Innovation Market Development Lead

Innovation Lab |  Full-Time

For sixteen years, Prolocity has served as a dedicated technology ally for mission-driven entities. We bring deep-seated expertise to food banks, faith-based groups, and human service organizations across the nation, primarily through the Salesforce ecosystem. Our track record is defined by a 5-star client satisfaction rating across 500 nonprofits served, backed by a team holding more than 200 platform certifications.

We are currently navigating a deliberate shift from traditional implementation services toward becoming a strategic innovation engine. The Innovation Lab drives this transformation, distilling sixteen years of sectoral insight into scalable productized solutions and AI-enhanced solutions that empower nonprofits to achieve transformational outcomes. As the first dedicated hire within the Lab, you will help shape this new frontier for our organization.

Is This You?

New offerings live or die on whether real clients will commit real money to unproven ideas and on whether the people building them stay energized. The Market Development Lead owns both. You are the Lab’s galvanizer: you run market validation conversations, recruit beachhead clients, get pilot cohorts committed at a stated price, and keep momentum alive among clients, sellers, and internal contributors the Lab depends on.

This is not a quota-carrying sales role. You sell nothing from our catalog. You are measured on validated learning and pilot traction – the evidence that tells us what to build, what to avoid and what to scale. When an offering graduates to our standard revenue motion, it hands off to the revenue organization, ideally with a playbook you wrote.

Who You Are

The professionals who thrive here share qualities that help everyone succeed: our clients, our teammates, and one another. These are the traits we look for because they’re what make great innovation partnerships at this level of ownership.

• Seasoned in the room: 10-15 years of experience earning commitments from senior decision-makers, executive directors, boards, CFOs. When the answer is “convince me,” you have the reps and the credibility to hold the conversation.
• Comfortable asking for money: You have asked people to commit real dollars to something unproven as a fundraiser, an early-stage BD hire, or a partnerships builder – and you can show the commitments you won.
• An honest reader of signal: You distinguish polite interest from behavioral commitment, and you’d rather kill a bad idea early than flatter it along.
• Fluent with mission-driven organizations: You speak nonprofit natively budget cycles, boards, program outcomes. Salesforce depth is a plus, not a requirement; we can teach the portfolio.
• A natural galvanizer: You rally people, clients, colleagues, skeptics around ideas and get them to act.
• Energized by zero-to-one ambiguity: No playbook exists for this role. You’ll help write it inside a firm with 500 warm client relationships to build from.

What You’ll Do

This role owns the market testing and client recruitment for our Innovation Lab. Your team handles the tactical execution of the products under your strategic feedback.

• Market validation: Structured client conversations (8-10 per month) testing problem resonance, pricing tolerance, and willingness to pay for offerings. Honest signal – including bad news – delivered into the Lab’s portfolio process.
• Beachhead and pilot recruitment: Identify and recruit the right first clients for each offering; secure pilot cohorts committed at a stated price; support pilot champions through delivery so pilots stay alive between meetings.
• Demand experiments: Run outbound experiments, positioning tests, and offering-story tests designed jointly with the VP of Innovation and Operations; own the outreach, follow-up, and conversion of interest into conversations.
• Internal momentum & The signal pipe: Energize the cross-functional contributors who power the Lab.. Feed structured field intelligence named budgets, repeated unprompted asks, pricing reactions into the Innovation Lab portfolio reviews

What You Won’t Own: Offering strategy, pricing decisions, or portfolio calls (the VP of Innovation and Operations holds decision authority through incubation). You won’t own catalog sales or account ownership, and independent prospecting into active accounts is coordinated through the account owner.

Year 1 Success Looks Like

• Pilot cohorts committed at a stated price for at least two Validating-stage offerings; first paid pilot invoices issued.
• $25K+ in validated willingness-to-pay documented across the portfolio.
• A steady validation cadence feeding the portfolio: 80-100 structured client conversations across the year.
• At least one offering that closes without the VP of Innovation in the room, with a repeatable pilot-recruitment playbook.

What You Can Expect From Us

We put people at the center of every decision.

Our Values

The below five core values guide how we work.

• High Integrity: we hold ourselves to a high standard of trust and transparency.
• Unwavering Commitment: a passionate, enduring commitment to game-changing outcomes.
• People-Centric Approach: we unlock potential by putting people first.
• Innovative Mindset: a culture of creativity and collaboration that welcomes new ideas.
• Giving Spirit: a commitment to making a positive difference, through our work, our Prolocity Gives program, and the Pledge 1% model.

Benefits & Perks

• Fitness Membership: monthly gym reimbursement
• Flexible PTO
• Flexible Schedule
• Competitive Pay & Uncapped Earning Potential
• Paid Parental Leave
• Bereavement Leave
• Company Holidays
• 401(k) with match
• Health, Vision & Dental Insurance
• Career Development, Training & Certification opportunities
• Integrated Philanthropic Model (Prolocity Gives / Pledge 1%)
• Annual Team Appreciation Gathering
• Ongoing Employee Appreciation Events

Prolocity is dedicated to inclusivity and mutual respect, and values diversity as a key component of our mission. Learn more about our approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion.