Manager, Strategic & Policy Communications

About Castelion

Castelion is bringing a new approach to defense development and production: short, iterative design cycles, rapid testing, and modern commercial manufacturing strategies built for scale. We're designing, building, and testing next generation long range strike weapons systems to give America and its Allies a definitive edge and deter future conflicts. The brand studio you will help build is how the world comes to understand that mission.

Manager, Strategic & Policy Communications

Castelion is building next-generation strike systems to restore credible deterrence and expand the industrial base for national security. We are looking for a Manager, Strategic & Policy Communications to own Castelion's press, policy, and strategic communications function and grow with it as the company scales.

Castelion is building its communications team from the ground up, and this role is designed for someone with the right raw materials, sharp political instincts, strong writing range, Hill communications experience, and genuine ambition. We are looking for a solid communicator who is ready to grow into a full-spectrum corporate communications operator in a fast-paced, defense tech environment.

The person we hire will not arrive knowing everything this role eventually requires. They will arrive with a strong foundation and the drive to build on it. In return, Castelion commits to direct access to the VP of Marketing & Communications, meaningful work from day one, a clear development path, and the opportunity to help build a communications function that will grow to a dozen or more people.

This is a foundational hire. The person who does this well will have a direct path to Senior Manager and, in time, a leadership role in the communications team Castelion is building.

The Role

Your primary lane is press, policy, and strategic communications. You will manage media relationships, draft executive materials, prepare leadership for Hill and Administration engagements, and help Castelion build a credible presence in Washington and in the defense-media ecosystem. On a lean team, you will also cover adjacent functions ranging from social, speechwriting, executive comms, as needed.

This role requires a minimum of 30% travel to Castelion sites, and defense events. Presence matters in this work, whether it's at hearings, in Hill offices, at the test site, at industry events. You need to be in the room.

What You Will Do

Press & Media Relations

• Draft and issue press releases, media statements, on-record responses, background briefings, and rapid-response communications.
• Develop proactive media strategies for major announcements, program milestones, test activity, and executive appearances.
• Build Castelion's reporter relationship map with Manager of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs to identifying the journalists, editors, producers, and podcasters and others whose coverage matters most and systematically developing those relationships.
• Draft daily comms report for morning briefing that monitors daily defense, technology, and policy coverage, flagging relevant stories, emerging narratives, and response opportunities.
• Coordinate media logistics for press events, facility visits, test coverage, and executive interviews.

Policy & Congressional Communications

• Develop communications materials that advance Castelion's legislative and policy priorities in close coordination with the Government Affairs team.
• Prepare company leadership for meetings with Members of Congress, congressional staff, committee leadership, executive branch officials, and Administration stakeholders.
• Write leadership communications for engagement with the White House, relevant executive agencies, and defense policy officials.
• Track NDAA cycles, authorization and appropriations activity, executive branch priorities, and policy developments relevant to hypersonic systems, strike capabilities, and the defense industrial base.
• Produce policy briefings and message guidance as legislative and political conditions evolve.

Executive & Strategic Communications

• Write and edit speeches, remarks, talking points, op-eds, scripts, and statements for company leadership across press, policy, and public-facing contexts.
• Brief leadership before media appearances, Hill meetings, industry events, executive branch engagements, and speaking opportunities.
• Develop and maintain Castelion's core external messaging, ensuring consistent narrative across deterrence, hypersonic systems, defense industrial capacity, and national-security priorities.
• Identify speaking opportunities, podcast placements, panel appearances, and industry platforms that advance leadership visibility and company positioning.
• Support the VP of Communications on strategic communications planning, message development, and stakeholder engagement.

Team & Systems Building

• Help build the communications infrastructure Castelion, including press lists, message frameworks, approval workflows, briefing templates, announcement playbooks.
• Cover peer functions such as social, speechwriting, press as a contributing operator when the team needs flexibility.
• Coordinate with legal, business development, engineering, and security to ensure communications accuracy, export-control compliance, and OPSEC discipline.
• As the team grows, take on additional scope, mentorship responsibilities, and operational leadership. This role is designed to expand.

What We Are Looking For

We are not looking for someone who has already done all of this. We are looking for someone with the foundation, the instincts, and the drive to grow into it.

• 4-7 years of experience in press, congressional communications, political communications, public affairs, journalism, or a closely related field.
• Direct experience in a congressional office, Hill leadership environment, executive branch agency, campaign, or political communications role with real press and principal-prep responsibilities.
• Exceptional writing across formats: press releases, statements, op-eds, talking points, congressional materials, speeches, scripts, and briefing documents.
• Working knowledge of the legislative process and how Congress operates, how defense policy and funding decisions are made, and how communications supports those outcomes.
• Experience pitching and placing stories, managing reporter relationships, and operating under press deadline.
• Sound political and communications judgment able to read a moment, calibrate a message, and know when to act and when to hold.
• Comfort working directly with senior executives and principals, including drafting for and briefing leadership before high-stakes engagements.
• Ability to manage multiple fast-moving priorities simultaneously without losing quality or composure.
• Willingness and ability to travel on short notice, respond to crisis communications if necessary. A minimum of 30% travel expected.
• Genuine interest in U.S. national security, defense innovation, hypersonic systems, and the defense industrial base.

Nice to Have

• Existing relationships with defense reporters, Pentagon public affairs, congressional communications staff, or Administration communications offices.
• Experience in defense or aerospace policy, the Armed Services Committees (HASC/SASC), defense appropriations, or national-security legislation.
• Background in or exposure to private-sector communications, defense contracting, or venture-backed technology.
• Experience supporting executive branch or Administration-level communications.
• Comfort supporting social media, digital communications, or executive social presence.
• Familiarity with OPSEC, export-control considerations, or defense communications review processes.
• Experience managing or mentoring junior staff.

This role is explicitly designed to grow. Below is the development path for the right candidate:

In Your First Year

• Build the foundational systems the team needs: advanced press lists, message frameworks, briefing templates, approval workflows, founder messaging archives, announcement playbooks.
• Operate as a reliable, trusted, low-overhead team member to the VP, someone who takes ownership and does not require constant direction.
• Cover adjacent team functions with increasing confidence such as social, speechwriting, executive comms.

In Year Two and Beyond

• Grow into Senior Manager, Strategic & Policy Communications as the team scales and your performance earns it.
• Take on management responsibility. mentoring, developing, and eventually directing junior communications staff.
• Help the VP build and shape the communications team as it grows toward a dozen people.
• Become Castelion's institutional expert on policy communications, press strategy, and congressional engagement.
• Have a credible path to grow the functions of press team and build the team.

Success Looks Like

• You earn the VP's trust within the first 90 days, not by doing everything perfectly, but by owning your work, exercising judgment, and showing up ready to learn.
• Castelion builds national defense and policy press relationships that did not exist before you arrived.
• Leadership enters every press, Hill, and Administration engagement better prepared than they would have been without you.
• Congressional and policy materials are compelling, accurate, and ready, not assembled under panic the morning of.
• You help build systems and playbooks that outlast any individual task, creating an infrastructure the team will use as it scales.
• By month 12, you are operating at a meaningfully larger scale than any prior role and you can show it.

This is a full-time, on-site role based at our Torrance or Washington, DC facility. Some of the most important production moments, including field shoots at test and manufacturing sites, happen in dynamic and physically demanding environments. You should be comfortable working extended hours when production demands it, and you should expect to travel approximately 50 percent of the time.

ITAR Requirements

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Employment with Castelion is governed on the basis of competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

All employees are granted long-term stock incentives as part of their employment as Castelion. All employees receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental insurance, and the company offers four weeks of paid time off per year.