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Shield AI is seeking a Director, Department of Navy (DoN) Growth Campaign Leader to lead the internal operating rhythm and cross-functional coordination for Shield AI's unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) pursuits with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, specifically the X-BAT Family of Systems. This is a high-visibility, senior leadership role with significant authority and scope.
In this position, you will serve as the connective tissue across multiple Go-To-Market (GTM) leaders, integrating information across the DoN portfolio and providing the VP of Mission Solutions with a clear, decision-ready view of campaign health, priorities, dependencies, risks, mitigations, and resource requirements. You will own the integrated DoN campaign picture across all X-BAT pursuits, including strategy status, critical path, milestones, dependencies, and decision points.
Key responsibilities include: building and maintaining the authoritative DoN campaign view; enabling GTM leads with templates, playbooks, data, and cross-functional access; synchronizing engineering, product, export, legal, contracts, finance, government relations, and business operations against a single prioritized campaign plan; identifying and surfacing conflicts between campaigns competing for shared resources (aircraft, test windows, engineering effort, approval bandwidth, indirect dollars); running the operating cadence (campaign reviews, gate reviews, risk registers, action tracking, executive dashboards) to ensure leadership receives timely, decision-ready information; stewarding indirect investment and campaign spend; converting lessons learned into repeatable tools, templates, and playbooks; and personally driving execution of critical customer responses (RFI, RFP, CSO, and other solicitation vehicles).
You will lead by influence, leveraging dedicated capture-operations and analyst support, with the expectation to build the team as the portfolio scales. This role holds a standing seat in DoN bid/no-bid and investment-prioritization reviews and sets the agenda for executive campaign reviews. The portfolio represents multiple concurrent Navy and Marine Corps pursuits across the X-BAT Family of Systems, representing a multi-billion-dollar addressable opportunity. This is positioned as a pipeline role toward senior Department of Navy growth or general-management leadership at Shield AI.
REQUIREMENTS:
- U.S. person as defined by ITAR (22 CFR 120.62), with ability to obtain and maintain 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 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 Department of Navy program funding and fielding: ASN(RD&A) and NAVAIR program-office dynamics (particularly PAE(A) and unmanned aviation portfolio), Navy and Marine Corps resource sponsorship and requirements staffing (N9/N98) and Marine Corps aviation requirements process, PPBE/POM cycle and Navy budget submission rhythm, and rapid-acquisition pathways (OTAs, CSOs, Middle Tier of Acquisition, SBIR/STRATFI, DIU, ONR, NavalX), including transition from prototype to program of record
- Proven ability to influence without direct authority and drive accountability across functions and geographies
- Strong executive communication: leadership briefings, dashboards, metrics, and decision-support materials that lead to decisions
- Deep 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: 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 GTM leads and judgment to know when to escalate versus resolve quietly
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- 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: U.S. Navy or Marine Corps operational, test, staff, or acquisition experience, or equivalent industry experience delivering aircraft to the Department of Navy
- Experience within business development, capture, proposal operations, strategic planning, or growth organizations running multiple concurrent U.S. Government pursuits
- Familiarity with export and international mechanisms: 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 tooling (Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Jira); advanced degree or relevant certification (MBA, PMP, Lean Six Sigma) is a plus but not required
