Capture Strategy & Operations Sr. Lead, X-BAT Family of Systems (FoS) (R6083)

Shield AI · San Diego, California

  • Senior
  • Full-time
  • $160,000 – $300,000
  • Posted 2026-09-24
  • Confirmed live on 25 September 2026

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Job description

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. 

What you'll do:
Capture Strategy and Proposal Development

• Partner with X-BAT FoS Capture leadership to develop and refine capture strategies for priority domestic and international pursuits.

• Translate customer priorities, mission needs, and program objectives into differentiated capture approaches, win themes, proposal storylines, and messaging frameworks.

• 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.

• Work across technical, program, business development, finance, legal, international, and product teams to turn complex inputs into clear, persuasive customer narratives.

• Ensure proposal materials align with customer requirements, Shield AI’s differentiated capabilities, approved messaging, and X-BAT FoS Capture direction.

• Provide editorial, analytical, and strategic quality control for proposals, written products, briefings, and related customer materials.

• Support proposal kickoffs, content-development planning, reviews, and color-team activities.

Capture Operations

• Track proposal and solicitation-response activity across the X-BAT FoS Capture 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.

• Monitor consistency and quality across capture and proposal products to ensure alignment with X-BAT FoS strategy, approved messaging, and organizational priorities.

• Identify process gaps and bottlenecks across the capture lifecycle and implement practical improvements.

• Support knowledge management and development of reusable capture tools, templates, content, and best practices.

• Coordinate cross-functional contributors to enable timely, aligned, and high-quality proposal execution.

Required qualifications:
• 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.

Full-time regular employee offer package:
Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
 
Temporary employee offer package:
Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable

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