Head of Corporate Narrative & Strategy

AeroVironment · Arlington · $122,500–$187,000 (stated in the posting)

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Job Description

 

Summary

AV competes in a market where buyers form a view of a company long before a procurement conversation starts. Program offices, allied governments, investors, policymakers, and prospective engineers all arrive with a position already formed, assembled from published work, analyst coverage, industry commentary, and increasingly from AI systems answering questions on their behalf. This role owns what those audiences find and how it adds up.

The Head of Corporate Narrative & Strategy owns AV's enterprise narrative architecture, the thought leadership program that carries it into the market, the content strategy behind both, and the measurement discipline that shows whether any of it is working. The role reports to the VP of Marketing & Communications and leads the narrative function, starting with one direct report and a defined path to a small team.

The mandate is to make narrative operational. AV runs six business units with distinct customers, technologies, and acquisition paths, and the company is understood best when their work resolves into one coherent market position rather than six unrelated ones. That requires message pillars that hold across the portfolio, an editorial system that produces at a predictable cadence, and evidence that the narrative is reaching the audiences that matter.

This is not a content production role and it is not media relations. Media logistics, public affairs coordination, Tier 1 media relationships, and release execution sit with Industry & Media Relations. This role sets what AV says and why, works upstream of the channels that carry it, and operates as the narrative counterpart to business unit leadership, Product Marketing, and the executive team.

Position Responsibilities

Enterprise Narrative Architecture

• Own AV's core corporate narrative, tiered messaging framework, and the positioning that connects company strategy to everything the company says externally.

• Maintain the narrative architecture that links enterprise strategy to executive messaging, thought leadership, campaign content, corporate storytelling, and talent communications, so the portfolio reads as one company.

• Own enterprise-level competitive positioning in external messaging against the named peer set, aligned with Product Marketing's ownership of portfolio and product-level competitive positioning.

• Translate mission outcomes, program milestones, and technical capability into narrative that holds up with government customers, allied partners, investors, and industry audiences.

Enterprise Thought Leadership

• Own AV's thought leadership program end to end: topic strategy, SME roster, qualification criteria, editorial framework, development process, distribution, and measurement.

• Scale the program across every business unit, sequencing content against the questions buyers are actually deciding rather than against internal announcement calendars.

• Own byline, speaking, award, and platform strategy for AV and its executives, including subject selection, voice assignment, ghostwriting, and venue prioritization.

• Align thought leadership output to corporate campaigns so the program compounds rather than running parallel to the rest of marketing.

Executive Narrative Advisory

• Serve as the narrative advisor to the VP of Marketing & Communications and to selected executive leaders and designated thought leaders.

• Brief executive leadership on messaging priorities, share of voice, external framing, and emerging narrative risk.

• Build the framing frameworks used in investor, government-facing, and industry engagements, developed jointly with Investor Relations and Washington Operations and consistent with the enterprise narrative.

Content Strategy & Narrative Governance

• Own the enterprise content architecture: the content types, formats, and editorial system through which narrative, technical expertise, customer outcomes, and company milestones reach each audience and channel.

• Hold narrative review and approval on press releases and major external content, assessing framing, message alignment, positioning, and consistency with enterprise priorities. Release authority remains with Industry & Media Relations.

• Set the standards and operating model other teams use to apply the narrative, so consistency comes from a shared system rather than from case-by-case review.

Measurement & Narrative Performance

• Own the KPI, content performance, and share of voice framework for corporate communications, and the discipline of deciding on evidence rather than output volume.

• Own AV's AI visibility measurement capability: the baseline, methodology, and recurring tracking of how AI systems represent the company against its peer set, reported as a standing enterprise metric.

• Identify narrative gaps from the data and convert them into content priorities with named owners and dates.

Business Linkage

• Establish a standing connection between enterprise narrative and Sales and Business Development priorities so narrative and content intentionally support strategic pursuits.

• Map message pillars to priority pursuits and target audiences, with a review cadence agreed with Business Development and evidence that the material is used in the field.

Function Leadership

• Lead the corporate narrative function, setting direction 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 a defined corporate narrative budget covering thought leadership, content development and distribution, and measurement, managed against named deliverables and a defined approval threshold.

Basic Qualifications (Required Skills & Experience)

• 12+ years in communications, editorial, or narrative strategy, including meaningful time in defense, aerospace, government, or another regulated environment where message accuracy carries consequence.

• Demonstrated ownership of an enterprise messaging architecture: you can show a narrative document, message framework, and positioning system you authored and that other teams actually used.

• Built a thought leadership or editorial program from the ground up, including the roster, the framework, and the operating cadence, not only the individual pieces.

• Fluency in how defense buyers form views: program of record lifecycles, acquisition timelines, the role of primes and non-traditional entrants, and the difference between a capability claim and operational proof.

• Technical translation: you can take engineering data, test results, and program detail and make them legible to executives, investors, and the public without losing accuracy.

• Measurement literacy. You define what narrative success looks like in numbers, build the tracking, and change the plan when the numbers say to.

• Ability to operate within export control, classification, and public-release constraints without diluting message strength.

• Credibility with technical and program stakeholders. Engineers and program leads treat you as a partner to the work rather than a service function downstream of it.

Other Qualifications & Desired Competencies

• 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.

First 12 Months

• Enterprise narrative and message pillars formally approved and adopted across business units, Product Marketing, and communications within 90 days.

• Thought leadership program publishing on a predictable cadence across every business unit, with an SME roster and editorial calendar operating without escalation.

• AI visibility and share of voice reported as a standing enterprise metric with a defined baseline, quarterly reporting, and named competitive comparison.

• Narrative review integrated as a documented step in the external content path, with cycle time measured and rework below 5%.

• Message pillars mapped to priority pursuits, with a standing Business Development review cadence and evidence of field use.

• Content architecture in production use, supporting a coordinated editorial calendar across the function.

• One direct report hired or assigned, onboarded, and carrying defined scope that does not duplicate existing coverage.

• Narrative budget planned, approved, and managed within threshold for a full cycle.

How You'll Operate

AV Marketing runs on a single-accountable-owner model with explicit decision rights under DARCIE. In this role you decide autonomously on narrative framing and message alignment within the approved architecture, thought leadership topic and voice selection, editorial sequencing, content standards, and the measurement framework. Changes to the core narrative or message pillars, budget commitments beyond threshold, and anything carrying public-release, classification, or disclosure risk escalate to the VP of Marketing & Communications.

You will partner with Industry & Media Relations, who holds release authority and media channel execution, with Product Marketing, who holds portfolio and product-level positioning, with Investor Relations and Washington Operations on investor and government-facing framing, and with Integrated Campaigns on in-market execution. The distinction that governs all four: this role is accountable for what AV says and why, and those functions are accountable for where and how it is delivered.

Physical Demands

• Ability to work in an office environment (Constant)
• Required to sit and stand for long periods; talk, hear, and use hands and fingers to operate a computer and telephone keyboard (Frequent)

Clearance Level

 

The salary range for this role is:

AeroVironment considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the location, the role and associated responsibilities, a candidate’s work experience, education/training, and key skills.

ITAR Requirement:

This position requires access to information that is subject to compliance with the International Traffic Arms Regulations (“ITAR”) and/or the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”). In order to comply with the requirements of the ITAR and/or the EAR, applicants must qualify as a U.S. person under the ITAR and the EAR, or a person to be approved for an export license by the governing agency whose technology comes under its jurisdiction. Please understand that any job offer that requires approval of an export license will be conditional on AeroVironment’s determination that it will be able to obtain an export license in a time frame consistent with AeroVironment’s business requirements. A “U.S. person” according to the ITAR definition is a U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), or protected individual such as a refugee or asylee. See 22 CFR § 120.15. Some positions will require current U.S. Citizenship due to contract requirements.

Benefits:  AV offers an excellent benefits package including medical, dental vision, 401K with company matching, a 9/80 work schedule and a paid holiday shutdown.  For more information about our company benefit offerings please visit:  http://www.avinc.com/myavbenefits.

We also encourage you to review our company website at http://www.avinc.com to learn more about us.

Principals only need apply.  NO agencies please.

About AV:

AV isn’t for everyone. We hire the curious, the relentless, the mission-obsessed. The best of the best.

We don’t just build defense technology—we redefine what’s possible. As the premier autonomous systems company in the U.S., AV delivers breakthrough capabilities across air, land, sea, space, and cyber. From AI-powered drones and loitering munitions to integrated autonomy and space resilience, our technologies shape the future of warfare and protect those who serve.

Founded by legendary innovator Dr. Paul MacCready, AV has spent over 50 years pushing the boundaries of what unmanned systems can do. Our heritage includes seven platforms in the Smithsonian—but we’re not building history, we’re building what’s next.

If you're ready to build technology that matters—with speed, scale, and purpose—there’s no better place to do it than AV.

We are proud to be an EEO/AA Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans. AeroVironment, Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and welcomes all qualified applicants. Qualified applicants will receive fair and impartial consideration without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetic data, sexual orientation, gender identity or other legally protected status.

ITAR

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