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

Shield AI • Washington, DC

2d • $190,000 - $290,000

About The Position

Shield AI is seeking a Director, DoN Growth Campaign Leader to lead the internal operating rhythm for the company’s U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps unmanned aircraft pursuits across the X-BAT Family of Systems (FoS). The role integrates information across the Department of the Navy (DoN) portfolio and gives the VP, Mission Solutions a decision-ready view of campaign health, priorities, dependencies, risks, mitigations, and resource requirements. Opportunity-focused Go-To-Market (GTM) leaders retain ownership of customer relationships, account and capture strategies, win strategies, price-to-win, proposal content, and pursuit outcomes; this Director supports them by improving coordination and aligning the organization around priority opportunities.

The Director connects DoN pursuits with relevant activity across other Services and allied and partner nations, product and engineering, U.S. Government approvals, aircraft availability, ship and at-sea test windows, airworthiness and shipboard-suitability sequencing, internal investment, and industrial strategy. The role identifies shared dependencies and resource conflicts, helps sequence competing demands, coordinates cross-functional support, and recommends investment priorities and tradeoffs.

The role maintains the authoritative DoN campaign picture and runs campaign reviews, gate reviews, risk and dependency management, executive dashboards, action tracking, investment recommendations, and escalation of decisions requiring VP or executive attention. It also personally drives execution of critical customer responses, including RFIs, RFPs, CSOs, and other solicitations, by assembling cross-functional inputs and managing response schedules through on-time submission. The GTM lead retains ownership of win strategy, price-to-win, and proposal content.

This is a senior, high-visibility role with authority across multiple concurrent Navy and Marine Corps pursuits representing a multi-billion-dollar addressable opportunity. It is a leadership-by-influence position supported by dedicated capture-operations and analyst resources, with an expectation to build the team as the portfolio grows. The Director develops and co-stewards annual campaign and indirect investment, holds a standing seat in DoN bid/no-bid and investment-prioritization reviews, and sets the agenda for the executive campaign review. The position is described as a pipeline role toward senior DoN growth or general-management leadership at Shield AI.

Shield AI’s core values are Do What Honor Dictates, Live as a Servant Leader, and Pursue Excellence. The role calls for servant leadership, with success measured by the outcomes of the GTM leads it supports. Shield AI actively seeks candidates with U.S. Navy or U.S. Marine Corps operational, staff, or acquisition experience and supports military-to-civilian transitions.

Requirements

• Must be a U.S. person as defined by ITAR (22 CFR 120.62).
• Must be able 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 complex initiatives with interdependent workstreams across engineering, business development, operations, finance, and executive leadership.
• Working knowledge of Department of the Navy funding and fielding, including ASN(RD&A) and NAVAIR program-office dynamics, particularly PAE(A), and the unmanned aviation portfolio.
• Working knowledge of Navy and Marine Corps resource sponsorship and requirements staffing (N9/N98), the Marine Corps aviation requirements process, and the PPBE/POM cycle and Navy budget submission rhythm.
• Working knowledge of rapid-acquisition pathways such as OTAs, CSOs, Middle Tier of Acquisition, SBIR/STRATFI, DIU, ONR, and NavalX, including transition from prototype to program of record.
• Ability to influence without direct authority and drive accountability across functions and geographies.
• Strong executive communication skills, including leadership briefings, dashboards, metrics, and decision-support materials that enable decisions.
• Operational rigor in integrated schedules, critical paths, milestones, action tracking, dependency management, and risk mitigation.
• Ability to operate 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, environmental and marinization requirements, ship and at-sea test-window availability, and DT/OT execution at Patuxent River and associated ranges.
• Service orientation toward supported GTM leads and judgment about when to escalate issues versus resolve them quietly.

Nice To Haves

• 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 through 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 export and international mechanisms shaping DoN pursuits, including 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 integrated schedule and work-management tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, or Jira.
• An advanced degree or relevant certification such as an MBA, PMP, or Lean Six Sigma credential.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain the integrated DoN campaign picture across X-BAT FoS pursuits, including strategy status, critical paths, milestones, dependencies, decision points, and campaign health.
• Provide GTM leads with templates, playbooks, data, competitive inputs, cost and schedule inputs, and cross-functional access to support their capture plans.
• Coordinate engineering, product, export, legal, contracts, finance, government relations, and business operations against a prioritized campaign plan.
• Identify cross-campaign competition for aircraft, test windows, ship or range availability, engineering effort, approval bandwidth, and indirect funding; present leadership with tradeoffs and recommendations.
• Run campaign reviews, gate reviews, risk registers, action tracking, and executive dashboards to support timely decisions on bid/no-bid, investment, and prioritization.
• Work with Finance and Business Operations to track campaign investment, indirect spend, and resource planning against campaign priorities and expected return.
• Develop repeatable tools, templates, metrics, and playbooks based on lessons learned across captures.
• Support a culture of accountability, urgency, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Drive execution of critical customer responses, including RFIs, RFPs, CSOs, and other solicitation vehicles, by coordinating inputs, managing schedules, and driving on-time submission.
• Maintain the integrated campaign plan and DoN view; manage the operating cadence and campaign-health reporting; identify and escalate cross-campaign dependencies, conflicts, and risks; develop the path-to-win roadmap; and recommend investment prioritization and sequencing.
• Support external customer engagement only in support of, and at the invitation of, the responsible GTM lead.

Benefits

• Meaningful equity in a growing defense-technology company.
• Annual bonus.
• Comprehensive medical coverage.
• Dental coverage.
• Vision coverage.
• 401(k).
• Relocation support where applicable.
• Temporary employees receive a temporary benefits package applicable after 60 days of employment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed