Influencer Marketing Manager

Kestra is the open-source orchestration platform, 30,000 GitHub stars, $36M raised, used by Bloomberg, JPMorgan, Deutsche Telekom. We orchestrate infrastructure, data, AI, and business workflows from a single platform. We grew to enterprise scale through community and word of mouth. Now we need to accelerate. Developer influencer marketing is the highest-leverage paid channel in the open-source infrastructure space, and we're building the function from scratch. This is a hands-on, ownership role. You build the program, run it, and are accountable for its results. YOUR MISSIONS 1. SOURCE AND QUALIFY CREATORS → Map YouTube creators, newsletter authors, podcasters, community figures whose audiences are platform engineers, DevOps leads, infra builders, data teams, technical founders. → Build a scoring system: audience relevance, engagement quality, growth trajectory, content fit. Maintain a ranked prospect pipeline. → Tools: Social Blade, Passionfroot, GitHub/Discord/Twitter signals, internal recs. → Monitor who other infra/dev tools companies sponsor. What's working, what gaps exist. 2. NEGOTIATE, STRUCTURE, AND CLOSE DEALS → Own end-to-end: first contact, rate negotiation, contract, invoicing (net-30), follow-up. → Build and maintain a CPM pricing model benchmarking fair value by channel size, engagement, and placement type. Update quarterly with real deal data. → Formats: pre-roll, mid-roll, end-roll, integrations, dedicated tutorials, multi-video packages. → Request examples of previous ad reads before committing. Quality of the read matters as much as the audience. 3. BRIEF CREATORS AND MANAGE DELIVERY → Develop a modular messaging kit: what Kestra is, what it solves, who it's for, how to start. Not a script, a toolkit creators actually want to use. → Maintain a library of video assets, product demos, in-app recordings for B-roll. → Set up unique UTM links per creator/campaign Enforce: link in top 3 lines, verbal CTA mentioning Kestra on sign-up. → Align placement timing with Product Marketing: launches, feature pushes, competitive moments. → Review every placement within 48h of going live. Flag issues, track delivery against brief. 4. MANAGE THE RELATIONSHIP LIFECYCLE → Active recording of all creator relationships deal history, performance, comms log, renewal dates. → Move top performers into recurring deals: quarterly packages, ambassador programs, co-created series. → Handle underperformers directly: renegotiate, adjust format, or end the partnership. Clear and professional. 5. EXPAND ADJACENT CHANNELS → Test technical newsletters, dev podcasts, sponsored community content beyond YouTube. → Explore co-marketing: joint webinars, live coding sessions, "build with Kestra" series. → Feed creator conversation insights back into Product and Marketing, what resonates, what confuses, what competitors are doing. 6. BUILD THE PLAYBOOK → Document everything: sourcing criteria, outreach templates, negotiation frameworks, briefing kits, dashboards, reporting cadences. → Build a self-serve onboarding flow so new partnerships spin up fast. HOW WE MEASURE RESULTS You own a dashboard. These are the numbers on it: CPM (Cost per 1,000 views): Negotiate rates, pick efficient channels, cut underperformers. Sessions (Unique visits from UTM links Link placement): CTA quality, audience relevance. Sign-ups (Accounts via UTM or self-reported mention): Messaging quality, audience fit, creator authenticity. Conversion (Sessions → sign-ups %): Brief quality, landing page, targeting. Budget ROI (Spend vs. pipeline influenced): Portfolio mix, negotiation, doubling down on. winners Repeat rate (% of creators who renew): Relationship quality, fair dealing, good briefs. WHO YOU ARE Not a generic marketing hire. We're looking for a specific type of person. Background — one or more of these: → Agency vet: you ran influencer campaigns for tech or SaaS clients at a talent, media, or creator-focused agency. You know how to manage 20 partnerships at once and ke