Brand & Content Lead in London

About the role

Most defence companies sound like a tax return. We are not interested in becoming another one. Destinus is a European defence manufacturer building scalable strike and air‑defence systems for European and allied armed forces. We design, build, and field real systems across Europe. The topic is serious but the language does not have to be dead. We are looking for someone who can change how this company speaks. Not a social media admin. Not a calendar keeper. Not someone who posts "we are thrilled to announce" and waits for approval from the gods of corporate blandness. We need a builder of public voice. Someone with taste, nerve, discipline, and initiative. Someone who can look at a test, a factory, an engineer, a product update, a geopolitical shift, or an event, and immediately see the story inside it.

This is the connective tissue between marketing and social: you own consistency of voice from the website to LinkedIn to YouTube to the copy on a trade‑show booth. You will also be a second pair of hands on press when it matters — drafting, briefing, amplifying. You do not need to arrive as a defence expert. You do need to be curious enough to become dangerous quickly. You should want to read, learn, ask questions, visit factories, speak to engineers, understand products, follow the industry, track competitors, and build a point of view. If you are waiting for someone to hand you a perfect content plan, this is the wrong role. If your instinct is to find the story, shape the message, get the assets, align the people, publish the work, and learn from the result, we should talk.

What You’ll Do

• Build and own the content strategy across LinkedIn, X, YouTube, the website, and future channels
• Write posts, announcements, event content, product‑related updates, executive content, and campaign copy
• Turn technical and industrial topics into clear, sharp, credible public communication
• Work with engineers and product teams to extract real stories from real work
• Run the content calendar without becoming a slave to it
• Lead event communications before, during, and after major exhibitions
• Travel to events and sites to capture content, interview people, brief designers, and produce material
• Give clear creative direction to designers, video editors, agencies, and freelancers
• Support press and announcements: draft materials, briefing notes, amplification plans, in coordination with comms leadership
• Maintain and update website news, events, and selected content pages
• Coordinate with legal, security, and export‑control on what can and cannot be published — including knowing when not to post
• Track performance across platforms and use data to improve the work
• Identify what the company should say before others realise it should be said
• Protect the tone: serious, precise, industrial, European, technically credible, never boring

What you will not do

• Write "We are thrilled to announce…"
• Write "Honoured to be at the forefront of…"
• Write "In today's fast‑paced world…"
• Write "Driving innovation through synergies…"
• End a caption with seven hashtags and an aircraft emoji
• Hide behind process. If something is missing, you find it. If the message is weak, you fix it. If nobody has written the post, you write it. If the engineer explains something badly, you ask again until you understand. If the approval chain is slow, you manage it before it kills the moment.

What You’ll Need

• Native‑level English; excellent writing and editing
• A portfolio that shows voice, judgement, and range
• 3–6 years building or running social/content channels (LinkedIn, X, YouTube, website)
• Strong ownership, structure, and deadline discipline
• Ability to manage stakeholders without becoming a bureaucrat
• Ability to translate complex technical topics into clear public language
• Comfort with analytics, reporting, and performance improvement
• Basic visual literacy — you can brief and shape content, not just write it
• Willingness to travel 30–40% for events, exhibitions, and on‑site content production

Nice to have

• Background in defence, aerospace, deep tech, hardware, robotics, manufacturing, or engineering‑led companies — but appetite beats pedigree here
• Experience building founder, CEO, or executive voice
• Working knowledge of Figma or equivalent
• Experience directing designers, video teams, agencies, or freelancers
• Interest in European security, industrial capacity, autonomy, and advanced manufacturing

Do not apply if

• You think "tone of voice" is a brand workshop exercise
• You need a perfect brief before you can start
• You confuse posting with communication
• You think defence content must be grey, navy, olive, and lifeless
• You care more about looking professional than being useful
• Your best idea of a post starts with "In today's fast‑paced world…"

Apply if

• You are sharp, curious, restless, and hard to bore.
• You can write. You can think. You can organise chaos. You can challenge weak language. You can learn technical material fast. You can take a serious industry and make it land without making it stupid.
• Destinus has real products, real engineering, real industrial ambition, and a real story. We need someone with enough initiative to help tell it before the industry catches up.

This role starts hands‑on and grows. As the function scales, the path leads to Head of Brand or Head of Communications. We will put that in writing.

How to apply

CVs are fine. We are more interested in how you think, write, and communicate. Send us one paragraph explaining why you are not boring. No buzzwords. You may also send: portfolio, social accounts, published work, personal projects, campaigns, writing samples — or anything else that shows your voice.