Manager, Strategic Communications & Marketing

Aurelius Systems•San Francisco, CA

16h•Hybrid

About The Position

Aurelius Systems, a VC-backed defense tech startup specializing in autonomous, edge-deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS, is seeking a Strategic Communications & Marketing Manager. This is a new role responsible for the in-house marketing and communications function, working closely with the fractional Head of Communications and the Creative and Brand lead. The position will focus on positioning, business development enablement, event management, industry presence, recruiting marketing, and building external engagement into pipeline and hires. The company is looking for an individual with the potential to grow into a Head/Director role as the company scales.

Requirements

5 to 10+ years in marketing or strategic communications with end-to-end ownership of positioning, content, events, and operations.
Strong writing skills with the ability to match a defined voice and a portfolio demonstrating this.
Operationally proficient, comfortable managing calendars, vendors, tools, and budgets across multiple workstreams.
Experience working with or owning PR/comms and creative functions without overlap.
Comfortable in defense, hardware, deeptech, or technically rigorous environments.
Experience in marketing or comms roles at early-stage defense tech, hardware startups, deeptech, or technical companies, with ownership of positioning, BD enablement, and events.
Ability to write short and credible content.
Preference for building customer-closing materials over non-impactful campaign decks.
Desire to grow into running marketing and comms for a defense tech company.
Must be a "U.S. Person" (U.S. citizen, legal permanent resident, or certain protected classes of asylees and refugees).

Nice To Haves

Defense, national security, or military background or close exposure.
Experience writing in a founder's voice.
Experience supporting BD or capture teams with customer-facing materials.
Experience managing booth and demo presence at major defense industry events.
Recruiting marketing or employer brand experience.
Fluency with marketing analytics and operations tooling.

Responsibilities

Own strategic positioning and message architecture for Aurelius across all external platforms.
Develop business development enablement materials, including capability briefs, one-pagers, customer-facing collateral, and demo communications.
Manage industry events and conference presence (e.g., AUSA, Re-Industralize, AFA, Sea-Air-Space, AFCEA), including calendar, strategy, logistics, and on-site execution.
Partner with the Talent team on recruiting marketing, especially as engineering headcount grows.
Build an executive thought leadership pipeline, including bylines, podcast bookings, and stage opportunities for leadership.
Provide direction for channel strategy across paid and organic social media (LinkedIn, X, YouTube) and other platforms.
Manage marketing operations, including website, email, analytics, and tooling.
Provide editorial support across the company, including writing, editing, and proofing under deadline.
Execute campaigns, materials, and events with an extreme bias for action.
Write, edit, and proof under deadline while maintaining a consistent voice.
Communicate clearly across founders, comms, creative, BD, and engineering teams.
Be self-directed, identifying and executing necessary tasks without explicit instruction.