Director of Government Relations (Aerospace)

Location: Washington, DC office, in person; approximately 25% or greater travel. U.S. Person required.

Salary: $120,000–$220,000 annually, plus equity.

Company

hirify.global builds and operates full-size autonomous cargo aircraft capable of carrying two tons of payload over more than a thousand nautical miles.

What you will do

• Lead congressional strategy across the NDAA, defense and homeland security appropriations, authorization, and oversight processes.
• Develop and advocate for authorization and report language, program starts, funding increases, and multi-year funding profiles.
• Engage senior executive-branch and interagency stakeholders to shape requirements, resourcing, policy, and regulatory approvals.
• Build relationships with congressional committees, federal agencies, regulators, industry coalitions, trade associations, and think tanks.
• Prepare white papers, one-pagers, decks, talking points, testimony, hearing materials, demonstrations, and facility visits.
• Build the government-relations function, including systems, operating cadence, cross-functional coordination, external lobbyist management, and an eventual team.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in national security, government relations, or the federal legislative or executive arena, including significant Capitol Hill engagement.
• Extensive defense and national security experience in Congress, the executive branch, or a comparable defense-industry government-relations role.
• Demonstrated success influencing legislative, policy, and budget outcomes through the NDAA and defense or homeland security appropriations.
• Working knowledge of PPBE, federal appropriations and authorization processes, and the relationship between requirements, funding lines, schedules, and risk.
• Experience as professional staff on HASC, SASC, HAC-D, or SAC-D, senior appropriator staff, or in-house government relations at a defense technology company.
• Must work in person from the Washington, DC office and be a U.S. Person. Bachelor's degree and willingness to register as an individual lobbyist under the Lobbying Disclosure Act are required.

Nice to have

• Active or eligible TS/SCI clearance.
• 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.
• Fluency in defense acquisition, export control, and the policy levers governing aerospace and autonomy.
• Advanced degree.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive salary and meaningful early-stage equity.
• Relocation support where applicable.
• Employee health benefit plans and 6% retirement matching.
• Flexible PTO.
• Free lunches, snacks, a stocked office fridge, and access to AI tools and subscriptions.