What you'll do:
- Drive Strategic Capture: Identify, shape, and capture high-value opportunities across European next-gen airpower programs relevant to CCAs and autonomy.
- Own Regional Sales Pipeline: Lead the full business development lifecycle for X-BAT focused efforts, from customer engagement through proposal, negotiation, and contract award.
- Engage Key Stakeholders: Build and maintain trusted relationships with Ministries of Defence, defense primes, integrators, and NATO-related bodies.
- Shape Requirements & CONOPS: Influence customer requirements and future CCA CONOPS to align with Shield AI’s product offerings.
- Support Demonstrations & Campaigns: Lead Shield AI’s positioning and participation in regional flight demos, technical trials, and program pilots.
- Coordinate Cross-Functionally: Collaborate closely with engineering, product, legal, and program teams to align technical solutions with customer needs and delivery requirements.
- Inform Product Direction: Provide field intelligence to guide feature development, integration strategy, and roadmap priorities for Hivemind-enabled CCA solutions.
Required qualifications:
- 15+ years in a relevant air force occupation, bringing significant depth of understanding of relevant CONOPs and platform applications.
- 8–10+ years of experience in defense acquisition, business development, sales, or strategy, ideally with a focus on air platforms or autonomy.
- Strong track record of capturing and closing defense programs or tech insertions with European ministries of defence or multinational frameworks.
- Understanding of next-gen air combat trends, including CCAs, MUM-T, and AI-enabled CONOPS.
- Ability to credibly represent technically complex products to both strategic and operational-level audiences.
- Familiarity with key European defense programs (e.g., FCAS/SCAF, Tempest/GCAP, Eurodrone) and regional acquisition pathways.
- Willingness to travel extensively across Europe (30%).
Skills Required
- 15+ years in a relevant air force occupation with deep CONOPS and platform understanding.
- 8-10+ years experience in defense acquisition, business development, sales, or strategy (air platforms or autonomy focus).
- Proven track record capturing and closing defense programs or tech insertions with European ministries of defence or multinational frameworks.
- Understanding of next-generation air combat trends including CCAs, MUM-T, and AI-enabled CONOPS.
- Ability to represent technically complex products credibly to strategic and operational audiences.
- Familiarity with key European defense programs (e.g., FCAS/SCAF, Tempest/GCAP, Eurodrone) and regional acquisition pathways.
- Willingness to travel extensively across Europe (approximately 30%).
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 Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
