Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Job Description:
The primary responsibility of this role is leading and managing international and U.S. federal government and commercial Bids/Proposals and other related BD Ops deliverables (e.g., ROM pricing estimates, RFI responses, and white papers) in support of Shield AI’s Europe/Africa (EURAF) Go To Market (GTM) team.
The ideal candidate will have leadership experience and possess excellent communication (technical writing experience preferred) and coordination skills to drive cross-functional collaboration across Shield AI product lines and geographic regions. The International Business Development Operations (Int’l BD Ops) team is seeking a candidate who thrives in a dynamic environment and is eager to join a rapidly scaling, nontraditional defence contractor.
What you'll do:
- Manage competing priorities across proposal and other deliverable (WPs, RFIs, ROMs, etc.) development in the fast-paced environment of the Int’l BD Ops team.
- Lead end-to-end proposal execution from pre-RFP planning through submission and closeout.
- Drive cross-functional proposal teams to deliver compliant, high-quality submissions on schedule.
- Continuously improve proposal processes, tools, templates, and best practices.
- Mentor proposal contributors and foster high-performing, collaborative teams.
- Support EUAF GTM team with briefing and presentation development for customer engagements.
- Support customer meetings, demonstrations, and GTM events as required.
- Provide additional support to BD Ops and GTM team leadership as needed.
What we're looking for:
- Confident team leader: Lead global proposal efforts, align stakeholders, and communicate key customer, market, and BD strategy insights.
- Strong communicator: Strong oral and written communication skills. (Technical writing experience preferred.) Strong presentation skills. Ability to communicate seamlessly at all levels of Shield AI and customer organizations
- Attention to detail in a fast-paced environment: Be rigorous and go fast is one of Shield AI’s leadership traits and, possibly, the most relevant one for BD Ops. Our ideal candidate must always work with efficiency and a keen attention to detail. Both are critical to supporting on time, compliant Bids/Proposals and related deliverables.
- Organization and time management: Strong organizational and time management skills enabling the tracking and execution of multiple workstreams with stakeholders across Shield AI.
- Extreme ownership: BD Ops serves as the primary cross-functional lead for Bids/Proposals across product lines and geographic regions. We manage the proposal lifecycle from start to finish including kickoff, collaboration with stakeholders, color reviews, and management reviews with senior leaders/executives. We are ultimately responsible for everything that does or does not happen in the Bid/Proposal process.
- Team-first mentality: The ideal candidate will demonstrate the ability to be flexible, work hard, hold themself and others to high standards, embrace teammates, and act with kindness.
Required qualifications:
- 4-6+ years of international government proposal development or BD operations experience.
- In lieu of direct government proposal experience, have 5+ years of experience working with U.S. Federal or International government requirements.
- Bachelor's degree in business, communication, marketing, engineering, or equivalent industry experience.
- Outstanding record of academic achievement.
- Experience with proposal methodologies (e.g. Shipley), compliance matrices, and implementing project management tools and processes.
- Proven record of leadership in a professional setting.
- Ability to communicate complex, technical ideas effectively – both orally and in writing.
- Ability to work collaboratively and flexibly as part of a team, embrace the startup environment.
- Ability to work effectively with people at all levels of an organization.
- Demonstrated record of hard work, trustworthiness, holding oneself and others to high standards, and being kind to others.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience managing Foreign Military Sale and Direct Commercial Sale bids/proposals.
- Strong technical background especially with unmanned/uncrewed systems and/or autonomy software.
- Demonstrated understanding and knowledge of military operations and Europe / Africa defence acquisition processes.
- Understanding of international markets/geopolitical trends in aerospace / defense industry.
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Our international teammates receive a comprehensive total rewards package aligned to your country office location. For full details on compensation and benefits, please consult your talent acquisition partner.