Original Storytelling - Researcher and Writer | Senior Manager

Endeavor•New York, NY

5d•$110,000 - $130,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Endeavor is building an original podcast. Each season runs six to eight episodes, and each episode is a deep dive into a single Endeavor market: how an entrepreneurial ecosystem came to exist, who built it, what it cost them, and why it happened there. Long-form, obsessively researched, structured as a narrative, and unembarrassed about being entertaining. The tone is pop history: funny where the story is funny, serious where it earns it, and full of detail a listener cannot find anywhere else. The Researcher will spend weeks focusing on one market at a time, centering each season's episodes on a city and the entrepreneurs who helped build its ecosystem, tracing how the city’s history and culture interconnect with the personal stories of the entrepreneurs and the network that grew around them. You will uncover the people, institutions, policies, places, and turning points that shaped the city’s trajectory. Then you will help turn it into something people want to listen to for ninety minutes. This is not a desk-research role and it is not a literature review. The work rewards someone who will pick up the phone, get on a plane, sit in an archive, and keep pulling on a thread after three people have told them it goes nowhere.

Requirements

3-6 years in narrative or investigative research: late-night or satirical news, documentary, narrative podcast, long-form journalism, or book research
A portfolio where the research is visible in the work. We will want to hear about something you found that nobody else had
Excellent writer, with the ability to make a paragraph accurate and funny at the same time
Independent-minded: comfortable questioning assumptions - including our own.
Demonstrated ability to carry one story for weeks or months without losing momentum, interest, or rigor
Comfortable cold-calling strangers, asking uncomfortable questions, and being told no repeatedly
Strong interviewer: gets people comfortable enough to move beyond the talking points and into the real story
Genuine curiosity: interested in the story before knowing anything about the topic
Working proficiency in a second language is strongly preferred, particularly Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, or Turkish.
Comfortable working across cultures and time zones, and willing to travel internationally, sometimes on short notice.
Discreet, with sound judgment on sensitive information about entrepreneurs, partners, and markets
Curiosity about venture capital, startups, or emerging markets is required.

Nice To Haves

Working proficiency in a second language is strongly preferred, particularly Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, or Turkish.

Responsibilities

Own the reporting behind each episode from a blank page: build the source list, find the people who were in the room, and keep going until the story holds up from every angle
Conduct interviews with entrepreneurs, co-founders, early employees, investors, regulators, competitors, journalists, and the people nobody thought to ask
Travel to markets to report on the ground: visit the original office, walk the neighborhood, meet sources in person, and find the records that were never digitized
Work across local-language press, corporate and court filings, trade publications, university and government archives, out-of-print books, and private collections
Partner with Local Offices and the Endeavor network to open doors, then go well past the introductions they give you
Verify the origin stories everyone repeats, including the ones Endeavor repeats, and establish what actually happened
Turn several months of reporting into a narrative with a spine: characters, stakes, reversals, and a reason to still be listening at minute seventy
Write episode outlines, narration drafts, host prep documents, and interview guides
Find the connections that make an episode worth making: the detail in one founder's story that explains something structural about the whole market
Maintain a documented source trail for every factual claim in every episode
Fact-check to a standard that holds up to scrutiny from subjects, their lawyers, experts, and a local journalist all listening closely
Flag where the record is thin, contested, or self-serving, and write around it honestly rather than smoothing it over
Handle sensitive commercial, personal, and political material with judgment, including clear agreements about what is on the record
Help select markets and central characters for each episode
Maintain a story bank so the next episode never starts cold
Work alongside producers, editors, and hosts through recording and post, including reviewing cuts for accuracy and narrative logic
Feed research into companion material: show notes, written pieces, social content, and Endeavor's broader research and thought leadership