We're hiring our first analyst

We are excited to hire our first analyst. 

That's right. Our first. We've been building Propeller for almost five years now, and so far we've kept the full-time investing team really lean. But as we begin writing our next chapter, it's time to scale our team to meet our needs as a firm, and our pipeline of founders which continues to grow.

So, read the description below. If this is you, apply. If this is someone you know (or might know in your network), please share this post and/or tell us who they are. If you refer someone and we successfully hire them, you will be handsomely rewarded. 

Investment Analyst

Boston, MA · In-person / Hybrid · Full-time · $120K base + bonus

About Propeller

Propeller is an early-stage venture capital firm backing founders building at the ocean’s edge. Our portfolio spans hard tech and deep science across categories including offshore energy, carbon removal, maritime autonomy, advanced materials, and the software and AI tools that make these industries run.

We invest with conviction and work alongside our founders for years. We are a small team, and our next Analyst will sit at the center of our core processes — from first meeting a founder to helping complete an investment.

The Role

We are hiring an Investment Analyst to help us find, evaluate, and back our next wave of ocean entrepreneurs. This is a high-ownership seat for someone early in their career with a technical brain, who is genuinely wired into the startup world and wants to learn the craft of venture investing from the ground up.

This is a small crew, and everyone “grabs an oar.” You will work directly with the partners across the full investment cycle: sourcing companies, running technical and commercial diligence, and building the models and memos behind our decisions. You will be expected to form and defend your own views — not just support someone else’s.

What You’ll Do

• Support diligence. Lead early technical and commercial diligence: pressure-test the science and engineering, map the competitive landscape, run customer and expert calls, and separate real signal from the froth.

• Build models and learn memos. Develop financial and market-sizing models, work with partners on clear and concise investment memos, and present recommendations to the investment team.

• Build tools. Put that brain to work building internal tools — sourcing scrapers, diligence dashboards, AI-assisted research workflows — that make the whole crew faster and sharper.

• Develop a point of view. Go deep on sectors we care about, chart the currents, publish theses, and help shape where Propeller looks next.

• Evaluate (and source) deals. Tap Propeller’s existing pipeline and add to it, through your own network, university and research labs, accelerators, technical conferences, cold outreach to founders, or any other creative ways you can think of.

Who You Are

• 1–3 years of experience after undergrad — in engineering, science, a hard-tech or software/AI startup, venture capital, or a technical role adjacent to one of our sectors.

• An engineer’s or scientist’s brain. A degree or serious hands-on background in engineering, the hard sciences, or computer science, and the ability to build software / AI tools yourself. You can read a technical paper, reason about a novel process, and hold your own with a PhD founder.

• A clear writer and thinker. You can turn messy, incomplete information into a crisp view of upside and risk, and communicate it simply.

• High-agency and low-ego. You operate with a sense of urgency, chase down answers, and are willing to do what needs to be done.

• On a mission for impact. You care about our planet, our ocean and the people who depend on it.

Bonus Points

• Startup experience

• Hands-on experience in one of our domains: energy, maritime, materials, carbon removal, robotics, or applied AI.

• You’ve shipped something real — a product, a research result, a company, an open-source project.

• Founder, product, or investing experience beyond your core technical work.

Compensation & Location

Base salary of $120,000 plus a performance bonus. Based in Boston, MA, working in person with the team. Compensation reflects experience.

How to Apply

Fill out our application here. Be prepared to tell us a few things: 1. Why the ocean? 2. Why you? And 3. How you’d approach the job? We’d also love to see anything you’ve built or written that you’re particularly proud of. We assume you might use AI somewhere in your process. If you do, just disclose it. We will sniff out slop.

A Note on Who We Hire

The best crews are built from different backgrounds, and we mean it. Propeller is an equal-opportunity employer and is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We welcome and encourage applicants of every race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, disability, veteran status, and background. We hire on talent, curiosity, and drive — and we know great candidates don’t always tick every box, so if this role excites you, grab an oar and apply.