Senior Manager, Strategic Growth

About the role

As Sr. Manager, Growth Execution, you will perform in a high-impact, strategic role responsible for shaping and executing growth initiatives, driving organizational alignment, and acting as an extension of the Chief Growth Officer (CGO) across AV’s most critical opportunities. The role requires a highly analytical, process-oriented, and emotionally intelligent professional who can manage complex, cross-functional initiatives, provide structured decision support, and enable AV’s Growth organization to execute with clarity and discipline. By reducing executive bandwidth constraints, you will enable the organization to deliver on enterprise priorities and connect growth initiatives directly to AV’s broader planning and operating commitments. This position blends project ownership, strategic advising, and orchestration across business units. Your charter is to partner with the CGO to make AV’s Business Development, Marketing, Communications, Government Relations and Strategy functions the most efficient and effective in the industry. You will identify and reduce organizational friction, integrate processes, drive policy, and position AV for scaled growth.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate high-priority, cross-functional projects that the CGO would otherwise own directly, such as organizational integrations, forecasting and pipeline improvements, deployment of new tools and processes, and improve efficiency.
• Support execution of long-range planning outputs and market strategies, aligning business units and growth teams around shared objectives.
• Identify and resolve bottlenecks across business development and growth operations so teams can focus on capture and customer engagement rather than internal process gaps.
• Provide perspective, risk framing, and recommendations on growth initiatives, operating as both advisor and operator by knowing when to counsel and when to take ownership.
• Convene and align stakeholders across Growth, P&L, Finance, Strategy, Engineering, and People & Culture to deliver enterprise priorities without adding overhead.
• Shepherd critical tool and process integrations, improve data accessibility, and establish operating mechanisms that reduce friction and cycle time.
• Provide structured decision support by framing options, tradeoffs, risks, and resource needs, preparing concise executive materials and recommendations for decision forums.
• Connect business, technical, and financial perspectives to inform corporate strategy, partnerships, and integration planning.
• Establish and track milestones for critical projects to provide clear markers of progress and impact.
• Lead and manage ad hoc teams within the organization, set goals, allocate resources and providing guidance and support to team members.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Public Policy, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 8+ years of experience in strategy, product/portfolio management, program management, business operations, or similar cross-functional roles in technology or defense-adjacent environments.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in a leadership role.
• Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous problems, align diverse stakeholders, and drive complex initiatives to completion.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to distill complexity into clear, executive-ready insights.
• Proven ability to work in fast-paced, technical, or defense-tech environments.
• High emotional intelligence and credibility with senior stakeholders.
• Strong organizational and project management skills, with a track record of cross-functional alignment and delivery.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree (MBA, MPP, or technical MS).
• Experience in aerospace, defense, or government sectors.
• Strong analytical, critical thinking and interpersonal skills, with the ability to speak and write persuasively.
• Experience integrating tools and workflows across CRM, portfolio planning, business intelligence, and collaboration platforms.
• Familiarity with M&A or post-merger integration activities.
• Comfort introducing pragmatic automation or AI-assisted workflows to reduce cycle time and improve quality.
• Demonstrated experience working with cross-functional teams; ability to develop and maintain internal and external trusting, professional relationships.
• Vision beyond the immediate situation with ability to explore multiple potential paths and adaptive, situational decision-making.
• Ability to inspire, motivate, and empower teammates to deliver on organizational goals.
• Ability to lead change management and reinforce a culture quick adaptation while helping others deal with the effects of change.
• Bias to action, ownership mentality, and resilience in environments with competing priorities.
• Commitment to continuous learning; driven to improve and enhance personal and team performance; focus on integrated team success.

Location

On-site, Arlington, Virginia.

Physical requirements

Ability to work in an office environment. Will require modest travel.

Special requirements

• U.S. Citizen, U.S. Permanent Resident (Green Card holder) or asylee/refugee status as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).
• SECRET or higher clearance preferred.

Pay

The salary range for this role is $147,500 - $225,000. AeroVironment considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the location, the role and associated responsibilities, a candidate’s work experience, education/training, and key skills.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision coverage
• 401K with company matching
• 9/80 work schedule
• Paid holiday shutdown

Schedule

9/80 work schedule (every other Friday off).