Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit
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Job Description:
Shield AI is seeking a Mission Solutions Operations Lead to help define and execute X-Bat campaign strategy, and drive the business development and capture discipline that converts strategy into won business. This role offers immersive exposure to the company’s most critical decisions — spanning aircraft systems, AI software (Hivemind), autonomy hardware, and international growth.
As a core member of the X-Bat Campaign team, you’ll apply structured problem-solving, analytic rigor, and operational discipline to turn growth priorities into actionable, measurable outcomes. You will be a key contributor to strengthening BD and capture operations in order to sustain a growing pipeline domestically and internationally.
What you'll do:
Mission Solutions Operations:
Develop procedures to expand the domestic and international pipeline and continuously assess and improve its health
Mature gate review practices to increase pipeline rigor and support enterprise decision-making
Ensure realism in opportunity and capture assessments and develop robust feedback loops to support continuous improvements in strategy, positioning, and execution.
Support consistent use of Salesforce to provide actionable pipeline insights and address process and knowledge gaps across the BD/Capture lifecycle.
Employ best practices to craft compelling, differentiated narratives themes that resonate with external customers and partners.
X-Bat Campaign Development:
Support the effort to align the multiple streams of capture to maximize the effectiveness of the team in capture execution.
Evaluate portfolio tradeoffs across existing and emerging growth vectors.
Conduct market sizing, competitive analysis, and scenario modeling across U.S. and allied and partner defense markets.
Rigorously frame and assess internal resource allocation decisions to ensure continuous improvement toward business objectives.
Build analytic frameworks for partnerships and investment decisions.
Operationalization of Campaign Strategy:
Translate strategic priorities into cross-functional execution plans with defined KPIs and milestones.
Track and report on progress through structured operating cadences (monthly and quarterly performance reviews).
Proactively identify bottlenecks, analyze root causes, and recommend actionable solutions to sustain execution velocity.
Required qualifications:
Min 15+ years of experience; Bachelors degree required, Masters or PhD preferred.
Min 5+ years’ experience in a strategy consulting, corporate strategy or other high-rigor roles
3+ years in BD/Capture Operations, including at scale ($Bs
5+ years in Executive and/or Legislative branches with exposure to external BD/Capture stakeholders and international sales processes
Strong analytical and conceptual problem-solving abilities.
Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous problems and drive insight through analysis.
Experience or strong interest in complex, technical, or regulated industries (aerospace, defense, AI, or advanced manufacturing preferred).
Ability to work collaboratively across teams and influence senior stakeholders.
Experience and comfort with Salesforce, as well as AI tools to support internal processes and external communications efforts
U.S. citizenship required (ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance); active security clearance preferred.
