The Presales Solutions Engineer will provide technical expertise and support to customers in the Asia, Middle East, and Oceana regions prior to the sale of Shield AI Aircraft and other products. This role involves collaborating closely with customers to understand their requirements and demonstrating how our solutions can meet their needs. You will play a key role in ensuring successful product development throughout the presales process. The Solutions Engineer serves as a technical force multiplier for the Go To Market (GTM) team, providing expertise on Shield AI’s products and services to drive customer engagement, solution alignment, and successful deal capture. This role bridges the gap between our technology roadmap and our customers' operational needs.
What you will do:
Lead technical capture efforts for Asia, Middle East, and Oceana opportunities, ensuring solutions are technically sound, feasible, and aligned with Shield AI’s product roadmap. Capture efforts will focus on V-BAT, but will require familiarity with the entire Shield AI Product suite.
Manage multiple priorities in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, including customer engagements, pre-sales technical support, proposal contributions, and solution development.
Develop and execute technical strategies that result in high-quality, compliant, and compelling proposals to maximize win probability.
Serve as the primary technical lead for GTM engagements in Asia, interfacing cross-functionally with BD, GTM Operations , Engineering, Operations, Program Management, and Product Management to ensure customer needs are met.
Manage technical content for proposals, requests for information (RFIs), white papers, and capability briefs, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and compliance.
Support GTM and Account Executives by becoming a Subject Matter Expert in Shield AI products, providing technical expertise in customer engagements, capability briefings, and solution discussions to drive successful sales outcomes.
Act as a liaison between GTMand Engineering, ensuring that new customer requests are technically feasible and align with product capabilities, timelines, and roadmaps.
Contribute to the technical documentation repository, maintaining capability briefs, specifications, FAQs, and other sales collateral for internal and external use.
Provide training and mentorship to GTMteams on technical aspects of Shield AI’s solutions, enabling them to articulate our value proposition confidently.
Support competitive analysis and market intelligence, ensuring the GTMteam remains informed on industry trends and competitor capabilities.
Contribute to process improvement efforts, leveraging lessons learned from customer engagements to refine GTMworkflows and technical capture strategies.
Analyze the unique operational and environmental factors of the assigned region, producing high-impact white papers and briefs that inform the product roadmap and drive solutions aligned to customer mission needs.
Required Qualifications:
5+ years of experience in technical presales, business development, or solutions engineering, preferably in defense, aerospace, AI-driven technology, or U.S. Federal/International government environments.
Bachelor's degree in engineering, applied science, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
Strong technical acumen in uncrewed aircraft systems mission payloads, and autonomy enabled concepts of operation, with the ability to reason across air vehicle, sensor, datalink, and ground system elements (experience with V-BAT, Hivemind, and Vision Systems preferred).
Outstanding analytical and quantitative problem-solving skills, with a demonstrated aptitude for technical assessments and solution development.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, compelling messaging for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Ability to work collaboratively in a cross-functional team environment and effectively engage with stakeholders at all levels of an organization. ▪ Demonstrated success interfacing between technical program teams and customer facing business development organizations.
Track record of high performance, including a demonstrated work ethic, reliability as a teammate, kindness, and commitment to high standards.
Demonstrated ability to lead in fast paced, ambiguous environments requiring cross functional coordination and executive judgment.
Proven ability to shape early capture pursuits, including RFIs, AOAs, draft RFPs, and white papers, and the ability to align solution concepts with long term program strategy.
Experience working with international defense customers, including exposure to procurement processes, operational evaluations, and information security or export considerations.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex customer engagements end to end, including requirements discovery, solution shaping, and technical proposal ownership.
Willingness and ability to travel up to 25%, domestically and internationally to support customers, partners, tests, and demonstrations.
Preferred Qualifications:
Graduate degree in engineering, applied science, systems management, business, or equivalent practical experience.
Prior hands on experience with V-BAT operations, employment, testing, or integration, or direct experience with comparable vertical takeoff tactical UAS platforms.
Familiarity with Shield AI's autonomy stack, mission software, and payload ecosystem, including Hivemind, AI Pilot, ISR payloads, and associated ground systems, or similar autonomy enabled mission systems.
Deep familiarity with international defense market dynamics, including key ministries, acquisition paths such as FMS and DCS, and Asia nation processes, and regional operational trends relevant to V-BAT missions.
Experience owning recurring product line or program governance forums such as forecast reviews, readiness reviews, export reviews, or configuration and obsolescence boards.
Experience managing or contributing to complex multinational capture efforts, including coalition or partnered operations, offset requirements, and industrial participation structures.
Background spanning both systems engineering and customer facing work, with demonstrated ability to translate operational problems into implementable technical architectures and configurations.
Experience influencing pricing, product offering definition, or production planning based on field and customer input.
Three or more years of experience in a startup or high growth environment where processes, products, and markets evolve quickly.
Prior military aviation, operational UAS, or defense acquisition experience.
Fluency or strong proficiency in one or more additional languages relevant to key V-BAT markets.
Familiarity with the military objectives, limitations, procurement processes, military structures and technology of US Allies and Partners in Asia.
Active DoD security clearance.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of experience in technical presales, business development, or solutions engineering, preferably in defense, aerospace, AI-driven technology, or government environments.
- Bachelor's degree in engineering, applied science, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- Technical knowledge of uncrewed aircraft systems, mission payloads, autonomy-enabled concepts of operation, air vehicles, sensors, datalinks, and ground systems.
- Strong analytical and quantitative problem-solving skills.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to collaborate cross-functionally and interface between technical program teams and customer-facing business development organizations.
- Ability to lead in fast-paced, ambiguous environments requiring cross-functional coordination and executive judgment.
- Experience shaping early capture pursuits, including RFIs, AOAs, draft RFPs, and white papers.
- Experience with international defense customers, procurement processes, operational evaluations, information security, or export considerations.
- Ability to lead complex customer engagements, including requirements discovery, solution shaping, and technical proposal ownership.
- Willingness and ability to travel up to 25% domestically and internationally.
- Graduate degree in engineering, applied science, systems management, business, or equivalent practical experience.
- Hands-on experience with V-BAT or comparable vertical takeoff tactical UAS platforms.
- Familiarity with Shield AI's autonomy stack, mission software, payload ecosystem, Hivemind, AI Pilot, ISR payloads, and ground systems.
- Knowledge of international defense markets, FMS, DCS, Asian acquisition processes, and regional operational trends.
- Experience with product-line or program governance forums, multinational capture efforts, coalition operations, offset requirements, or industrial participation.
- Background spanning systems engineering and customer-facing work, including technical architecture and configuration development.
- Experience influencing pricing, product offering definition, or production planning based on customer input.
- Three or more years of experience in a startup or high-growth environment.
- Prior military aviation, operational UAS, or defense acquisition experience.
- Fluency or strong proficiency in an additional language relevant to key V-BAT markets.
- Familiarity with military objectives, limitations, procurement processes, structures, and technology of U.S. allies and partners in Asia.
- Active Department of Defense security clearance.
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as excellent, with dental/vision and mental‑health support, and ancillary protections like life and disability appearing in benefit summaries. The breadth and perceived affordability of coverage are highlighted as a standout component of the package.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is featured alongside enhanced maternity benefits, fertility and childcare support, and onsite resources such as a Mother’s Room. These elements are positioned as competitive and above the minimal baseline for the company’s stage.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is granted to all full‑time hires, with RSUs, double‑trigger tax timing, and tools to model scenarios (e.g., through Carta Tax). Communications also reference a transition from options to RSUs, reinforcing access and maturity of ownership programs.
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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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
