Manager, Membership Recruitment & Strategic Outreach

Description

The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), founded in 1919 only a few years after the birth of flight, is the premier trade association representing major aerospace and defense manufacturers and suppliers in the United States. 

Position Summary:

This position serves as a dedicated recruitment lead responsible for driving outbound member acquisition and supporting inbound membership inquiries. The role goes beyond initial outreach, it requires building clear, company-specific intelligence on recruitment targets to understand why a prospect should join, what policy issues matter most to their business, and what unique value they bring to AIA’s membership.

Additionally, this role oversees end-to-end prospect relationship management, including logging touchpoints, tracking meeting follow-ups, and coordinating event invitations to recruitment targets. Over time, the position will absorb established recruitment methods and prospect relationships, operating under the direction of membership leadership. This position coordinates with Corporate Events and other AIA teams to support membership recruitment and engagement opportunities but does not hold primary responsibility for sponsorship sales, sponsorship fulfillment, or non-dues revenue generation. 

Success in this role will be measured through strategic account engagement, pipeline progression, membership conversions, CRM discipline, and contribution to AIA’s membership-growth objectives.

The salary range for this role is $65,000 – $73,000.

Key Responsibilities:

Membership Recruitment & Strategy (75%):

• Own day-to-day pipeline progression for prospective member companies.
• Build and manage peer-credible outreach to Neo-Primes and other non-traditional entrants.
• Target Account Research & Strategy: Research prospective member companies across active recruitment pipelines to build actionable, account-level intelligence.
• Value Proposition Alignment: Identify and document the specific strategic rationale and next action-plans for each target company, articulating why they need AIA (their core policy, regulatory, or supply chain priorities) and why AIA needs them (as an industry innovator, a critical supplier, or a new market entrant, etc.).
• Outbound Recruitment Execution: Conduct direct outbound outreach to qualified prospective companies, communicating AIA’s policy impact, working group benefits, and executive networking value.
• Ability to confidently and professionally engage with and present to founders, chief executive officers, government affairs leaders, business-development executives, and other senior industry representatives in support of AIA membership recruitment objectives.
• Prospect Relationship Tracking: Manage the end-to-end follow-up cycle for all recruitment targets using CRM, ensuring prompt post-meeting follow-ups, and targeted invitations to upcoming AIA events and division meetings, as well as tracking conversion blockers to improve future recruitment. 
• Pipeline & Relationship Transition: Absorb existing recruitment methodologies, target lists, and industry contact relationships from senior staff over time to build dedicated, long-term recruitment capacity under membership leadership.
• Execute outbound recruitment campaigns to convert industry prospects and international trade show leads into active association members.
• Travel as needed for event-related recruitment fulfillment activities.
• Other duties as assigned.

Coordination & Integration (25%):

• Assist the Membership team leadership in coordinating internally within the organization so that prospective members connect with the relevant policy teams and AIA events.
• Coordinate targeted recruiting with policy, communications, legislative, events, and senior leadership within AIA.
• Schedule meetings with prospective companies and AIA team members. 
• Ensure the integration of recruitment strategies into major event execution plans and provides monitoring & visibility into these efforts via intuitive & data driven metrics.
• Assist with monthly prep work for cross-divisional membership check-ins, by researching and updating recruitment metrics, and updating metrics tracker for prospect outreach efforts; 
• Attend selected policy councils, committee meetings, and strategic discussions to understand industry priorities, identify membership opportunities, and connect prospective companies with relevant AIA initiatives.

Requirements

Experience

• Membership Recruitment Experience: Minimum of 1–3 years of direct experience in association membership recruitment, business development, or account management, with demonstrated success in tracking prospective accounts through a sales or recruitment pipeline.
• Consultative B2B sales or enterprise account development experience preferred.
• Analytical & Account Research Skills: Ability to analyze target companies, digest industry policy topics, and craft tailored pitch messaging based on a prospect's market position and industry role.
• Pipeline Management & Detail Orientation: Rigorous tracking habits with a proven ability to log detailed notes, manage follow-up calendars, send prompt meeting recaps, and maintain CRM data integrity.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration & Communication: Strong written and verbal communication skills with comfort interacting with senior industry/C-Suite executives, government affairs leads, and internal leadership.
• Solid project management skills, including the development of work plans, responsibilities, and timelines, preferred, while maintaining high-quality standards and attention to detail. Ability to meet concrete deadlines.
• Existing or developable networks in emerging defense technology, autonomy, commercial space, AI, advanced manufacturing, or supply-chain technology preferred.
• Ability to travel up to 15%; valid passport required. Availability to work evenings and weekends as needed.
• Native understanding of the full Microsoft Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, SharePoint)

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, communications, political science, public policy, or a related field; or equivalent direct work experience in association membership, corporate relations, or business development preferred.

To Apply, please send the following documents to [email protected]: 

• Resume 
• Cover Letter 

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Equal Opportunity Employer

AIA is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace, committed to providing employment regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity/expression or veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic. 

This job description is not intended to be a complete statement of all duties, which may be assigned by the supervisor