product capabilities into clear market value for both technical and non-technical audiences</li> <li>Experience working closely with founders, product teams, and go-to-market teams in fast-moving environments with little existing structure</li> <li>High ownership mindset with comfort operating as a builder and individual contributor while laying the foundation for a future function</li> <li>Strong customer instinct and a habit of staying close to users, buyer pain points, objections, and product truth</li> <li>Confidence and judgment to make strategic messaging decisions and hold the line as the company grows</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Nice to Have</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Experience at a high-performing startup that scaled meaningfully from early stage to broad market adoption</li> <li>Familiarity with AI-native products, AI-leaning developer tools, or modern MarTech platforms</li> <li>Experience introducing a new category or making new market language stick in a competitive space</li> </ul> <p><strong>Compensation</strong></p> <p>The base salary range for this position is $170,000 to $195,000 annually. Final compensation will be determined based on factors such as experience, skills, and qualifications.</p> <p>In addition to base salary, this role is eligible for a performance-based bonus and equity grant.</p> <p>Gradial offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, paid time off, paid sick leave, and other employee wellness programs.</p><div class="content-conclusion"><h2><strong>What we offer</strong></h2> <ul> <li>Competitive salary and meaningful equity</li> <li>Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage</li> <li>Fast-paced environment with flexibility and ownership</li> <li>Real impact, zero bureaucracy</li> <li>A front-row seat to building category-defining AI infrastructure</li> </ul> <h2><strong>You'll thrive here if you...</strong></h2> <ul> <li>Learn quickly, actively seek out new challenges, and regularly reconsider “how it’s always been done.”</li> <li>Have an innate drive for being 1% better than the day before, building towards gr