Head of Corporate Narrative & Strategy

AeroVironment•Arlington, VA

14d•$122,500 - $187,000

About The Position

The Head of Corporate Narrative & Strategy owns AeroVironment’s enterprise narrative architecture, thought leadership program, content strategy, and measurement framework. The role makes narrative operational across six business units, aligning their distinct customers, technologies, and acquisition paths into a coherent market position. It reports to the VP of Marketing & Communications and leads the narrative function, beginning with one direct report and a defined path to a small team. The role sets what AV says and why, working upstream of the channels that deliver it. It partners with business unit leadership, Product Marketing, and the executive team, while media logistics, public affairs coordination, Tier 1 media relationships, and release execution remain with Industry & Media Relations. The position has autonomous decision-making authority within the approved architecture for narrative framing, thought leadership topics and voice, editorial sequencing, content standards, and measurement. Changes to core narrative or message pillars, budget commitments beyond the approval threshold, and matters involving public-release, classification, or disclosure risk escalate to the VP of Marketing & Communications. The position requires access to information subject to ITAR and/or EAR requirements. Applicants must qualify as a U.S. person or be eligible for an export license; some positions may require current U.S. citizenship. The listed clearance level is No Clearance. The salary range is $122,500–$187,000. AV offers medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) with company matching, a 9/80 work schedule, and a paid holiday shutdown.

Requirements

12+ years in communications, editorial, or narrative strategy, including meaningful experience in defense, aerospace, government, or another regulated environment where message accuracy has significant consequences.
Demonstrated ownership of an enterprise messaging architecture, including authored narrative documents, message frameworks, and positioning systems adopted by other teams.
Experience building a thought leadership or editorial program from the ground up, including its roster, framework, and operating cadence.
Fluency in how defense buyers form views, including program-of-record lifecycles, acquisition timelines, the role of primes and non-traditional entrants, and the distinction between capability claims and operational proof.
Ability to translate engineering data, test results, and program details accurately for executives, investors, and the public.
Measurement literacy, including defining narrative success numerically, building tracking, and changing plans based on results.
Ability to operate within export control, classification, and public-release constraints without diluting message strength.
Credibility with technical and program stakeholders, who treat the role as a partner to the work.
Ability to work in an office environment.
Ability to sit and stand for long periods, talk, hear, and use hands and fingers to operate a computer and telephone keyboard.
Must qualify as a U.S. person under ITAR/EAR or be eligible for an export license; some positions may require current U.S. citizenship due to contract requirements.

Nice To Haves

People management experience or demonstrated functional leadership with workstream ownership and accountability for others’ output.
Journalism, editorial, or broadcast background with a record of publishing under deadline.
Working knowledge of how AI systems surface and cite company content and what changes their answers.
Active clearance, or eligibility and willingness to obtain one.
Experience building reputation for a company competing against established primes and emerging entrants.

Responsibilities

Own AV’s core corporate narrative, tiered messaging framework, and external positioning connecting company strategy to its communications.
Maintain narrative architecture linking enterprise strategy to executive messaging, thought leadership, campaign content, corporate storytelling, and talent communications.
Own enterprise-level competitive positioning in external messaging against the named peer set, aligned with Product Marketing’s portfolio- and product-level positioning responsibilities.
Translate mission outcomes, program milestones, and technical capabilities into narratives for government customers, allied partners, investors, and industry audiences.
Own the thought leadership program, including topic strategy, subject-matter expert roster, qualification criteria, editorial framework, development process, distribution, and measurement.
Scale thought leadership across business units and sequence content around buyer questions and corporate campaigns.
Own byline, speaking, award, and platform strategy for AV and its executives, including subject selection, voice assignment, ghostwriting, and venue prioritization.
Advise the VP of Marketing & Communications and selected executives and designated thought leaders on narrative.
Brief executive leadership on messaging priorities, share of voice, external framing, and emerging narrative risk.
Develop framing frameworks for investor, government-facing, and industry engagements jointly with Investor Relations and Washington Operations, consistent with the enterprise narrative.
Own enterprise content architecture, including content types, formats, and the editorial system used to reach audiences and channels.
Conduct narrative review and approval of press releases and major external content for framing, message alignment, positioning, and consistency with enterprise priorities; release authority remains with Industry & Media Relations.
Set standards and an operating model for other teams to apply the narrative consistently.
Own the corporate communications KPI, content performance, and share-of-voice framework, using evidence to assess narrative performance.
Own AV’s AI visibility measurement capability, including baseline, methodology, and recurring peer-set tracking, reported as a standing enterprise metric.
Identify narrative gaps from performance data and turn them into content priorities with named owners and dates.
Connect enterprise narrative to Sales and Business Development priorities to support strategic pursuits.
Map message pillars to priority pursuits and target audiences, establish a review cadence with Business Development, and track evidence of field use.
Lead the corporate narrative function across narrative architecture, thought leadership, content strategy, executive messaging, and measurement.
Manage and develop a direct report supporting the narrative function, with a path to a small team as the function scales.
Own and manage a corporate narrative budget for thought leadership, content development and distribution, and measurement against named deliverables and an approval threshold.
Work with Industry & Media Relations, Product Marketing, Investor Relations, Washington Operations, and Integrated Campaigns according to their respective channel, positioning, and execution responsibilities.
Meet first-year objectives including adoption of approved enterprise narrative and message pillars, a predictable thought leadership cadence, standing AI visibility and share-of-voice reporting, documented narrative review, pursuit alignment, content architecture in production, direct-report staffing, and a planned and managed narrative budget.