Job Description:Shield AI is seeking a Strategy & Operations Director to help define enterprise strategy and ensure its operational execution. This role offers immersive exposure to the company's most critical decisions - spanning aircraft systems, AI software (Hivemind), autonomy hardware, and international growth.
As a core member of the Strategy & Operations team, you'll apply structured problem-solving, financial rigor, and operational discipline to turn strategic priorities into actionable, measurable outcomes. The role combines high-performance expectations with a strong learning and development environment - ideal for professionals seeking to grow into future strategy, operations, or general management leaders.
What you'll do:Enterprise Strategy Development:
- Lead the multi-year strategic planning and annual operating strategy cycles.
- Evaluate portfolio tradeoffs across platforms, software, hardware, and emerging growth vectors.
- Conduct market sizing, competitive analysis, and scenario modeling across U.S. and allied defense markets.
Capital Allocation & Business Case Rigor:
- Build financial models and analytic frameworks for investment decisions (new platforms, manufacturing, international expansion).
- Assess TAM, margin structure, capital intensity, payback, and risk-adjusted returns.
- Contribute to the development of enterprise-wide capital allocation frameworks and governance processes.
Operationalization of Strategy:
- Translate strategic priorities into cross-functional execution plans with defined KPIs and milestones.
- Track and report on progress through structured operating cadences (monthly and quarterly performance reviews).
- Identify bottlenecks, analyze root causes, and recommend actionable solutions to sustain execution velocity.
Required qualifications:- Min 12+ years of experience with Bachelors, 8+ with Masters, and 5+ with PhD.
- Min 4+ years' experience in a top-tier strategy consulting, corporate strategy or other high-rigor roles.
- Strong analytical and conceptual problem-solving abilities.
- Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous problems and drive insight through analysis.
- Financial modeling and analytical capability (unit economics, forecasting, scenario analysis).
- Experience or strong interest in complex, technical, or regulated industries (aerospace, defense, AI, or advanced manufacturing preferred).
- Ability to work collaboratively across teams and influence senior stakeholders.
- U.S. citizenship required (ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance).
$190,000 - $290,000 a year
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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 after 60 days of employment)
Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.
