Current Role –

Company: GovConnex

Hiring Manager : Cooper Darling-Blair

Logistics : 18% - exclusive -existing signed agreement:

Process : See here in the aligned portal.

I'd like to run this one exclusively, given its a speciality role.

Location:Sydney, Australia

WFH policy: Hybrid

Compensation: up to $300k OTE

Market Guide

ExperienceBase SalaryPlusB players: 3–7 years$110k–$140k + Variable A players: 3–7 years $140k–$160k (stretch to $180k)Variable

Reference Point. The previous hire was on about $120k base plus bonus.

ABOUT THE COMPANY Founder/Business story:

GovConnex is a Sydney-founded political intelligence and government relations platform. It combines government monitoring, research tools and a CRM in one product. It launched in 2019 to help public affairs professionals navigate the Australian political landscape, pulling hundreds of data sources and workflow tools into a single purpose-built platform.

It aggregates statements from Hansard, speeches and social media across federal and state MPs, departments, inquiries, committees and councils in real time, then turns them into reports, insights and trend data. The other half of the product is stakeholder management. A pre-populated directory of stakeholders lets teams log interactions and actions, so they keep a complete record of their engagement with government.

Founder Story: Established business, through a restructure and now growing properly again. Profitable with a strong balance sheet and no fundraising pressure. Has the cash and wants to push hard. Marketing has been the long-standing "last mile" weakness. Industry:

They are releasing a new AI product run almost as its own entity. EU + APAC GTM starts early next year.

Size and functions of local team:

Small, lean A-player team, with no plans to grow marketing in the next 6–12 months. Cooper manages sales (no Head of Sales). Tim, sales (ex-Rippling). Ori, sales UK. Ryan, CS lead. Michael, current marketing stand-in, on leave from Jan for 6 months.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Founding GTM & Marketing Lead:



GovConnex The first founding go-to-market and marketing hire, owning marketing end to end with minimal management. It's a hybrid of three roles in one:

- Product marketer

- GTM engineer / marketing ops

- Content and community lead

What Success Looks Like

- Primary output: sales-accepted leads (SALs). The baseline today is 10 per month, and success means consistently beating that.

- Market-level targets. Lead targets will be broken down by market (EU / APAC), with further targets still to come.

- Leading indicators. Builds and reports the L2 metrics that predict lead volume, so performance is visible before the lead number lands.

Commercial Accountability

- Proves ROI on ad spend.

- Writes lightweight business cases to secure more budget.

- Owns the MQL definition and tightens it, since it's weak today.

What They'll Own

- Events and webinars, including pre- and post-event activity

- Product launches, change logs and announcements

- LinkedIn

- Paid and search: some ads, SEO and AEO (answer engine optimisation)

How They'll Work

- AI-native execution: for example, building feature pages by prompt, with a QA layer to keep quality high.

- Outsourcing: free to bring in agencies or contractors where it makes sense.

Why Join: Employee Value Proposition

- Plenty to market. A freshly rebuilt, best-in-class product that's getting great feedback.

- Financial strength. Profitable, with a strong balance sheet and the flexibility to spend hard once results show.

- A ground-up build. Build marketing from scratch and teach the business how it's done.

- Autonomy after discipline. The "release valve" for someone who learned disciplined GTM and now wants to be let loose.

- Well resourced. AI,



budget and outsourcing support within a small, high-performing team.

- A great founder to work with. Fast, challenging, collaborative and output-driven, with real autonomy on offer.

About the Candidate:

Must-Haves

Working Style

- A hands-on IC who works autonomously and owns their decisions

- Low impression management: opinionated and comfortable with constructive tension

Background

- Comes from an established, high-growth company with disciplined GTM (think Rippling or Datto) and now wants more autonomy

Technical Skills

- CRM: hands-on with HubSpot or Salesforce, covering lead flow, leading metrics, the MQL definition, and reporting

- Paid and agencies: can measure and report ROI on ad spend, and has managed agencies

- AI: AI-native, but confident in their own craft first. This is critical; no AI slop.

Execution

- Can run events and webinars, including the marketing before and after each one

Nice-to-Haves

- Experience: 3–7 years, though they're open to younger or more experienced A players

- Product marketing: experience with product marketing and launches

- New-region launches: helpful but not mandatory. They over-indexed on UK experience last time.

Not a Fit

- Anyone who wants a "Head of" title so they can manage others rather than do the work. This is a hands-on individual contributor role.

- High impression management

- Can't describe how they report on Ad-spend or their process

Hiring Process

Stage 1: Bluebird Screen

- Chris meets 40–50 candidates and shortlists 5–8.

- Introduce to Cooper - he will meet them.

Stage 2: Virtual Screen

- With Cooper - 40-45 minutes

Stage 3: Technical Assessment

- With Cooper and Michael

- Candidates work on a real problem statement, build collateral using AI, and present it back.

- Cooper is drafting the brief.

Stage 4: Team and Culture Fit

- Meet the team, including Ryan (CS)

Timeline

- Urgency: ASAP

- Target start: in seat by end of year

- Handover: completed before January

📌 Growth Lead (Sydney)
🏢 Bluebird Recruitment
📍 Sydney