We build advanced autonomous systems for defense markets—complex hardware and software products that demand world-class financial modeling, rigorous strategic analysis, and the ability to turn complexity into clarity.
We seek a Senior Strategic Finance Lead with deep Aerospace & Defense (A&D) experience, a strong strategic or corporate finance background in a publicly traded company, and a proven track record architecting and owning long-range financial models. You will serve as the analytical engine of Corporate Finance: designing the company’s fully integrated long-range three‑statement and unit economics model, driving enterprise-level financial strategy, and producing investor-grade outputs that shape decisions at the C-suite, Board, and ultimately public investors.
Candidates must bring elite modeling expertise (IB/PE/HF/Equity Research), mastery of complex HW/SW unit economics, and comfort operating in a fast-paced, high‑growth environment.
What you'll do:
- Architect and maintain a fully integrated, scalable, three‑statement model grounded in unit economics, operational drivers, and industry benchmarks.
- Lead the Long Range Plan (LRP), including scenario modeling, sensitivities, and valuation frameworks.
- Translate production ramps, R&D investments, contract timing, government milestones, and GTM strategy directly into financial outcomes.
- Deliver investor-grade outputs including valuations, strategic insights, and Board-ready narratives.
- Maintain a forward-looking view of risks, opportunities, capital needs, and strategic inflection points.
- Partner with data engineering/systems teams to evolve modeling from Excel into modern cloud-based planning tools.
- Design modular, scalable model architectures; use Excel only where it provides meaningful analytical leverage.
- Integrate automation and analytics to improve clarity, reduce manual work, and increase decision velocity.
- Benchmark peers across defense, autonomy, robotics, aerospace, and industrial tech.
- Build competitor profiles, KPI benchmarks, and market analyses that inform strategy.
- Develop a point of view on unit economics, efficiency, scale, profitability, and capital allocation.
- Support M&A modeling, valuation, synergy analysis, and diligence.
- Provide strategic insights that go beyond the numbers.
- Build rolling cash flow forecasts across working capital, inventory, milestone payments, production cycles, and CapEx.
- Model government contract payment timing, production curves, and program cash profiles.
- Identify liquidity risks early and support capital allocation and financing strategies.
- Work closely with the VP FP&A, CFO, CEO, and senior leaders on forward-looking financial strategy.
- Translate engineering, program, and operations plans into financial impacts.
- Connect short-term forecasting with the long-range plan.
- Present insights that accelerate execution and elevate decision quality.
- Take full accountability for forecast accuracy, improving results with each actualized quarter.
Own and Build the Strategic Financial Model
Digitize & Scale Modeling Infrastructure
Analyze the Business Like an Investor
Lead Cash Flow & Liquidity Modeling
Partner Across the Company
Required qualifications:
- 8–10 years of experience, including significant time in investment banking, PE, hedge funds, or equity research.
- Direct strategic finance leadership experience in a publicly traded company.
- Deep A&D industry exposure (defense, aerospace, autonomy, robotics, industrial tech, or complex HW/SW).
- Proven ownership of scalable three‑statement models, LRP development, valuations, sensitivities, and unit economics.
- Exceptional Excel modeling capability; fluent in multi‑scenario three‑statement modeling, beat-and-raise frameworks, and driver-based forecasting.
- Strong GAAP proficiency and command of financial statement mechanics.
- Demonstrated ability to distill complex financial and technical information into clear insights for executives, Board, and investors.
- Thrives in fast-paced, high-growth environments with high accuracy and strong judgment.
- Systems-oriented mindset; comfortable partnering with data and systems teams.
Preferred qualifications:
- Familiarity with government contract economics, milestone‑based revenue, and program accounting.
- M&A experience including modeling, valuation, and diligence.
- Exposure to manufacturing scale, supply chain dynamics, and hardware production cycles.
Who you are:
- An analytical athlete with exceptional modeling intuition and attention to detail.
- A structured, clear thinker who simplifies complexity without losing nuance.
- Fast, accurate, and calm under pressure.
- Curious, forward-looking, and driven to understand what truly moves the business.
- A strong communicator who elevates decision quality across the company.
- Mission-driven and energized by solving complex, high‑impact problems.
Why this role matters:
Skills Required
- 8-10 years of experience, including significant time in investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, or equity research
- Direct strategic finance leadership experience in a publicly traded company
- Deep Aerospace & Defense industry exposure (defense, aerospace, autonomy, robotics, industrial tech, or complex HW/SW)
- Proven ownership of scalable three-statement models, long-range plan development, valuations, sensitivities, and unit economics
- Exceptional Excel modeling capability and multi-scenario driver-based forecasting experience
- Strong GAAP proficiency and command of financial statement mechanics
- Systems-oriented mindset; comfortable partnering with data engineering and systems teams to digitize and scale modeling
- Familiarity with government contract economics, milestone-based revenue, and program accounting
- M&A experience including modeling, valuation, and diligence
- Exposure to manufacturing scale, supply chain dynamics, and hardware production cycles
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage includes medical, dental, vision, and mental-health support, with company materials describing excellent coverage. Feedback suggests these offerings are comprehensive and consistently highlighted across official and third-party benefit lists.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is granted to all full-time hires, with RSU structures and tools like Carta Tax intended to improve understanding and tax timing. Feedback suggests this broad-based ownership approach is a notable component of total rewards.
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Parental & Family Support — Benefits include paid parental leave, fertility support, childcare benefits, family medical leave, and onsite resources such as a Mother's Room. Feedback suggests the family-oriented offerings are more expansive than basic coverage.
Shield AI Insights
What We Do
At Shield AI, you won't wait years to see your work reach the field. You'll build hardware and software that operates in the real world right now, in the hands of the people who depend on it. Hivemind, our AI pilot, has been flying since 2018. It has flown more than 30 platforms, including an F-16, and it now sits under a U.S. Air Force production contract for Collaborative Combat Aircraft. When you write code or shape a system here, you contribute to technology with a proven flight record and a clear production future. V-BAT flies intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions with an operational record that stretches from Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific. It delivers eyes where they matter most, in the most demanding conditions on earth. The teams behind it watch their work get tested where the stakes are real. X-BAT takes its first flight this year. It's an AI-piloted fighter that needs no runway, built to operate where traditional aircraft can't. Join now and you help shape a program at its earliest, most formative stage. That's the kind of ground-floor work that defines a career. Do the most impactful work of your life, on problems that matter. Autonomy at this level asks a lot of you. You'll take on problems in perception, planning, and control that few teams anywhere are equipped to solve. You'll work across disciplines, from aerospace and robotics to machine learning and systems engineering, alongside people who hold themselves to an exacting standard and expect the same from you. Our mission is clear: protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. That purpose runs through every decision, every design review, and every deployment. It's why the work here carries a weight you can feel. Ready to join our mission? Explore our open roles and find where you fit.
Why Work With Us
Founded in 2015 by a former Navy SEAL, Shield AI builds AI pilots and uncrewed aircraft. Veterans aren't an afterthought here, they're at every level. It's why the work carries weight: AI pilots and uncrewed aircraft flying real missions, from Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific, protecting service members and civilians.
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Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
