Research & Thought Leadership Lead
(Strategy, Innovation, AI Systems)
Why This Role Exists
This is a senior individual contributor role. It is not people management. Success is measured by clarity, depth, consistency, and intellectual authority — not volume or virality.
As the Research & Strategy Writer, you are the primary steward of Rapid Alpha’s voice. You will translate complex thinking — strategy, behavioral economics, innovation systems, and AI-enabled analytics — into clear, structured, belief-led narratives and frameworks.
Your work will:
- Shape how founders and executives understand growth constraints
- Define how Vision, Focus, and Results are understood in the market
- Serve as the intellectual backbone of Rapid Alpha’s brand
- Feed directly into EVOS workflows, prompts, diagnostics, and paid products
If done well, your writing will not merely inform.
It will reframe how leaders understand their companies and their decisions.
Your Core Ownership
Rapid Alpha’s point of view is a strategic asset.
You are the primary steward of that point of view. You will help articulate — clearly and consistently:
- Why companies hit predictable growth ceilings
- How customer behavior actually creates (or limits) opportunity
- Why most innovation portfolios fail to produce returns
- How Vision, Focus, and Results reconnect strategy to execution
If Rapid Alpha has a coherent, credible voice in the market, you helped create it.
What Success Looks Like (6–12 Months)
Within your first year:
- Executives can clearly articulate VFR after engaging with our content
- Our Substack becomes reference material, not “nice reading”
- Language and frameworks are consistent across:
- Substack
- LinkedIn (company and founder accounts)
- Website
- EVOS workflows
- Designers and prompt writers can easily translate your work into visuals and AI workflows
- People who resonate with our thinking actively seek out Rapid Alpha
What You’ll Do
Strategy Writing & Narrative Development
- Write long-form, belief-led essays for our Substack on:
- Vision-driven growth
- Innovation portfolio management
- Behavioral change as a growth lever
- Why companies plateau at specific size and revenue thresholds
- Adapt core ideas into:
- LinkedIn long-form posts and document carousels
- Website copy that explains complex offerings simply
- Clear explanations of VFR and how it is applied in practice
This is writing as thinking, not content production.
Research & Synthesis
- Research patterns across:
- Scientific Literature + Economics to understand core principles that underpin our approach to management consulting
- Innovation success and failure
- Customer adoption, behavior, and resistance
- Synthesize research into:
- Thought pieces for Substack, LinkedIn, and our Newsletter
- Diagnostic frameworks
- Executive-level questions
- Decision lenses leaders can apply immediately
Framework Development
- Turn messy, incomplete thinking into:
- Clean models
- Step-by-step logic
- Visual-ready narratives
- Maintain consistency in how Rapid Alpha talks about:
- Vision
- Focus
- Results
- Innovation and execution
Collaboration & Editorial Stewardship
- Work closely with:
- Founders and strategists (to capture raw insight and philosophy)
- Prompt writers (to map thinking into AI workflows)
- Designers (to translate ideas into visuals)
- Act as the final clarity check before ideas are published or productized
- Iterate quickly based on feedback, not ego
Signal, Not Growth Marketing
This is not a growth marketing role. However, you will:
- Track engagement and readership to understand resonance
- Identify which ideas land and which don’t
- Recommend what to double down on, refine, or stop
The goal is relevance with the right audience, not virality.
What We’re Looking For
Core Capabilities
- Exceptional written English (clarity > elegance > verbosity)
- Ability to explain complex ideas without oversimplifying them
- Strong analytical and structured thinking
- Comfort operating across strategy, innovation, technology, and business
Background & Experience
- 5–10+ years across one or more of:
- Management consulting
- Strategy, innovation, or policy research
- Technical or analytical writing for senior audiences
- Experience writing for:
- Founders
- Executives
- Product, strategy, or innovation teams
Mindset
- Systems thinker who sees patterns, not just topics
- Curious, skeptical, and evidence-driven
- Comfortable saying: “This doesn’t make sense yet”
- Interested in how companies actually behave, not how they describe themselves
- Comfortable working with ambiguity and accountability
Working Style
- Self-directed and disciplined in a remote environment
- Able to own an idea from rough conversation to finished output
- Can turn a 30–60 minute discussion into multiple high-quality pieces
- Comfortable with imperfect inputs and evolving ideas
- Open to revision and iteration
This Role Is Not a Fit If You Primarily Come From:
- SEO, content marketing, PR, or demand generation
- Market research or syndicated research firms
- Technical documentation or API writing
- Social media, brand, or communications roles
We are not hiring for content production, documentation, or research delivery.
This role exists to diagnose strategic problems and write original, belief-led arguments that shape how leaders think.
Nice to Have (Not Required)
- Background in consulting, economics, innovation management, or product strategy
- MBA or scientific / technical degree
- Familiarity with AI research tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity, research assistants)
- Experience working with designers and prompt engineers
- Burnt out on consulting delivery — but still deeply interested in strategy
What We Offer
- 100% remote role (India-based team)
- Companywide holiday July 6th – July 12th AND December 22nd – January 1st
- India Federal Holidays + Personal Days
- Full Benefits + Competitive compensation aligned to experience
- Direct collaboration with founders and senior strategists
- Exposure to real-world strategy and innovation problems
- Opportunity to shape how an emerging AI platform is understood
- Clear path to leading a broader strategy and marketing function over time
Who Should Apply
You should apply if:
- You want to ghostwrite a founder’s strategic perspective, not just polish it
- You are driven to understand and explore how business thrive
- You enjoy turning complex thinking into clear, reusable frameworks
- You want your writing to influence real decisions, not clicks
You should not apply if:
- You are looking for an SEO, social media, or content marketing role
- You prefer lightweight content over deep thinking
- You are uncomfortable challenging assumptions — including ours
Final Note
If you are intellectually curious, strong in writing, persuasive in argument, and either:
- burned out on traditional consulting, or
- looking to move from analysis into owning a point of view
This role can be a meaningful career inflection point.
About Rapid Alpha
Rapid Alpha helps mid-sized companies break through growth ceilings by aligning Vision, Focus, and Results (VFR) into a repeatable innovation and execution system.
Most companies stall not because they lack ideas, but because:
- Their vision no longer creates pull with customers
- Their innovation efforts drift away from strategic intent
- Their metrics disconnect activity from real outcomes
We built EVOS, an AI-enabled platform that allows companies to analyze markets, customer behavior, technology trends, and innovation portfolios using trusted data and reusable workflows — so strategy becomes executable, not theoretical.
Rapid Alpha operates across three layers:
- Product — reports, analytics, and advisory work
- Platform — EVOS, where workflows, diagnostics, and insights live
- Movement — how we shape how leaders think about growth, strategy, and execution
This role sits at the center of the Movement.
We are building a research and writing engine that teaches leaders how to think, how to diagnose, and how to act — not what slogans to repeat.