What you'll do:
- Lead monthly forecasting, quarterly outlooks, and annual planning for assigned Aircraft Business departments and programs.
- Build and maintain financial models that connect headcount, labor, material, overhead, and operating initiatives to business performance.
- Analyze actuals versus plan, identify risks and opportunities, and provide clear recommendations to business leaders.
- Translate production, engineering, and program assumptions into financial impacts for spend, margins, and resource needs.
- Prepare reporting packages and presentations for finance leadership and Aircraft Business reviews.
- Serve as the Finance Business Partner to leaders across engineering, operations, supply chain, manufacturing, and program management within the Aircraft Business.
- Support decision-making on hiring, labor planning, vendor spend, capital investments, and operating tradeoffs.
- Partner with program and functional leaders to improve forecast accuracy, cost visibility, and accountability.
- Provide ad hoc analysis on key business questions, including rate, volume, mix, productivity, and cost reduction opportunities.
- Build repeatable reporting, dashboards, and planning templates that reduce manual work and improve insight quality.
- Partner with Corporate FP&A, Accounting, HR, and business systems teams to improve data quality and planning inputs.
- Support enhancements to planning tools and financial systems, including Anaplan models, reporting workflows, and source-system integration needs.
- Document business requirements clearly and translate finance needs for technical teams.
Support forecasting and planning for the Aircraft Business
Partner with Aircraft Business leaders
Improve reporting and planning processes
Required qualifications:
- 7+ years of experience in FP&A, program finance, operations finance, or business finance.
- Strong financial modeling, forecasting, and variance analysis skills.
- Experience partnering with operational or technical teams to support planning and decision-making.
- Ability to connect operational drivers to financial outcomes in a complex, fast-paced environment.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to present insights clearly to cross-functional leaders.
- Advanced Excel and proficiency with planning or ERP systems; experience with Anaplan is a plus.
- Comfortable operating with ambiguity and managing multiple priorities at once.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience in aerospace, defense, or other complex manufacturing environments.
- Familiarity with manufacturing finance, program finance, inventory or cost accounting, and capital planning.
- Experience supporting engineering, operations, supply chain, or production organizations.
- Exposure to government contract structures, program reviews, or defense-related reporting rhythms.
- Strong data fluency, including dashboards, data models, and system-driven planning processes.
Skills Required
- 7+ years of experience in FP&A, program finance, operations finance, or business finance
- Strong financial modeling, forecasting, and variance analysis skills
- Experience partnering with operational or technical teams to support planning and decision-making
- Ability to connect operational drivers to financial outcomes in a complex, fast-paced environment
- Strong communication skills and ability to present insights to cross-functional leaders
- Advanced Excel skills
- Proficiency with planning or ERP systems
- Experience with Anaplan
- Comfortable operating with ambiguity and managing multiple priorities
- Offer contingent on cleared background and possible reference check
- Experience in aerospace, defense, or complex manufacturing environments
- Familiarity with manufacturing finance, program finance, inventory or cost accounting, and capital planning
- Experience supporting engineering, operations, supply chain, or production organizations
- Exposure to government contract structures, program reviews, or defense-related reporting rhythms
- Strong data fluency, including dashboards, data models, and system-driven planning processes
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Company materials describe excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage alongside a mental‑health EAP. Site perks such as an onsite gym in DC and a gym discount in San Diego support a health‑focused offering.
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Retirement Support — Careers materials highlight a 401(k) with company match as part of the standard package. A Total Rewards overview emphasizes retirement features within a broader, transparent compensation view.
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Career-Linked Recognition & Rewards — Compensation for in‑demand technical and senior go‑to‑market roles is described as competitive, with visible engineering ranges and top‑end packages. This points to meaningful upside tied to role, level, and scarce skills.
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 Teams
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Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
