About Protocol Labs

Protocol Labs is an innovation network of 750+ teams, projects, and movements with a common mission: To drive breakthroughs in computing to push humanity forward. For us, decentralization is more than just a rallying cry; it’s an operational ethos and a belief system baked into the products we develop.  Protocol Labs operates as an innovation network built to help breakthrough technologies move from bold R&D into real-world adoption. Through funding, mentorship, and deep network support, PL has enabled pioneering teams to cross the critical “R&D chasm” and bring transformative products to market. Our network has supported projects like IPFS, Filecoin, and libp2p, alongside emerging efforts in neurotech, AI, and digital rights, demonstrating the breadth of impact possible when world-class founders and investors connect through Protocol Labs. Our key focus areas include digital human rights, upgrading economies and governance systems, safe AI, and neurotech. For more information on Protocol Labs and our focus areas, please watch Juan Benet’s talk from PL Summit 2023 and the 2024 PL Summit Video (Remote Update). 

About Polaris

As an innovation network rooted in a culture of collaboration, Protocol Labs requires a fresh approach to advancing emerging technologies. Polaris builds the infrastructure that enables Protocol Labs teams, projects, and movements, and members to flourish. We create the programs, tools, and events that connect, strengthen, and build the teams that drive breakthroughs in computing to push humanity forward. We manage network membership and track network data to continuously gauge the growth and state of maturity of Protocol Labs across a number of critical pillars, and manage the Protocol Labs brand and strategic marketing initiatives. At the core of everything Polaris does, is the Protocol Labs mission and the desire to progress innovation. 

The Role

Protocol Labs (PL) uses convenings as a strategic lever to accelerate breakthrough technologies. We don’t just host events; we engineer environments that catalyze progress in AI, Neurotech, Web3, and beyond.

We are seeking a Head of Event Strategy & Orchestration to own the vision and execution of the PL global event portfolio. This is a high-level leadership role for a strategist who sees events not as one-off logistics projects, but as a coordinated engine for network growth and field acceleration. You will be responsible for the "Event-Market Fit" of our entire strategy—ensuring every gathering, from a 20-person founder dinner to a 1,000+ person LabWeek, provides undeniable utility to the world's most ambitious researchers and founders.

Core Responsibilities

1. Global Portfolio Strategy & Network Mapping

• Unified Strategy: Own the multi-year roadmap for all PL convenings. Ensure that the total portfolio—including field-building salons, founder retreats, and decentralized summits—is greater than the sum of its parts.

• Network Navigation: Map the strategic needs of the PL ecosystem. You must understand where various groups are in their lifecycle and design the "hooks" that make participation a high-leverage use of their time.

• Cross-Network Orchestration: Act as the lead coordinator across the network, identifying synergies between teams and inviting the right combination of founders, funders, and experts to host or join specific moments to drive the best outcomes.

2. Strategic Utility & Intervention Design

• Bottleneck Diagnosis: Partner with Investment Leads and Technical Domain Leads to identify what is stalling progress in a field (e.g., lack of capital, regulatory friction, or technical silos).

• Outcome Engineering: Design convenings specifically to break those bottlenecks. Whether it's a high-trust retreat to align on technical standards or a showcase for portfolio founders, you ensure the format drives the desired result.

• Value Proposition: Ensure that every event is designed with the attendee in mind. You are responsible for ensuring the "Utility" of the event is so high that high-pressure founders and high-ego researchers consider participation a competitive necessity.

3. The "Network-OS" & Global Execution

• Scalable Infrastructure: Create the comprehensive guides, playbooks, and resource kits that enable the PL network to host world-class events autonomously. You are building the "operating system" for PL events.

• Flexible Staffing & Generalship: Oversee the total execution of a ~$2M annual budget. You have the autonomy to decide how to staff projects—leveraging internal producers or a vetted network of global external agencies—to maintain a "high-craft" standard at any scale.

• Digital Integration: Partner with our product teams to improve and drive usage of our internal events product suite, ensuring the digital and physical experiences are a single, seamless journey for the attendee.

Representative Successes

You will lead and evolve a portfolio that has included the following events:

• PL Neuro Salon: A high-leverage retreat for 60 pioneers in NeuroAI designed to catalyze collaborations toward scaled human neural data.

• PL Founders Retreat: A high-trust environment for Series A–D founders focused on solving "wartime" challenges (e.g., regulatory defense, secondary liquidity).

• LabWeek25 Web3: A decentralized anchor event with 87+ individual gatherings and 43k+ registrations, strengthening PL’s position as a leading innovation network.

Requirements

1. Strategic Outcome Obsession

You define success by the tangible progress made in a field after the event—capital raised, collaborations formed, or technical standards adopted. You have a track record of using physical convenings to drive non-linear business or research outcomes.

2. Ecosystem Architecture

You can look at a massive, decentralized network and identify the "missing links." You know how to curate a room of 50 people so that the density of "useful" connections is 10x higher than any traditional conference.

3. Master of Craft & Experience Design

You have an elite bar for quality. You understand the "psychology of the room"—how the combination of guest list, environment, and agenda can turn a group of competitors into a coalition of collaborators.

4. Generalship & Scalability

You are an expert at managing complexity. You know how to build the templates and systems that allow a small, elite team to punch 100x above its weight by orchestrating external partners and agencies.

5. High Learning Velocity

You have the aptitude to grasp the core challenges of frontier sciences like Neurotech, Cryptography, and AI. While you aren't the scientist, you can speak their language well enough to design a content roadmap that respects their expertise and challenges their thinking.