CMO-in-Residence

AINAD is looking for a Chief Marketing Officer-in-Residence to build our marketing capability and help our portfolio companies design and execute world-class go-to-market strategies.

About AINAD

AINAD is a UK-based venture studio that builds and scales AI-native, tech-enabled companies across sectors like health, education, fintech and sustainability. We act as a hands-on co‐founder to our ventures, providing product, engineering, growth, capital and operating support so they can move from concept to scale faster and with more structure.

The Role

As CMO-in-Residence, you will be the senior marketing leader across the studio. You will shape AINAD’s own brand and narrative while working directly with selected portfolio ventures to define positioning, build GTM strategies and create repeatable growth engines. This is not a narrow “one brand” CMO role, it’s a strategist–operator position for someone who enjoys switching contexts and building from first principles across multiple startups.

It’s ideal for a senior marketing leader (CMO/VP Marketing/Head of Growth) who wants to apply their experience across several AI and SaaS ventures rather than a single company.

What You’ll Do

• Define and refine AINAD’s brand positioning, narrative and messaging across website, decks, socials and ecosystem presence.
• Act as a senior marketing partner to founders in the studio, especially for ventures in zero-to-one and one-to-early-scale stages.
• Help portfolio companies define ICPs, segmentation, positioning, messaging and launch strategies.
• Design and oversee early demand-generation systems (content, lifecycle, performance channels, partnerships, community), appropriate to stage and model.
• Build GTM playbooks and frameworks (channel testing, CAC/payback discipline, funnel analysis, experimentation) that can be reused across ventures.
• Translate complex, technical products into clear, compelling narratives for customers, investors and partners.
• Support hiring and structuring of initial marketing teams for high-potential ventures (including advising on agencies vs in-house vs fractional talent).
• Coach founders and early marketing hires on strategy, metrics, execution quality and operating cadence.
• Increase AINAD’s visibility in founder, investor and ecosystem communities via content, events, partnerships and thought leadership.
• Define marketing KPIs, reporting and insight loops at both studio and venture level to inform strategic decisions.

What We’re Looking For

• Significant senior marketing experience (CMO, VP Marketing, Head of Marketing/Growth) in startups or scale-ups, ideally in B2B SaaS and/or AI-led products.
• Track record of building GTM strategies and marketing systems for early-stage or scaling companies (positioning, launch, demand gen, funnel optimisation).
• Experience working across multiple products/business units or in a fractional/consulting capacity, comfortable context-switching while maintaining depth.
• Strong strengths in positioning, messaging and storytelling – able to create clear narratives from complex technology.
• Hands-on familiarity with modern demand-gen tools and motions (content-led growth, performance, lifecycle, outbound-adjacent, partner-led, PLG hybrids).
• Commercially minded and data literate – comfortable with CAC, payback, funnel metrics, channel trade-offs and stage-appropriate targets.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder skills; able to build trust quickly with founders, investors, and specialist partners.
• Low ego, high ownership; comfortable oscillating between strategic advisory and rolling up sleeves to ship assets, campaigns or playbooks.

What We Offer

• A “CMO with leverage” role: apply your experience across multiple AI and SaaS ventures rather than a single company.
• Significant autonomy to design how marketing operates at both studio and portfolio level.
• Close collaboration with founders, builders and investors working on ambitious, AI-native products.
• Flexible structure (full-time or high-commitment fractional, to be agreed) with competitive compensation and upside aligned to impact.
• A chance to define the GTM DNA of a venture studio and help multiple startups avoid common marketing and growth pitfalls.

Location

Hybrid / flexible, with a preference for candidates who can spend meaningful time in the UK (especially London) and occasionally join in-person sessions with founders and the studio team.

If you’re a senior marketer who loves building category stories, GTM systems and growth engines – and you want to do that across several early-stage ventures, we’d love to hear from you. Please apply with your CV/LinkedIn and a short note on why this CMO-in-Residence role at AINAD appeals to you.