Product Strategy & Operations Sr. Lead, Advanced Programs (R6510)

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, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. 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 .
Shield AI’s Advanced Programs Division is seeking a Product Strategy & Operations Sr. Lead, Advanced Programs to strengthen the strategy, proposal development, and daily operations of the Advanced Programs organization. The successful candidate will thrive in organizing and leading cross-functional teams, proposal management, vetting opportunities, and supporting capture activities for major prime opportunities within defense advanced programs. You will translate customer requirements and Shield AI’s engineering solutions into persuasive, compliant proposals that deliver a clear, cohesive, and compelling message. In this role you will combine skills that include operations, proposal management, capture support, strategy, and serve as a key member of the product strategy capture team. The successful candidate is equally comfortable operating strategically and executing with discipline. You can challenge assumptions, sharpen a win strategy, lead a matrixed team through compressed timelines, and maintain momentum through color-team reviews and final production. You will work closely with Business Development, Engineering, Program Management, Customer Engagement, Finance, Contracts, and executive leadership. If you thrive in high-performing environments, demonstrate extreme ownership, and enjoy turning complex opportunities into winning proposals, we would like to meet you!

What You'll Do:

Partner with Capture Leads and business leaders to develop proposal strategies, win themes, discriminators, customer-focused value propositions, and compelling proposal narratives.
• Lead cross-functional proposal-related efforts spanning Business Development, Engineering, Program Management, Customer Engagement, Finance, Contracts, and other key functions.
• Translate customer mission needs, operational requirements, acquisition strategy, evaluation criteria, and technical constraints into compliant and persuasive proposal content.
• Establish and manage integrated proposal plans, schedules, compliance matrices, content plans, volume outlines, writing assignments, review cycles, production plans, and submission activities.
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders.
• Drive development of proposal artifacts across technical, management, cost, past performance, and executive volumes, ensuring message consistency and alignment with the capture strategy.
• Develop leadership-ready strategy presentations, pursuit-planning materials, internal decision-support products, and capture artifacts.
• Lead development of analytically rigorous responses to RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, white papers, capability statements, and other customer-facing materials.
• Facilitate and lead proposal reviews, including blue team, black hat, pink, red, gold, and executive reviews; prepare review teams; adjudicate comments; and drive corrective actions to closure.
• Monitor and help qualify relevant government and consortium opportunities through http://SAM.gov , customer distribution lists, industry channels, and consortium networks.
• Travel between Shield AI locations, partner sites, and customer locations as required.

Capture Operations:

• Track proposal and solicitation-response activity across the Advanced Programs portfolio, including milestones, owners, dependencies, reviews, risks, and key decision points.
• Develop and maintain capture trackers, reporting mechanisms, operating cadences, and dashboards that provide clear visibility into active pursuits and proposal progress.
• Support knowledge management and development of reusable capture tools, templates, content, and best practices.

Required Qualifications:

• Active secret clearance with TS/SCI eligibility.
• Bachelor’s degree.
• 12+ years’ experience in defense and 3+ years of direct proposal manager, business development operations, or capture manager experience, including large-scale defense prime proposals valued at $250M+.
• Proven ability to lead matrixed teams through complex proposal development cycles involving technical, management, cost, pricing, contracts, and executive stakeholders.
• The ability to convert customer mission needs and engineering solutions into clear, compelling proposal content and differentiated win themes.
• Demonstrated mastery of proposal compliance, customer instructions, evaluation criteria, proposal schedules, volume management, color-team reviews, production, and final delivery.
• Proven ability to influence and align cross-functional teams in a fast-moving environment.
• Exceptional PowerPoint, written communication, editing, and quality-control skills.
• Strong analytical and conceptual problem-solving skills, with the ability to structure ambiguous problems and translate complex information into actionable outputs.
• A high degree of ownership, sound judgment, humility, and bias toward action.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Active TS/SCI clearance and experience in advanced programs.
• Experience leading large defense-program captures as a prime contractor, particularly for weapons or similarly complex platforms.
• Demonstrated expertise in capture strategy, proposal strategy, customer engagement, competitive analysis, price-to-win, market analysis, and opportunity qualification.
• Experience working with non-traditional defense companies, rapid-acquisition pathways, prototyping programs, and transition-to-program-of-record strategies.

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