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Salary: USD 200,000 - 275,000 / annual
Profound is a rapidly growing AI marketing platform used by 15% of the Fortune 500 (including Comcast, Estée Lauder, Walmart) and innovative companies like Ramp, MongoDB, and Figma. The platform consolidates marketing work—research, briefs, content, campaigns, reporting—in one place, powered by AI agents that automate and optimize workflows. Built on 2B+ real user prompts, Profound's data reveals what people ask AI and how models respond, enabling the AI Marketer to identify high-impact opportunities and deploy agents for automated reporting, content drafting, page audits, competitive research, and continuous improvement.
As Data Acquisition Lead, you will own the complete lifecycle of external data sourcing and vendor management. This includes identifying and qualifying data providers against coverage, quality, capacity, and cost criteria; structuring vendor trials and running benchmarks using internal tools; analyzing results by source, geography, and workload; and comparing effective costs across different pricing models (including retries, failures, minimums, and overages). You will negotiate pricing, service commitments, support arrangements, renewals, and exit terms with vendors, maintain a portfolio of qualified alternatives, and identify overlapping infrastructure or correlated failure risks. You will lead vendor performance reviews, recommend expansion or replacement decisions, and coordinate onboarding with Engineering, Finance, and Legal. You own vendor contracts, spend tracking, and maintain clear records of vendor status and decisions. You will resolve provider issues cross-functionally and help build and scale the data acquisition function as the company grows.
This is an on-site role based in Profound's Union Square, NYC office, designed for builders who thrive on speed, iteration, and impact. Visa sponsorship is available for qualified international candidates.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 5+ years of hands-on experience with external data or web data providers and partners (vendor or customer side), including sourcing/managing providers, solutions engineering, or technical account management
- Strong commercial judgment with demonstrated examples of negotiations and measurable operating improvements
- Familiarity with data contract terms (DPAs, usage rights, indemnification)
- Ability to use SQL and/or Python to inspect results, run evaluations, and challenge vendor claims
- Practical understanding of various data provider types, web data APIs, data collection schemes, and common failure modes
- Evidence of introducing a working alternative provider or improving coverage, reliability, or effective cost
- Experience with unique data sets is a plus
- Comfortable in a fast-moving culture with autonomy, trust, and room to grow
- Drawn to competitive compensation and meaningful equity
