Director, DoN Growth Campaign Leader (X-BAT Family of Systems) (R6365)

The role

This role leads the internal operating rhythm for Shield AI's UAS pursuits with the Department of the Navy, including the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. The Director maintains the integrated DoN campaign picture, coordinates cross-functional resources, and gives the VP, Mission Solutions decision-ready information on campaign health, risks, and investment.

What you will do

• Build and maintain the integrated DoN campaign picture across all X-BAT FoS DoN pursuits
• Give each GTM lead templates, playbooks, data and cross-functional access 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 conflicts between campaigns for aircraft, test windows, engineering effort, approvals and indirect dollars, and bring executive 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 indirect spend against priorities and expected return
• Develop and co-steward annual campaign and indirect investment
• Hold a standing seat in DoN bid/no-bid and investment-prioritization reviews and set the agenda for the executive campaign review
• Capture lessons across captures and convert them into repeatable tools, templates, metrics and playbooks
• Personally drive execution of critical customer responses (RFI, RFP, CSO and other solicitations) while GTM leads keep ownership of win strategy, price-to-win and proposal content

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 (SAP) eligibility
• 12–20+ years in capture management, program management, strategic operations, business operations, technical program management or a comparable cross-functional leadership role
• Demonstrated success leading highly complex initiatives with multiple interdependent workstreams across engineering, business development, operations, finance and executive leadership
• Working knowledge of how Department of the Navy programs are funded and fielded, including ASN(RD&A) and NAVAIR program-office dynamics, Navy and Marine Corps resource sponsorship and requirements sta
• 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
• Working understanding of naval aviation dependencies, including NAVAIR airworthiness and flight-clearance processes, shipboard integration and suitability, marinization requirements, ship and at-sea t
• A service orientation toward the GTM leads supported, and the judgment to know when to escalate versus resolve quietly

Nice to have

• Active DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance and current Special Access Program accesses
• Experience supporting Department of Defense, aerospace, autonomy, robotics, aviation or defense-technology organizations
• Naval aviation background as U.S. Navy or Marine Corps operational, test, staff or acquisition experience, or equivalent industry experience delivering aircraft to the Department of the Navy
• Experience in business development, capture, proposal operations, strategic planning or growth organizations running multiple concurrent U.S. Government pursuits
• Familiarity with foreign disclosure determinations, FMS/DCS pathways and security cooperation planning
• Experience building executive dashboards, KPIs, operational scorecards or portfolio health metrics
• Experience supporting executive staff, chief-of-staff organizations, Strategy and Operations teams or enterprise PMOs
• Fluency with Microsoft Project, Smartsheet or Jira; an advanced degree or certification (MBA, PMP, Lean Six Sigma) is a plus

Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Meaningful equity in a growing defense-technology company
• Annual bonus
• Comprehensive medical, dental and vision coverage
• 401(k)
• Relocation support where applicable

Before you apply

• Must be a U.S. person as defined by ITAR
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance and SAP 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.