Field Solutions Engineer

What you'll do:

• Lead technical capture efforts for European opportunities, ensuring solutions are technically sound, feasible, and aligned with Shield AI’s product roadmap. Capture efforts will focus on the V-BAT aircraft, but will require familiarity with the entire Shield AI Product suite.
• Manage multiple priorities in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, including customer engagements, pre-sales technical support, proposal contributions, and solution development.
• Develop and execute technical strategies that result in high-quality, compliant, and compelling proposals to maximize win probability.
• Serve as the primary technical lead for GTM engagements in Europe, interfacing cross-functionally with BD, BD Operations , Engineering, Operations, Program Management, and Product Management to ensure customer needs are met.
• Manage technical content for proposals, requests for information (RFIs), white papers, and capability briefs, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and compliance.
• Support BD and Account Executives by becoming a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in Shield AI products, providing technical expertise in customer engagements, capability briefings, and solution discussions to drive successful sales outcomes.
• Act as a liaison between BD and Engineering, ensuring that new customer requests are technically feasible and align with product capabilities, timelines, and roadmaps.
• Contribute to the technical documentation repository, maintaining capability briefs, specifications, FAQs, and other sales collateral for internal and external use.
• Provide training and mentorship to BD teams on technical aspects of Shield AI’s solutions, enabling them to articulate our value proposition confidently.
• Support competitive analysis and market intelligence, ensuring the BD team remains informed on industry trends and competitor capabilities.
• Support customer demonstrations through the shaping, planning, and execution phases as an on-site V-BAT SME.
• Contribute to process improvement efforts, leveraging lessons learned from customer engagements to refine BD workflows and technical capture strategies.
• Analyze the unique operational and environmental factors of the assigned region, producing high-impact white papers and briefs that inform the product roadmap and drive solutions aligned to customer mission needs.

Required qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in technical presales, business development, or solutions engineering, preferably in defense, aerospace, AI-driven technology, or U.S. Federal/International government environments.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field.
• Experience working with U.S. Federal or International government requirements.
• Strong technical acumen in Aircraft, UAS, multispectral sensor systems, AI, autonomy, and defense technology (experience with V-BAT, Hivemind, and Vision Systems preferred).
• Outstanding analytical and quantitative problem-solving skills, with a demonstrated aptitude for technical assessments and solution development.
• Strong technical writing ability to author requests for information, abstracts, and quad charts.
• Proven leadership experience in a work setting and/or through extracurricular activities.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, compelling messaging for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a cross-functional team environment and effectively engage with stakeholders at all levels of an organization.
• Track record of high performance, including a demonstrated work ethic, reliability as a teammate, kindness, and commitment to high standards.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, nontraditional defense contractor environment.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience managing Foreign Military Sale and Direct Commercial Sale proposals.
• Strong technical background especially with Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs).
• Demonstrated thorough understanding and knowledge of the military operations and the acquisition process.
• 3+ years of experience in an presales/solutions engineering role
• 3+ years of experience working in a startup environment