Senior Manager, Communications

Vast is seeking a Senior Manager, Communications to join our team. Reporting to the VP of Communications, you are a creative, thoughtful, and experienced communications professional that will focus on elevating and amplifying Vast’s corporate narrative, executive thought leadership, story mining through internal and external written communications, and social media channels.

 This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Responsibilities: 

• Work closely with communications, legal, policy, or tech colleagues to land business and tech-focused stories related to support Vast's business goals
• Work closely with external PR agencies and maintain relationships with key influencers
• Work closely with content and owned channel team members on thought leadership campaigns
• Manage reactive media inquiries
• Collaborate with partners and customers on storytelling moments
• Have a pulse on the space landscape and how Vast is differentiating itself. Identify gaps and opportunities to strengthen our efforts
• Develop stories and/or content for events and announcements
• Work directly with the VP of Comms, to support business goals across the company, helping to create strategic communications plans to drive their brand, voice, and thought leadership within and outside of Vast
• Design and produce executive visibility programs that turn ideas into compelling narratives, frameworks, and creative storytelling concepts
• Deliver executive-level work products including scripts, speeches, op-eds, and awards applications and partner with department peers on videos, partnership, and social media amplification plans
• Prepare executives with rehearsals, scripts, media training etc., while project managing the overall communications schedules
• Help plan and support events, including all-hands, press events, and announcements
• Partner with departments to ensure consistency in internal communications
• Work with Government Affairs and Legal teams to support public affairs initiatives
• Serve as a resource across the Marketing to ensure message alignment and consistency across all audiences, including customers and partners

Minimum Qualifications:

• 5-8 years of experience in communications, public affairs, or internal communications
• 3+ years of experience in media relations, journalism, corporate storytelling and/or a related field
• A strategic counselor with the ability to influence senior leaders on strategy, messaging, and engagement opportunities to drive pride, passion, and action for our function
• The capacity to work quickly and decisively to meet deadlines
• Ability to translate business strategies into compelling narratives
• Ability to manage complex projects in a fast-changing environment

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in English, journalism, communications, public affairs, or equivalent career experience
• Experience working in a startup environment or in tech
• Experience distilling technical products and processes into simple, digestible bits of communication
• A talent for collaborating effectively and diplomatically with several stakeholders across research, engineering, communications, marketing and social media teams, as well as to work effectively with external partners and customers outside the company
• Experience as part of an in-house communications team
• Relentlessly curious and unwilling to settle for surface level understanding. Be ready to become an expert on all things Vast!
• A keen interest and curiosity about tech trends, especially aerospace
• A growth mindset and the desire to experiment with new and emerging forms of storytelling to reach a broad set of audiences
• Self-starter, comfortable with ambiguity and the ability to juggle multiple priorities under tight deadlines in a fast-paced, changing environment

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to travel up to 10% of the time
• Willingness to work evenings and/or weekends to support critical mission milestones