Head of Marketing & Communications, Germany

Job description

Head of Marketing & Communications, Germany - Location: Berlin, Germany - Department: ICEYE Marketing - Reports to: CMO, dotted line to Germany CEO - Employment type: Permanent - Workplace model: Berlin - Employment is subject to applicable security screening Why this role exists Germany is making major long-term decisions about sovereignty, resilience, and security. ICEYE’s SAR capabilities already support critical decision-making in defence, civil protection, and national security contexts.. We are building ICEYE Germany to be the credible, sovereign-aligned partner for that task, with strategic defence programs and partnerships at the center of our work in Germany and in closest collaboration with our Joint Venture Rheinmetall ICEYE Space Solutions. We need someone to build the German voice of this company. Not to run solely campaigns against a global template - to define what ICEYE means in Germany, in language that earns trust from a Generalmajor, a Staatssekretär, a Bundestag staffer, and a journalist at FAZ in the same week. Comms in this domain are a discipline: precise about what we say, deliberate about what we don’t, and aligned with applicable German security, procurement, and information-handling requirements. This is a founding marketing & communications role. Solo for the first months, then a small, sharp team. You will work closely with the global CMO and the country CEO to define which moments, forums, and platforms matter most for ICEYE in Germany - and which we deliberately don’t. What we expect you to deliver These are the outcomes we will hire against and review against. By day 60 - A written ICEYE Germany narrative. Defensible by the country CEO, the global CMO, and the gov affairs lead in front of any audience. Sharp enough that a defense reporter could quote it. Honest enough that an operator would recognize it. - A theater map. An opinionated point of view on which industry events, policy forums, media outlets, and stakeholder moments ICEYE owns in Germany - and which we walk away from. Signed off by the country CEO and the global CMO. - Message discipline across spokespeople. Briefing notes, key messages, and Q&A packs in use by every external-facing voice (executives, partners, agencies). - Brand and communications work that materially supports strategic defence programs and adjacent opportunities . Marketing artifacts co-built with the sales team - not parallel to it. - All external materials cleared against VS-NfD / VSVgV constraints with the security officer/legal support. By month 3 - Touchpoint playbooks across industry, policy, and end-user. Reusable, well-resourced, runnable by the team that follows you without you in the room. - A measurement frame that matters. Pipeline contribution, share of voice with the audiences we care about, message penetration with named stakeholders. Reported monthly. No vanity metrics. - First two hires (or a credible plan for them). Hiring for taste and judgment, not credentials. Backed by a curated agency bench (PR, design, events, creative) managed as one coherent system. By month 6 - A clearly differentiated & recognized ICEYE brand in relevant theatres, in line with the global brand, recognized by the audiences we care about and defended consistently across every external surface. - A small, mighty team - a handful of operators and a curated agency bench that punches above the headcount. - Demonstrable contribution to capture outcomes on our major programs and adjacent opportunities, traceable through the marketing artifacts the capture team actually used. What you will actually do Co-build the German identity in close partnership with the CEO Germany and under the direction of the global CMO, full-time based in Berlin. Own the strategy and the writing —narrative, positioning, the German website, the hard-to-write things. Run PR and media directly until the team is large enough to delegate. Manage agencies (PR, design, events, creative) as one coherent system, not separate vendors. Partner with gov affairs, central marketing, sales, and align with industry partners (including RISS) on capture-aligned narratives. Plan the moments that matter, with a clear point of view on what each one is for. Don’t confuse motion for progress. Who we think you are - You have built a brand before, not just managed one. Probably 8+ years in, with serious time in defense, space, geospatial, dual-use, or another high-complexity technical sector - or a strong adjacent track record that makes the leap obvious. - You know how German policy, defense, and industry actually work, or you’ll get there fast because you’ve done the equivalent before. - You write. Well. In German and English, with the kind of precision where every word is chosen - moving between a technical white paper, a Bundestag briefing note, a CEO keynote, and a press statement in the same day without losing register. - You have taste: you direct creative work and recognize when a deck, a film, or a campaign is honest - and when it’s hiding behind production value. - You understand that space-based ISR and sovereign intelligence is not a marketing toy. You can listen to operators, ingest what they tell you, and find the parts of the story that are true and worth telling - without sensationalism and without sanitizing it. - You respect the seriousness of the domain, including the discipline that comes with it: classification, VS-NfD / VSVgV constraints, and the habit of clearing anything that touches the program with the security officer before it goes out. - You are a builder. You set priorities without being told, hire well, manage agencies as partners. You report to a global CMO and dotted to the country CEO, equally comfortable making the case in Helsinki and in Berlin. You disagree well. You don’t need permission to start, but you know when to ask for it. What we offer A founding mandate in a company at the center of one of the most consequential strategic shifts in Europe in decades. Direct line to the global CMO, close working with the country CEO. A serious capture program where good tone of voice, earned position and insight & marketing materially shifts the outcome. Real budget, real autonomy, real accountability. Compensation matched to the seniority of the hire - salary, benefits, equity - discussed openly with finalists. Interview flow TA screen, working session with the global CMO, conversation with the country CEO, then a co-designed case or written probe that actually predicts the work. We move fast for the right person. About Us ICEYE is the world leader in sovereign intelligence from space. We deliver persistent monitoring capabilities to detect and respond to changes in any location on Earth. ICEYE owns the world's largest and most advanced SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite constellation. To our customers we provide intelligence with unmatched quality, latency and revisit times, in any weather, day or night. To governments who choose to operate their own constellation we provide this proven capability as a sovereign system. ICEYE-built constellations serve customers in defence and intelligence, environmental monitoring, insurance and emergency management. We enable fast decisions that contribute to a safer future. Founded and headquartered in Finland, ICEYE operates globally with over 1,000 employees across Poland, Spain, Germany, the UK, Australia, Japan, the UAE, Greece, and the US. We’re a growing international team of builders. Join Us.