Director of Government Relations

The role

The Director of Government Relations will own engagement with the federal government across legislative and executive branches. This person will run authorization and appropriations strategy to convert mission needs into funded programs.

What you will do

• Define and lead congressional strategy across NDAA, defense, and homeland security appropriations and oversight.
• Identify, draft, and advocate for authorization and report language.
• Drive annual appropriations and authorization campaigns.
• Build and maintain relationships with Members and staff on HASC, SASC, HAC-D, SAC-D, and related subcommittees.
• Monitor, analyze, and engage the annual congressional policymaking process.
• Engage the executive branch and interagency at senior levels to shape requirements, resourcing, and policy.
• Draft Poseidon's congressional and executive-branch requests.
• Serve as the primary relationship owner across relevant executive agencies and offices.
• Build constructive working relationships with regulators.
• Design, implement, and drive GR strategy across multiple business lines.

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.
• Deep, working knowledge of PPBE, the U.S. federal appropriations and authorization processes.
• 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 com
• 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.
• U.S. Person.
• Bachelor's degree required.

Nice to have

• 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.
• Advanced degrees welcome but not required.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Meaningful early-stage equity
• Relocation support if applicable
• Employee Health Benefit Plans
• 6% Retirement matching
• Flexible PTO
• Free lunches, snacks, and a stocked fridge at our offices
• AI tools and subscriptions

About the company

Poseidon Aerospace builds and operates full-size autonomous cargo aircraft. The company is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with locations in Washington DC, Oregon, and Maine.