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Shield AI, a venture-backed defense-tech company, is seeking a Capture Strategy & Operations Senior Lead to drive capture strategy and proposal development for the X-BAT Family of Systems (FoS). This role bridges strategy and execution, combining high-level capture planning with hands-on proposal operations.
In the Capture Strategy domain, you will partner with X-BAT FoS Capture leadership to develop and refine capture strategies for priority 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, internal decision-support products, and capture artifacts. 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, you will turn complex inputs into clear, persuasive customer narratives. You will ensure proposal materials align with customer requirements, Shield AI's differentiated capabilities, approved messaging, and X-BAT FoS Capture direction. You will provide editorial, analytical, and strategic quality control for proposals, written products, briefings, and related customer materials. You will support proposal kickoffs, content-development planning, reviews, and color-team activities.
In the Capture Operations domain, 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 clear visibility into active pursuits and proposal progress. You will monitor consistency and quality across capture and proposal products to ensure alignment with X-BAT FoS strategy, approved messaging, and organizational priorities. You will identify process gaps and bottlenecks across the capture lifecycle and implement practical improvements. You will support knowledge management and development of reusable capture tools, templates, content, and best practices. You will coordinate cross-functional contributors to enable timely, aligned, and high-quality proposal execution.
Shield AI's products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. The company has offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, with technology actively supporting operations worldwide.
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.
