Strategic Communications Director

HADRIAN - MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE

Hadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America. By combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing, we help aerospace and defense companies build rockets, satellites, aircraft, ships, and other mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at significantly lower cost.

Following our $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation, Hadrian is rapidly expanding our manufacturing footprint, launching new capabilities across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more, while scaling our Factory-as-a-Service platform to transform how critical products are built.

Backed by leading investors including JPMorgan Chase, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Lux Capital, T. Rowe Price, and Morgan Stanley, we’re building the future of American manufacturing—and looking for exceptional people to help make it happen.

If you’re ready to take on the most challenging and rewarding work of your career while helping create American manufacturing jobs for generations to come, you’re exactly who we’re looking for.

THE ROLE

Hadrian is hiring a Head of Strategic Communications to own what the company says publicly and who says it. This is the earned-media and executive-communications engine for the company: press relationships, announcement strategy, message discipline, and the voice the CEO and other leaders bring to every public moment.

You'll report to the SVP, Public Policy, who sets the direction for the company's external affairs and holds the comms slate — the master calendar of everything Hadrian says publicly, sequenced across announcements, launches, executive moments, and policy pushes. Your job is to run Strategic Comms with full ownership of its craft and its team.

You'll work in close partnership with peers across the broader external affairs function: a Brand & Marketing lead who owns owned channels, campaigns, and company events; and Government Relations and Policy leads who carry the company's positions into government offices and the broader policy ecosystem. Voice frameworks you help steward apply across all of these teams.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

Media — Reporter relationships, inbound press handling, briefings, and embargo management. You are the person national and trade press call first.

Public Relations — Announcement strategy and execution for major company moments, reactive and issues response, and stewardship of Hadrian's standing narrative in the press.

Copy & Voice — Day-to-day ownership of how Hadrian sounds in earned and executive channels, working within the voice frameworks set at the SVP level. You're the standard-bearer for the function's copy, not the sole writer of everything.

Speeches & Public Comms — Executive speeches, talking points, prepared remarks, and Q&A prep. You are the primary support for Hadrian's CEO and other executives in public settings.

Internal Communications (in partnership with HR) — HR owns internal distribution and the employee relationship; you supply the message and voice that keep thousands of technicians and engineers across Hadrian's factory network aligned with the company's direction and momentum.

Team Leadership — Build and manage a team capable of carrying this workload without you in the room for every piece of work. Strategic Comms is currently load-bearing and under-resourced; part of this role is fixing that.

External Partners — Select, manage, and hold accountable the agencies, PR firms, speechwriters, and other outside consultants who extend the team's capacity. You set the brief, own the budget and performance of these relationships, and ensure external work meets the same bar as work produced in-house.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

• 15+ years of communications experience in tech, defense, aerospace, or a related field, with real fluency in how each of those worlds talks to the press, to government, and to itself

• Demonstrated experience managing a team, including external consultants and agencies — you've hired and developed direct reports, and you've also run agency and freelance relationships with a clear brief, budget, and accountability for results

• A relentless focus on mission — you understand why reindustrializing the United States matters and can translate that conviction into a story that lands with reporters, policymakers, and the public

• Executive presence and judgment — comfortable advising a CEO in high-stakes moments, with the instinct to know when something is genuinely sensitive versus when it isn't

• Sharp writing and editing instincts, and the ability to hold a company's voice steady across dozens of moving pieces

• Proactive and collaborative — you propose into the external affairs and internal communications calendars rather than waiting to be handed work, and you build real partnerships with peers who own adjacent pieces of the story

• Willing to travel — regularly, and often on short notice, to be on the ground for factory visits, executive appearances, and press moments across Hadrian's sites

• Ability to obtain a U.S. national security clearance preferred

• A sense of levity. You take the mission seriously and yourself less so, without ever letting standards slip

COMPENSATION

For this role, the target salary range is 210,000 - 250,000 (actual range may vary based on experience).

This is the lowest to highest salary we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the range may be modified in the future. An employee's pay position within the salary range will be based on several factors, including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.

BENEFITS FOR FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans for employee