Head of Client Research

Head Of Client Research

Aarden is a land intelligence platform that helps landowners, investors, and developers figure out what a piece of land can actually be used for, and how to market it. We turn messy parcel, infrastructure, market, community, and ecological data into clear, bankable answers for land-dependent assets. Our goal is to become the default decision layer for land: helping physical projects start in places where they can be built and supported for decades. We're a team of eight, and until now our founders have run all commercial activity themselves. This is our first dedicated commercial hire a chance to join at the ground level, with a lot of room to grow.

The Role

You'll own the production of our client-facing deliverables: the investment-grade reports, memos, and analyses our clients use to make real capital decisions. You'll work directly with senior leadership, and alongside our applied science and product teams, to turn Aarden's data into work that's clear, credible, and worth paying for. You'll also become a core part of our sales and go-to-market engine, supporting pipeline development, sales materials, customer implementation, and account management. What you produce reflects directly on Aarden's brand, and it's a big driver of whether clients renew and expand. You'll talk to clients, field their questions, translate what you hear back to our product team, and help shape how we scale our service model. We want someone who is self-directed, accountable for outcomes, and happy owning a body of work end to end.

This role is the first foothold of what will become Aarden's client success and services organization. As we grow, the right person has a real shot at leading that function, and building it.

What You'll Do

Client delivery:

• Produce investment-grade reports using Aarden's platform, translating land intelligence data into clear, well-structured analysis for institutional land investors and developers
• Own the report workflow end to end: scoping, drafting, QA, revision, delivery. Minimal oversight once you're ramped.
• Work directly with clients during onboarding and delivery: run training sessions, manage implementation timelines, answer inbound user questions
• Bring client feedback and friction points back to product, and help prioritize what we build next

Analysis and research:

• Pull infrastructure, regulatory, environmental, and market signals together into a coherent story about a site
• Build reusable templates and frameworks that let us scale delivery without letting quality slip
• Help develop the analytical point of view we publish as Aarden thought leadership

Commercial support:

• Prepare materials for account reviews, renewal conversations, and expansion scoping
• Help build pipeline: target research, outreach, pitches, conferences and events
• Write the playbooks that make client delivery repeatable as we grow

What We're Looking For

Required:

• Experience in management consulting, investment banking, or a similarly rigorous analytical environment where you produced client-facing work under time pressure.
• You know how to make decks for senior investors, with a clear argument and the right level of detail.
• Strong writing. You can turn complex data into something a non-expert can act on.
• Comfort with ambiguity and unstructured problems. We have a clear output standard, but getting there takes judgment, not a checklist.
• High ownership instinct you're the kind of person who finishes things.

Advantageous, not required:

• Exposure to technology, real assets, energy infrastructure, private equity, or land and agriculture investment
• Familiarity with geospatial data, GIS tools, or infrastructure siting analysis
• Time at a startup or early-stage company where the playbook didn't exist yet

Why Aarden

• Exposure to novel tech. Our team actively tests, tinkers, and thinks critically about how to take advantage of advances in artificial intelligence. We serve industries that are attracting massive amounts of capital and are moving quickly. You'll learn something every day.
• The problem is interesting. Land is where real assets, the energy transition, data infrastructure, and financial markets overlap, and the industries we serve are attracting enormous amounts of capital.
• You'll build alongside us. The services function doesn't fully exist yet. You'll have real influence over what it becomes.
• Direct access to founders. Our leadership is deeply in the work and will be your primary collaborators. You won't be filtered through layers of hierarchy.
• Exposure to new tech. Our team tinkers constantly and thinks hard about how to put advances in AI to work. You'll learn something every day.
• Generous equity and benefits. Unlimited time off, and a team that encourages passions and side quests outside of work.

Compensation & Logistics

$95,000 $150,000 base salary, depending on experience. Equity commensurate with stage and role. Benefits including health coverage. Title is flexible and may be adjusted based on candidate profile. Seattle-based teammates are a strong preference. Remote candidates will be asked to relocate to Seattle for 6-12 months. Remote work may be considered on a case by case basis following this period.