Director of Government Relations

About Poseidon Aerospace:

Poseidon Aerospace builds and operates unmanned planes for commercial logistics and defense missions. Our two full-size fixed-wing platforms - Heron, a seaplane, and Egret, a STOL aircraft - can carry two tons of payload over a thousand nautical miles. We are headquartered in San Francisco with satellite offices in Washington, DC and Maine.

About the role:

We are looking for a Director of Government Relations to own Poseidon's engagement with the federal government across both the legislative and executive branches. You will run our authorizations and appropriations strategy and our executive and interagency strategy, with the objective of converting mission needs into funded programs and enduring support for Poseidon's platforms.

You will personally carry the work on the Hill and across the agencies, and as the function grows, you will build and lead the team behind it. You should be a self-starter who finds the path to an outcome and walks it.

What you'll do:

Congressional and legislative strategy

• Define and lead Poseidon's congressional strategy across the NDAA, defense, and homeland security appropriations, and oversight.

• Identify, draft, and advocate for authorization and report language that supports Poseidon's platforms and the industrial base behind them.

• Drive annual appropriations and authorization campaigns to support program starts, plus-ups, and multi-year funding profiles that have direct and material impact on revenue.

• Build and maintain deep, trust-based relationships with Members and staff on HASC, SASC, HAC-D, SAC-D, and related subcommittees.

• Monitor, analyze, and engage the annual congressional policymaking process, with particular focus on appropriations and defense and homeland security policy.

Executive branch and interagency strategy

• Engage the executive branch and interagency at senior levels to shape requirements, resourcing, and policy in Poseidon's favor.

• Draft Poseidon's congressional and executive-branch requests, and determine when, where, and how Poseidon can drive favorable outcomes.

• Serve as the primary relationship owner across relevant executive agencies and offices, translating their priorities into Poseidon's program strategy and vice versa.

• Build constructive working relationships with regulators to streamline the approvals Poseidon needs to operate and test.

Function-building and cross-functional leadership

• Design, implement, and drive GR strategy across multiple business lines and spanning multiple fiscal years, aligned to corporate strategy.

• Work with growth and business-line leadership to identify business and policy opportunities and advise on the legislative and resourcing strategies to capture them.

• Lead coordination across communications, legal, corporate development, and engineering to execute in support of company-wide priorities.

• Stand up the systems, cadence, and eventually the team that scale the GR function as Poseidon grows.

Outreach, representation, and political engagement

• Draft and manage Poseidon's engagement materials: white papers, one-pagers, decks, talking points, testimony, and hearing prep.

• Plan and execute Member and staff visits, demonstrations, and facility tours.

• Manage external lobbyists and consultants, and represent Poseidon in industry coalitions, trade associations, and think tanks.

• Support Poseidon's Political Action Committee priorities and strategy.

Required qualifications:

• 7+ years of experience in the national security, government relations, or federal legislative or executive arena, with significant Capitol Hill engagement.

• Extensive defense and national security experience on Capitol Hill, in the executive branch, or in a comparable defense-industry government-relations position.

• Demonstrated success planning and implementing strategies that influence change in the legislative, policy, and budget process, with a track record of outcomes through the NDAA and defense or homeland security appropriations.

• Deep, working knowledge of PPBE, the U.S. federal appropriations and authorization processes, and how requirements map to funding lines, schedules, and risk, including the roles of executive agencies, the White House, the Senate, and the House.

• One of the following profiles: professional staff on HASC, SASC, HAC-D, or SAC-D (or service for a senior appropriator), or current in-house government-relations experience at a defense technology company.

• Ability to build coalitions and maintain relationships with key congressional and executive-branch officials and with industry and trade associations.

• Willingness to register as an individual lobbyist under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.

• Based in and working from our Washington, DC office in person. Travel approximately 25% or greater.

• U.S. Person. Bachelor's degree required; advanced degrees welcome but not required.

Preferred qualifications:

• Active or eligible TS/SCI.

• Established bipartisan relationships across the Armed Services and Appropriations committees and with senior executive-branch and combatant-command stakeholders.

• Experience building a government-relations function from scratch rather than inheriting a mature process.

• Fluency in defense acquisition and the policy levers, including export control, that govern aerospace and autonomy.

What we offer:

• Competitive salary and meaningful early-stage equity

• Relocation support if applicable

• Health insurance and 401(k) matching

• Unlimited PTO

• Free lunches, snacks, and a stocked fridge at our offices

• Covered access to AI tools and subscriptions