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Capture Strategy & Operations Sr. Lead, X-BAT Family of Systems (FoS) (R6012)

Shield AI - San Diego, CA, United States - In-office - posted 2026-09-24

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Shield AI, a venture-backed defense-tech company, is seeking a Capture Strategy & Operations Senior Lead to strengthen the strategy, proposal development, and operating rigor of the X-BAT Family of Systems (FoS) Capture organization. This is a primarily internal-facing role supporting priority U.S. and international pursuits. In this role, you will partner with X-BAT FoS Capture leadership to develop and refine capture strategies for domestic and international pursuits. You will translate customer priorities, mission needs, and program objectives into differentiated capture approaches, win themes, proposal storylines, and messaging frameworks. You will develop leadership-ready strategy presentations, pursuit-planning materials, and internal decision-support products. You will lead development of analytically rigorous responses to RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, white papers, capability statements, and other customer-facing materials, working across technical, program, business development, finance, legal, international, and product teams to turn complex inputs into clear, persuasive customer narratives. On the operations side, you will track proposal and solicitation-response activity across the X-BAT FoS Capture portfolio, including milestones, owners, dependencies, reviews, risks, and key decision points. You will develop and maintain capture trackers, reporting mechanisms, operating cadences, and dashboards that provide visibility into active pursuits and proposal progress. You will monitor consistency and quality across capture and proposal products, identify process gaps and bottlenecks, support knowledge management and development of reusable capture tools and templates, and coordinate cross-functional contributors to enable timely, aligned, and high-quality proposal execution. This role requires consulting-grade analytical rigor, exceptional written communication, strong PowerPoint skills, and the ability to manage complex, cross-functional proposal efforts. REQUIREMENTS: - Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of relevant experience, Master's degree with 4+ years of relevant experience, or PhD with 2+ years of relevant experience - 2+ years of experience in management consulting, capture strategy, capture operations, business development, proposal strategy, proposal operations, or another high-rigor analytical environment - Demonstrated experience supporting complex defense, aerospace, intelligence, or U.S. Government pursuits - Strong ability to develop and write detailed RFI, RFP, RFQ, white paper, or other customer-facing solicitation-response materials - Exceptional PowerPoint, written communication, editing, and quality-control skills - Demonstrated ability to develop capture storylines, win themes, messaging, and differentiated value propositions - Strong analytical and conceptual problem-solving skills, with the ability to structure ambiguous problems and translate complex information into actionable outputs - Experience managing cross-functional workflows, deliverables, and deadlines across multiple concurrent efforts - Ability to work collaboratively across teams and influence stakeholders without direct authority - U.S. citizenship required, with the ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS: - Experience in a strategy or operations consulting role supporting defense, aerospace, or public-sector clients - Experience supporting capture efforts for U.S. Government contracts - Experience with DoD or U.S. Government acquisition processes, requirements development, and competitive proposal environments - Experience supporting U.S. and allied or international defense opportunities, including Foreign Military Sales, Direct Commercial Sales, or international business development - Familiarity with uncrewed systems, autonomy, tactical aviation, mission systems, AI-enabled capabilities, or advanced aerospace programs - Experience supporting proposal reviews, managing color-team processes, or serving in a proposal management, capture management, or strategy role - Customer-interaction experience is preferred but not required

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