Head of Marketing and Communications

Aurora; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work environment

Job summary

Aurora is seeking a seasoned Head of Marketing and Communications to lead our brand and narrative across external and internal channels. You will unite marketing, PR, internal comms, and creative teams, reporting to the President, and collaborating with Government Relations, Investor Relations, Business Development, and People to ensure a cohesive, safety-focused communications strategy.

The role requires guiding brand strategy through times of rapid commercialization, maintaining consistent

Qualifications

• 15+ years in leadership roles within marketing, communications or public relations.
• Proven ability to build, scale and retain senior teams during rapid growth.
• Extensive enterprise B2B marketing experience with account-based strategies.
• Experienced in executive communications and crisis management.
• Analytical with demonstrated ROI tracking for programs.
• Collaborates with Government Relations and Investor Relations to unify narratives.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication across audiences.
• Deep experience managing large-scale media campaigns.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary marketing, communications, and creative team under a unified brand vision.
• Develop and execute comprehensive strategies aligning with Aurora's mission to deploy the Aurora Driver safely and broadly.
• Define metrics and report on impact to executives and the board, establishing benchmarks for success in communications.
• Forge strong cross-functional partnerships with Government Relations, Investor Relations, Business Development, and People to craft cohesive messaging.
• Protect and grow brand equity across audiences including policymakers, investors, partners, employees, and talent.
• Guide internal communications to foster transparency, alignment, and engagement during commercialization.
• Ensure cohesive storytelling across pillars and align campaigns with the unified brand.

Skills

Leadership

Executive comms

Crisis management

Strategic marketing

Cross-functional alignment

Job description

Who we are

Aurora’s mission is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.

The Aurora Driver will create a new era in mobility and logistics, one that will bring a safer, more efficient, and more accessible future to everyone.

At Aurora, you will tackle massively complex problems alongside other passionate, intelligent individuals, growing as an expert while expanding your knowledge. For the latest news from Aurora, visit aurora.tech or follow us on LinkedIn.

What we are looking for

We are searching for a Head of Marketing and Communications to lead our overarching brand and messaging strategy. In this critical leadership role, you will report to our President and oversee marketing, external communications, internal communications, and creative teams. Because the autonomous vehicle space requires thoughtful and precise messaging in moments of celebration and in moments of intense scrutiny, across multiple stakeholder groups. You will actively team with our Government Relations, Investor Relations, Business Development, and People teams to ensure our narrative remains coordinated, cohesive, and impactful - with policymakers, investors, partners, and the public, and just as importantly with our employees and the talent we seek to attract.

In this role, you will

• Lead & Scale: Direct and mentor a multidisciplinary team covering marketing, external communications/PR, internal communications, and creative design, uniting them under one brand vision and one team - leading at every altitude, from executive strategy to hands-on execution
• Drive Strategy: Develop and execute comprehensive marketing and communications strategies that align with Aurora’s mission to deploy the Aurora Driver safely and broadly.
• Measure What Matters: Define and report the metrics that demonstrate marketing and communications' impact to the business, including establishing what excellent looks like for communications, where impact is hardest to quantify.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner closely with Government Relations (GR), Investor Relations (IR), Business Development (BD), and the People organization in a highly coordinated fashion to craft unified messaging for policymakers, investors, partners, employees, and the public.
• Protect & Grow the Brand: Drive brand equity across all key audiences - including commercial partners, policymakers, investors, the public, and prospective talent. Own brand reputation in a safety-critical industry, preparing Aurora for its highest-stakes moments and serving as a strategic advisor to the executive leadership team.
• Engage Internally: Guide our internal communications strategy to foster a transparent, aligned, and highly engaged company culture during a period of rapid commercialization.
• Elevate Creative Impact: Ensure cohesive storytelling across all marketing and communication pillars, partnering with creative leadership so campaigns and assets consistently reflect our unified brand.

Required Qualifications:

• 15+ years of progression in leadership scope and experience in marketing, communications, or public relations, ideally within the technology, transportation, logistics, or autonomous systems sectors.
• Proven organization builder and people leader with experience designing, scaling, and evolving marketing and communications teams through rapid commercial scaling and organizational change, while developing and retaining senior functional leaders as an engaged thought partner.
• Demonstrated success marketing in enterprise B2B environments, including account-based strategies that build demand and pipeline with a defined set of high-value customers.
• Experience in executive communications and crisis management - including personally leading an organization's communications through a real crisis in a safety-critical or highly scrutinized industry.
• Analytical fluency, with a track record of measuring marketing and communications programs and articulating their ROI to executive and board-level stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating closely with Government Relations, and Investor Relations to build cohesive corporate narratives in a highly regulated industry.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, capable of distilling complex, highly technical concepts into accessible, impactful messaging for broad audiences.
• Deep experience managing executive communications, crisis management, and large-scale media campaigns.

Desirable Qualifications

• Previous experience navigating public markets, including supporting earnings calls, investor days, and financial communications.
• Familiarity with the autonomous vehicle landscape, the commercial trucking/logistics industry, or the broader automotive ecosystem.
• Existing, strong relationships with top-tier business, technology, and automotive media.

Working at Aurora

At Aurora, we bring together extraordinarily talented and experienced people united by the strength of our values. We operate with integrity, set outrageous goals, and build a culture where we win together — all without any jerks.

We believe in-person work increases collaboration, empathy and our ability to lead effectively. As a result, we operate in a hybrid work environment where Aurorans are in office at least 3 days per week.

Our Careers page provides insight into what it is like to work at Aurora, and you can find all the latest updates in our Newsroom.

Our commitment to safety

At the core of everything we do is our commitment to safety. Building best-in-class self-driving technology will take time, and we believe that each employee at Aurora has a role in contributing to safety, every step of the way. Aurora expects commitment to our safety policies from every employee, and seeks candidates who take an active responsibility, can contribute to building an atmosphere of trust, and invest in the organization’s long-term success by prioritizing working safely, no matter what.

Our commitment to inclusion

Aurora considers candidates without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy status, parent or caregiver status, ancestry, political affiliation, veteran and/or military status, physical or mental disability, or any other status protected by federal or state law. Aurora considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. We are also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [e-mail].

For California applicants, information collected and processed as part of your application and any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Aurora’s California Employment Privacy Policy.