Director, USAF Growth Campaign Leader (X-BAT Family of Systems) (R6358)

Washington, D.C.. Posted 25 days ago

The role

This senior role leads the internal operating rhythm for Shield AI's USAF pursuits of the X-BAT Family of Systems. The Director owns the integrated USAF campaign picture, surfaces cross-campaign conflicts and dependencies, and runs the executive review cadence, while GTM leads keep ownership of their customers and pursuits.

What you will do

Build and maintain the integrated USAF campaign picture across all X-BAT FoS USAF pursuits.
Give each GTM lead the templates, playbooks, data, and cross-functional access needed to build and execute their own capture plan.
Coordinate engineering, product, export, legal, contracts, finance, government relations, and business operations against one prioritized campaign plan.
Identify where campaigns compete for aircraft, test windows, engineering effort, approvals, or indirect dollars, and bring leadership a tradeoff and recommendation.
Run campaign reviews, gate reviews, risk registers, action tracking, and executive dashboards.
Work with Finance and Business Operations to track campaign investment and resource planning against expected return.
Capture lessons learned and turn them into repeatable tools, templates, metrics, and playbooks.
Personally drive execution of critical customer responses such as RFI, RFP, and CSO, holding the schedule and on-time submission.

Required qualifications

U.S. person as defined by ITAR (22 CFR 120.62).
Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance and Special Access Program eligibility.
12 to 20+ years in capture management, program management, strategic operations, business operations, technical program management, or a comparable cross-functional leadership role.
Demonstrated success leading complex initiatives with multiple interdependent workstreams.
Working knowledge of how USAF programs are funded and fielded, including SAF/AQ and HAF staffing, PEO and program-office dynamics, the PPBE/POM cycle, and rapid-acquisition pathways such as OTAs, CSOs
Proven ability to influence without direct authority and drive accountability across functions and geographies.
Strong executive communication through leadership briefings, dashboards, metrics, and decision-support materials.
Operational rigor in integrated schedules, critical path, milestones, action tracking, dependency management, and risk mitigation.
Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-changing environments with competing priorities across multiple time zones.
A service orientation toward the GTM leads supported, and judgment on when to escalate versus resolve quietly.

Nice to have

Active DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance and current Special Access Program accesses.
Experience supporting DoW, aerospace, autonomy, robotics, aviation, or defense-technology organizations.
Experience in business development, capture, proposal operations, strategic planning, or growth organizations running multiple concurrent U.S. Government pursuits.
Familiarity with foreign disclosure, FMS/DCS pathways, and security cooperation planning.
Experience building executive dashboards, KPIs, operational scorecards, or portfolio health metrics.
Experience with executive staff, chief-of-staff, Strategy and Operations, or enterprise PMO teams.
Fluency with Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, or Jira.
An advanced degree or certification such as MBA, PMP, or Lean Six Sigma.

Benefits

Bonus for full-time regular employees.
Equity for full-time regular employees.
Benefits package for full-time regular employees.
Temporary benefits package for temporary employees, applicable after 60 days of employment.

Before you apply

U.S. person status as defined by ITAR is required.
Must be able to obtain and maintain a DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance and Special Access Program eligibility.
All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check.
Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits.

About the company

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company that builds intelligent systems to protect service members and civilians. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation technologies.