Head of Marketing

Swarm Aero; Oxnard (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity ownership

Competitive base salary

Medical, dental, vision benefits

PTO and paid sick leave

Monthly wellness stipend

Daily catered lunch (office)

Paid parental leave

Direct impact on national security

Collaborative world-class team

Job summary

Swarm Aero seeks a marketing leader to shape and tell its story, both inside the company and to external audiences. You will own brand, internal comms, and press strategy while partnering with the founders to articulate a credible defense-tech narrative.

The role demands a hands-on, scrappy approach and a track record building a function from the ground up. You will work with founders and the CEO, influencing messaging across launches, events, and campaigns, including industry conferences and

Qualifications

• 8+ years in marketing or brand leadership, including early-stage high-growth startups.
• Ability to translate complex DoD/defense tech into clear, compelling stories.
• Proven track record building a marketing function from zero and shaping identity.

Responsibilities

• Define Swarm Aero's identity and voice across all channels and audiences.
• Own launches, programs, partnerships, and major communications moments.
• Lead internal comms to align the team with strategic goals and milestones.
• Build relationships with defense media and manage external partners.
• Partner with founders/CEO to craft credible, bold storytelling without overpromising.
• Shape employer branding to attract top engineers and operators.

Skills

Marketing leadership

Storytelling

Brand identity

Internal comms

Defense/DoD exposure

Executive collaboration

Scrappy execution

Zero-to-one function build

Job description

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results.

The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic.

This is the one you've been waiting for

You've told other people's stories. You've polished brands someone else built. You've waited for the company where you get to help create that story.

This is that company.

Swarm Aero is building the autonomous systems the U.S. and its allies need to deter a peer conflict: Gamera, a Group 5 autonomous aircraft, the specialized manufacturing capacity to build them at incredible scale, and Legion, our autonomy and command and control software for coordinating swarms of uncrewed systems. Our autonomy software is already running on real programs and real hardware. Now we're scaling it onto our own aircraft.

We have never had a marketer. We have a mission, a team that ships, and a story that is growing and evolving everyday. You'll be the one to shape it and tell it.

What You'll Build

• Who we are. Define the identity of Swarm Aero from the ground up: what we stand for, how we sound, how we look, and why anyone should care. When someone asks "what does Swarm do?", the answer everyone gives will be the one you wrote.
• How we tell it. Turn complex autonomy and C2 technology into a story that lands with a general, a program manager, a reporter, an investor, and a senior engineer, without watering it down for any of them.
• Internal comms. Make sure everyone inside Swarm knows where we're going, why it matters, and what just happened. All-hands narratives, leadership messages, milestone moments, and the culture that holds a fast-growing team together. A company that understands its own story tells it better outside.
• The big moments. Own launches, program wins, funding announcements, partnerships, and flight, delivery, and customer milestones. Make each one land.
• Our presence in defense. Own our footprint at AUSA, Modern Day Marine, Sea-Air-Space, SOF Week, and the rooms where requirements get shaped. Be the booth, the panel, and the name people remember.
• Press and platform. Build relationships with defense and tech media, prep leadership for stages and interviews, and manage agency partners who make us better.
• Employer brand. Partner with our recruiting team to make Swarm the place the best engineers and operators in the country want to be.
• The function itself. Tools, budget, vendors, process, and your next hire. You build it your way.
• 8+ years in marketing or brand, including time as an early marketer at a high-growth startup where you built, not inherited
• A storyteller first. You can take something technical and make it unforgettable in one sentence
• You've shaped a company's identity before, or you've been itching to
• You care about internal comms as much as external. You know culture is a story too
• You know that in defense, credibility is everything. Bold, yes. Overpromising, never
• You work directly with founders and the CEO and aren't afraid to push back on the story
• Scrappy. You'd rather ship it yourself this week than brief an agency for next month
• You believe deterrence matters and want your work to be part of it
• Experience with DoD, defense procurement, or government affairs
• A network across defense media, industry associations, or DC
• You've built a marketing function from zero

Why now, why here

• Timing. Defense tech is one of the most important categories in the country. The companies that define themselves now set the terms for everyone else.
• Ownership. The whole brand, inside and out. Rarely does one person get this.
• Backing. Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Coatue.
• Equity. Real ownership in the thing you're building.

Requirements

• Remote/Hybrid with an ability to be onsite in Oxnard, CA on as needed basis
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance
• Travel to industry events and DC as needed

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability.

What We Offer

• Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company
• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience
• Medical, dental, vision, and 401k
• PTO and paid sick leave
• Monthly wellness stipend
• Daily catered lunch (office)
• Paid parental leave
• Direct impact on a critical national security mission
• A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems