Role overview

Holtzbrinck's AI Hub, based in San Francisco, operates at the nexus of a global media group and the vibrant AI ecosystem. We are responsible for shaping the group's AI strategy, forging partnerships with leading AI labs, implementing programs to enhance AI capabilities across our portfolio companies, and investing in future AI advancements. This role involves close collaboration with the Executive Board and leadership across our diverse portfolio, which includes Springer Nature, Macmillan Publishers, Macmillan Learning, DIE ZEIT, and Digital Science.

The core of this position is to be deeply embedded within the AI ecosystem, identifying and cultivating relationships with key players. You will leverage the convening power of a global knowledge and media group to drive strategic AI priorities, which include agentic research workflows, the future of science education, agent-ready publishing, and multimodal storytelling formats across various genres. Your judgment and network will directly influence which startups are pursued for investment and which partnerships are formed.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain an actively managed network across the Bay Area AI ecosystem, relevant to Holtzbrinck’s sectors and tracked systematically.
Draft regular ecosystem and investment insight briefings for the Executive Board and portfolio leadership teams.
Source, screen, and brief startup opportunities that feed the Hub's investment decisions.
Make targeted matches: connect portfolio companies with the builders, tools, and partners they actually need.
Feed frontline intelligence (trends, signals, deal flow, who's building what) into the team's briefings and investment analyses.
Represent Holtzbrinck with founders, researchers, and investors, and bring the best of them to our table.

What success looks like

A living, CRM-tracked network across labs, startups, VCs, and academia that surfaces insights and leads to collaboration.
A steady flow of qualified, screened startups reaches the investment pipeline, with several advancing to serious diligence in year one.
Founder scouting for our entrepreneur in residence program.
Your work shapes how the group’s leaders and builders think about AI.
Portfolio CEOs cite introductions you made as the origin of pilots, partnerships, or deals.
Founders and investors know Holtzbrinck as a serious ecosystem player.

What you'll bring

Robust relationships across the Bay Area AI ecosystem, spanning AI Labs, big tech, startups and builders, investors, and academia in the Bay Area, or a track record that proves you can build them fast.
A track record in venture capital, strategy, startup BD, or an ecosystem role.
Technical fluency: you've built with AI tools, can read a demo critically.
Genuine dedication to science, education, and/or media, and the eagerness to deeply understand Holtzbrinck's strategy.
Strong analytical thinking and communication skills: you turn frontline signals into strategic insights for executive audiences while speaking the language of builders.
Signal over noise: you distill twenty conversations into takeaways the team can act on.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this role is $157,000 - $191,000.

Application Information

This role is based at our office at 44 Montgomery Street in San Francisco, with regular presence across the Bay Area ecosystem.
On-the-ground attendance is a core requirement of the role.
Expect your calendar to be a mix of our office, labs and startup offices, conferences, dinners, and demo nights.
You report directly to the Managing Director and regularly brief the Executive Board.

Head of AI Ecosystem Intelligence

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