Strategic Discord Community Manager

**Focus:** Discord, chapter leads, community growth, engagement, and community-to-lead development ## The Role Fifth Percent is more than a series of workshops. It is a growing community of serious engineers, technical professionals, builders, and operators. Our Discord, chapter lead network, and wider community are becoming one of our most valuable assets. We now need someone who can take ownership of that ecosystem and help it scale with structure, creativity, and clear intent. This is not a basic moderation role. We are looking for someone who can think strategically, bring ideas, organise people, build systems, and turn community activity into meaningful relationships, advocacy, and growth. A technical background is preferred, especially if you have worked with engineers, developers, technical communities, developer relations, product teams, or software-led businesses. However, this is not a hard requirement. If you are a strong community builder who can earn credibility with a technical audience, we would still like to hear from you. ## What You’ll Own ### Community Strategy & Growth You will help shape and execute the community growth strategy across Discord, chapter leads, events, and member engagement. You will be expected to bring ideas, structure them clearly, and turn them into practical plans that improve the community experience and support wider business goals. This includes: * Building a clear engagement plan * Creating member journeys from newcomer to active contributor * Designing rituals, events, prompts, and initiatives that give people a reason to return * Identifying what is working, what is not, and what needs to change * Turning community feedback into useful recommendations for the wider team ### Discord Ownership You will own the Discord community end to end. This includes channel structure, onboarding, tone of voice, moderation, engagement, and overall community health. You will be responsible for: * Managing and improving the Discord structure * Welcoming and activating new members * Surfacing valuable conversations * Protecting signal over noise * Keeping discussions healthy and productive * Spotting members who could become contributors, advocates, speakers, partners, or chapter leads ### Chapter Lead Network You will help build, organise, and develop our chapter lead network. This includes: * Identifying and recruiting strong potential chapter leads * Onboarding chapter leads clearly and professionally * Creating resources, playbooks, and structures to help them succeed * Keeping chapter leads motivated, connected, and accountable * Building a sense of team and shared purpose across the chapter lead network ### Community-to-Lead Development You will help turn community activity into meaningful relationships and opportunities. This is not about aggressively selling to members. It is about building trust, understanding who people are, identifying interest or intent, and creating warm pathways into deeper involvement with Fifth Percent. You will be expected to: * Speak with members directly and build relationships * Identify high-value members, potential chapter leads, partners, sponsors, and commercial opportunities * Create simple systems for tracking community relationships and opportunities * Connect the right people at the right time * Protect community trust while supporting growth ## What You Bring ### Strategic Thinking You understand that community is not just activity. It is trust, momentum, structure, and long-term value. ### Innovation & Initiative You bring ideas, not just execution. You are comfortable testing new formats, improving processes, and building things that do not already exist. ### Organisation & Planning You are structured, reliable, and able to manage multiple moving parts across Discord, chapter leads, events, member conversations, and internal updates. ### Demonstrable Experience You should be able to show examples of communities, networks, teams, events, or initiatives you have helped build, manage, or improve. Relevant experience could include: * Managing a Discord, Slack, or online community * Building ambassador, chapter lead, or volunteer networks * Running technical events, workshops, or community programmes * Creating onboarding flows, playbooks, or operating systems * Turning community engagement into partnerships, leads, or commercial opportunities ### Relationship Building You are comfortable speaking to people, starting conversations, connecting members, and building trust with technical professionals, partners, sponsors, and potential community leaders. ### Technical Fluency A technical background is preferred, but not essential. You need enough curiosity, confidence, and technical awareness to engage credibly with senior engineers and know when to bring the right people into the conversation. ### Communication & Judgment You are clear, warm, professional, and calm. You can moderate difficult conversations, handle disagreement, and protect the quality of the community without being heavy-handed. ## What Success Looks Like In the first 90 days, success would look like: * Discord has a clearer structure, stronger onboarding, and a better engagement rhythm * Chapter leads have clearer expectations, support, and resources * New members understand where to go and how to get involved * High-value members, potential chapter leads, partners, and opportunities are being identified * Community activity feels more intentional, not just busier * The wider team has better visibility of community feedback, trends, and opportunities ## What We Are Not Looking For We are not looking for someone who only wants to post updates, add bots, or keep chat moving. We are not looking for a passive moderator. We are not looking for someone who needs every task handed to them. We need someone who can think, plan, organise, connect, build, and execute. ## Why This Role Matters The Fifth Percent community is a genuine moat. It can become a place where serious engineers connect, learn, contribute, lead, and build long-term relationships with the brand. You will have real ownership, direct visibility, and the opportunity to shape how the community grows from here.