Audio Media Partnerships Lead

Company Overview:

We are building Protege to solve the biggest unmet need in AI — getting access to the right training data. The process today is time intensive, incredibly expensive, and often ends in failure. The Protege platform facilitates the secure, efficient, and privacy-centric exchange of AI training data.

Solving AI’s data problem is a generational opportunity. We’re backed by world-class investors and already powering partnerships with some of the most ambitious teams in AI. The company that succeeds will be one of the largest in AI — and in tech.

We’re a lean, fast-moving, high-trust team of builders who are obsessed with velocity and impact. Our culture is built for people who thrive on ambiguity, own outcomes, and want to shape the future of data and AI.

Role Overview:

We're hiring an Audio Media Partnerships Lead to grow Protege's network of content owners and expand the foundation of our licensing business. This is a relationship-driven, mission-critical role for someone who understands the audio media ecosystem and is excited to bring high-value content into the future of AI.

You will identify, engage, and secure partnerships with rights holders across a diverse range of audio content — podcasts, audiobooks, conversational audio, industry-specific audio, and multilingual content. You'll sell partners on Protege's vision, structure mutually beneficial licensing agreements, and serve as their trusted point of contact as their content becomes part of transformative AI products.

This role will be based in the United States.

Key Responsibilities:

Partnership Development

• Identify high-value audio content owners across formats — podcasts, audiobooks, conversational audio, vertical-specific recordings (legal, medical, financial, technical, and more), foreign language content, and UGC audio — that align with Protege's data and licensing priorities

• Craft and execute strategies to win these partners and bring them into the Protege network

• Own the full lifecycle: sourcing, pitching, negotiating, and closing licensing agreements

• No job too big or too small: support leadership and content partnerships team to achieve ambitious goals

Relationship Management

• Build strong, trust-based relationships with audio content partners — podcast networks, audiobook publishers, enterprise content producers, multilingual media companies, specialty audio libraries, and beyond

• Serve as the long-term account lead for partners, helping manage usage, renewals, and strategic opportunities

• Educate partners on the evolving AI landscape and how their content contributes to cutting-edge innovation

Cross-Functional Execution

• Ensure audio assets meet technical requirements for AI training (format, transcripts, metadata, quality thresholds)

• Work with internal teams to assess usability, compliance, and delivery readiness

• Collaborate with legal to shape deal terms and ensure partner agreements reflect both value and compliance

• Work with product and licensing teams to match audio content supply with demand from AI builders

• Partner with marketing to celebrate key partnerships and elevate Protege's presence in audio media ecosystems

What Success Looks Like:

• 30 days: Context, Credibility & Pipeline Design

  • Goal: Become fluent in Protege’s supply–demand engine and map the audio opportunity.

• 60 days: Traction, Deal Flow & Market Positioning

  • Goal: Turn pipeline into structured negotiations.

• 90 days: Deal Wins

  • Goal: Demonstrate mastery of pitch and secure meaningful supply.

About You:

• Experience in partnerships, business development, licensing, or content acquisition — ideally within podcasting, publishing, enterprise media, or media tech

• Familiarity with structured data assets (transcripts, metadata, annotation, privacy constraints)

• Deep knowledge of audio rights, licensing structures, and the business side of content ownership preferred.

• Experience working across diverse content formats and, ideally, multilingual or international content markets

• Skilled dealmaker who can navigate commercial conversations with empathy, clarity, and confidence

• Excellent communicator who can distill complex ideas and inspire buy-in

• Self-starter who thrives in ambiguity, owns outcomes, and moves with urgency

• Passionate about the intersection of audio, technology, and AI

• High-EQ team-player; willing to roll up your sleeves and work hard

Why Now? Voice is becoming a dominant interface of the AI era. The leading AI companies — from frontier model labs to consumer product builders — are racing to make voice and audio central to how humans interact with intelligent systems. Building those experiences requires massive quantities of diverse, high-quality audio training data: natural conversation, domain-specific terminology, and voices that reflect the full range of human language and experience.

Content owners are beginning to understand the value of what they hold — and they're looking for a trusted partner to help them participate. Protege is building that bridge. As our Audio Partnerships Lead, you'll be on the front lines of one of the most consequential data markets in tech. The relationships you build will help define how AI speaks, listens, and understands the world.

Working with Protege:

• We move fast — thoughtfully.
  Speed matters in what we’re building, but so does intention. We’re biased toward action and always learning.

• We’re a lean, high-trust team.
  Everyone has real ownership. Clarity and autonomy drive our best work.

• We take our work seriously, not ourselves.
  We solve hard problems with humility and celebrate wins; big and small.

• We’re kind, direct, and inclusive.
  We give feedback early and often, with the goal of helping one another grow.

• We’re builders at heart.
  Every person at Protege is hands-on, resourceful, and focused on creating momentum.

We grow fast — together.
You’ll be surrounded by people who care about impact, who challenge you to think bigger, and who are genuinely excited about what comes next.