---
title: 'Research & Insights Lead at Aarden AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/research-insights-lead-aarden-ai-seattle-6x8yy2gyrcm6'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Research & Insights Lead at Aarden AI

- **Company:** Aarden AI
- **Location:** Seattle, WA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-28
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/aarden-ai/am9icG9zdDro4yECA7T3IvwFiOInviNQ

## Job description

## About Aarden

Aarden is a land intelligence platform that helps landowners, investors, and developers figure out what a piece of land can actually be used for, and how to market it. We turn messy parcel, infrastructure, market, community, and ecological data into clear, bankable answers for land-dependent assets. Our goal is to become the default decision layer for land: helping physical projects start in places where they can be built and supported for decades.

## The Role

Aarden aims to be a trusted industry leader on optimized, responsible, and data-driven land development. To support this vision, you will own Aarden's publishable research function, combining our cutting-edge data with impactful storytelling. You'll mine our proprietary data for findings the industry doesn't have anywhere else, pressure-test them methodologically, and work with executives and the marketing team to publish them in whatever form reaches the right audience (typically LinkedIn posts, white papers, and media).

This is primarily a research and data analysis role. The bar for every piece is simply: would this information help Aarden clients perform their job better or make their lives easier?

## What You'll Do

- Own Aarden's research agenda: identify the questions our data can uniquely answer, and build a pipeline of validated findings around them.
- Identify compelling research commentary in response to current events, sometimes on short timelines.
- Run original analyses using our parcel data and proprietary ML and AI tools: rural land pricing and transaction dynamics, where solar and data center development pressure is reshaping land uses, the gap between current-use value and optionality, etc. Take analyses from hypotheses through validated findings and build or suggest new tools where needed.
- Build repeatable data narratives: recurring reports the industry comes to expect from Aarden.
- Partner with our data team to sanity-check methodology.

## What We're Looking For

- 4–8 years in real assets research, market analysis, or data journalism, ideally with exposure to land, data centers, or energy development.
- Proficient in the data storytelling tech stack (Python, SQL, etc.), with demonstrated ability to go from raw dataset to published insight independently
- Proven methodological judgment, and an unwavering commitment to not publishing research that won't survive scrutiny.
- Comfort owning a function solo: setting your own research agenda, identifying interesting and valuable findings, and establishing an industry-leading quality bar.

## Nice to Have

- Experience at a research shop (LBNL, NREL, Wood Mackenzie, BNEF, Grid Status–style analytics) or data-first startup.
- Ability to build data visualizations and/or design: i.e. proven ability to communicate visually.
- Experience writing and publishing your work.

## Compensation & Logistics

$100,000 – $150,000 base salary, depending on experience. Equity commensurate with stage and role. Benefits including health coverage.

Title is flexible and may be adjusted based on candidate profile.

Seattle-based teammates are a strong preference. Remote candidates will be asked to relocate to Seattle for 12 months minimum. Remote work may be considered on a case by case basis following this period.

How to Apply Along with your resume, send the 1-2 pieces of research you are most proud of. Format doesn’t matter: it could be a published paper, a media placement, a LinkedIn post, a Substack, or something else entirely.

## About Aarden AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Aarden provides AI-powered data and transaction infrastructure to modernize land investment, underwriting, and stewardship for institutional landowners, investors, and developers.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: Seattle, Washington, United States
- **Founded**: Year not publicly specified; emerged from stealth in 2025
- **Founders**: Danan Margason (CEO), Ben Hudson (Technical Co-Founder & Head of Applied Science)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Data Infrastructure & Analytics, Real Estate / Land Investment Technology (PropTech)
- Target customers: Institutional landowners, capital allocators (e.g., pension funds, endowments), renewable energy developers (solar, wind), data center developers, conservation groups, and project developers.
- Mission or purpose statement: To reimagine land stewardship for a new era, unlocking both economic and environmental value by bringing modern intelligence to land decisions.

## Products & Services
- **Aarden Platform (Decisioning Layer for Land Investment)**: An AI-driven SaaS platform that synthesizes parcel data, ownership records, land characteristics, conservation overlays, comparable sales, and operational metrics into a single, queryable model. It provides dynamic valuation analysis, scenario modeling, and investment guidance, compressing due diligence from weeks to hours.
- **Underwriting & Workflow Tools**: AI and agent-driven valuation and scenario analysis tools that help users assess risk, track portfolio trends, and identify hidden value across thousands of variables.
- **Execution Rails**: Standardized diligence packages and closing workflows designed to connect buyers, sellers, and service providers, bringing liquidity and transparency to the land asset class.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$4 million** (Seed round, announced November 2025).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Led by **Planeteer Capital**, with participation from Founders Co-op, KDX, Superorganism, Stepchange, and Len Jordan (Madrona).
- **Growth Signals**: Strong early traction with a team of **7 employees** as of late 2025, representing **+700% YoY headcount growth**. The company is actively hiring across commercial, engineering, and research roles. The land asset class is experiencing explosive growth due to demand from solar, data centers, carbon credits, and conservation.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-Mover in AI-Native Land Intelligence**: Aarden is building a new category by applying advanced AI (satellite imagery, policy data, market signals) to a traditionally offline and fragmented multi-trillion-dollar asset class.
- **Data Synthesis & Alignment**: The platform bridges the information gap between sophisticated developers and institutional landowners, creating transparency and alignment that speeds up transactions and unlocks fairer valuations.
- **Founding Team Expertise**: The team brings deep domain experience from companies like Zillow, Amazon, Carbon Direct, and Climate Neutral, combining strengths in geospatial data, marketplace design, climate, and AI.

## Strategic Focus
- **Data Expansion & Automation**: The company plans to use its $4M funding to expand data coverage across the US and deepen underwriting automation with AI.
- **Platform Growth**: Focused on bringing the platform to more capital allocators and project developers.
- **Category Creation**: Aiming to become the standard decisioning layer for land investment, moving the entire industry from fragmented, offline processes to a modern, transparent, and liquid market.

## Why Work Here
- **High Impact & Ownership**: As a small, fast-moving startup (7 people), every hire has outsized impact. Employees are directly involved in shaping a new category and defining how the world manages land.
- **Mission-Driven**: The company is committed to enabling positive environmental outcomes alongside economic returns, solving real problems in climate resilience, energy independence, and housing.
- **Culture & Perks**: Offers a culture of growth in a fast-paced, innovative environment. Benefits include competitive compensation, meaningful equity, health/dental/vision insurance, flexible PTO, hybrid work options, parental leave, and a commitment to investing in AI tools and employee growth.
- **Hybrid Work**: Open roles in Seattle are listed as either "In-person" or "Hybrid," indicating flexibility while valuing in-office collaboration.
- **Talent Pool**: The company is attracting talent from notable climate and tech firms like Carbon Direct, Root Geospatial, and Omnidian.

## Sources
1. [aarden.ai](https://www.aarden.ai/)
2. [aarden.ai/careers](https://www.aarden.ai/careers)
3. [aarden.ai/about-us](https://www.aarden.ai/about-us)
4. [aarden.ai (Funding Announcement)](https://www.aarden.ai/aarden-announcement)
5. [LinkedIn](https://linkedin.com/company/aarden-ai)

## Other roles at Aarden AI

- [Sr. Data Platform Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-data-platform-engineer-aarden-ai-seattle-azx039pme881) — Seattle, WA
- [General Interest](https://feeny.ai/job/general-interest-aarden-ai-seattle-hg63w2cqpmj5) — Seattle, WA