Director, Audience Acquisition

Overview:

Fuel Cycle is hiring a strategic, hands-on leader to run our Audience Acquisition team. This role owns the entire respondent sourcing lifecycle-from vendor partnerships to innovative digital recruitment-and ensures we deliver high-quality participants for both research studies and long-term community engagement. The right candidate will combine deep experience in market research recruitment with a strong operational mindset, a bias for experimentation, and the leadership to scale respondent acquisition across evolving platforms and audience needs.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own Fuel Cycle's audience strategy-including vendor partnerships, proprietary panel growth, digital campaigns, and community recruitment-to meet both client-specific and company-wide needs.
• Lead and scale The Insights Lab, our proprietary research panel. Own panel health, growth strategy, engagement, retention, incentive design, and revenue performance.
• Monitor and manage active recruitment through real-time dashboards to ensure accuracy, speed, and quality across all live projects.
• Manage the department P&L, hitting project-level margin targets and driving cost-efficiencies across sourcing channels.
• Launch new recruitment initiatives across channels-traditional, affiliate, in-person, and digital-with a focus on Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and emerging platforms.
• Define and enforce respondent quality protocols, ensuring high engagement and low fraud rates across all studies.
• Collaborate across Research, Customer Experience, and Product to align recruitment strategies with business needs and client expectations.

Your Success Metrics:

• Design and implement a standardized panel/member health framework, with KPIs for retention, engagement, and source/channel performance.
• Deliver margin and profitability targets across both community and ad hoc project recruitment, including commercial goals for The Insights Lab.
• Expand vendor network to support hard-to-reach and high-value audiences (e.g., B2B, multicultural, Gen Z, etc.).
• Test and optimize acquisition tactics regularly, using performance data to improve targeting, spend efficiency, and respondent outcomes.

Who you'll work with?

• Audience Experience
• Customer Experience
• Sales
• Research Excellence
• Marketing
• Finance

Core Skills, Competencies & Attributes:

• Strategic Ownership: Think beyond operational execution. Define and drive a clear vision for Fuel Cycle's recruitment engine.
• Partner Management: Negotiate smart contracts, evaluate performance, and maintain a diverse ecosystem of sourcing partners.
• Digital Acquisition Savvy: Deep understanding of recruitment via digital and social platforms; proven ability to adapt to platform shifts and audience trends.
• Operational Rigor: Skilled in dashboarding, sampling logic, and process improvement to hit SLAs, budgets, and quality benchmarks.
• Data-Driven Mindset: Use KPIs and analytics to guide recruitment strategy, optimize sourcing channels, and ensure high-quality outcomes.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Translate business requirements into action. Work closely with stakeholders to deliver recruitment solutions that scale.

What you'll bring:

• Minimum 8-10 years of experience in market research, audience recruitment, or panel/community management.
• Demonstrated success building or managing high-performing research panels or respondent communities.
• Strong track record in digital respondent acquisition across paid, organic, and social channels.
• Experience owning vendor relationships, budgets, contracts, and P&L responsibility.
• Confident team leader with a collaborative style and ability to influence cross-functionally.
• Familiarity with sampling platforms, incentive models, fraud prevention tools, and dashboard/reporting systems.

Benefits:

• Health/Dental/Vision Insurance
• 401k match
• Equity Purchase Option
• Flexible Work Schedule
• 15 Vacation Days + 7 Sick Days annually
• 12 Company Holidays + 4 Floating Holidays/Recharge Days (giving you the flexibility to celebrate or observe non-standard holidays, or take time to rest and recharge)
• Parental Leave
• Monthly Internet/Phone Stipend
• All Team Perks: many including: Rightway, Headspace & more
• LA & NY HQ Perks: Weekly community lunches, refreshments & snacks
• Pet Friendly HQs

This position pays between $90,000 - $120,000 base salary + bonus. Your final base salary will be determined based on location, work experience, skills, knowledge, education and/or certifications.

This position follows a hybrid work model and is based out of our Los Angeles or New York HQs, with an on-site presence required 3 days/week.

About Fuel Cycle:

Fuel Cycle accelerates decision intelligence for legendary brands. We achieve this by enabling organizations to capture, analyze, and act on insights required to launch new products, acquire customers, and gain market share. By leveraging the Research Engine, which powers leading insight communities, brands forge connections with their key audiences and harness actionable insights that drive confident business decisions.

At Fuel Cycle, we embrace the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion and are committed to fostering an inclusive company culture. We believe that everyone, regardless of their background or identity, should have equal access to opportunities for growth and advancement. Our selection processes and career pathways are designed to be fair, transparent, and free from bias. We value the unique perspectives and contributions of each team member, knowing that this diverse range of experiences strengthens our team. Fuel Cycle stands firmly against discrimination based on disability, sex, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, age, veteran status, or any other protected status under the law.

Fuel Cycle is an equal opportunity employer and fully comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants and employees with disabilities, as needed, to enable them to perform the essential functions of their job and participate in the application and interview process. If you require accommodations during any part of the application process, please contact us at hr@fuelcycle.com to discuss your needs.

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