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.
Job Description:
Reporting to the Sr. Director, PXBP – Software, Products & Services, you will serve as a trusted strategic advisor to senior Engineering and Product leaders, translating business priorities into people strategies that strengthen organizational performance, leadership capability, and talent.
You will bring a strong understanding of how technical organizations create value and use business insight, data, and organizational expertise to solve complex people challenges. You will partner across People Experience (Px) to deliver scalable solutions spanning organizational design, workforce and talent planning, leadership effectiveness, and change.
This role will also play a key role in mergers, acquisitions, and organizational integrations, leading people-related work across due diligence, talent assessment, organizational design, integration planning, retention, change management, and cultural integration. You will help acquired teams integrate successfully while protecting critical talent, business continuity, and employee engagement.
What you'll do:
- Partner with senior Engineering and Product leaders to translate business and technical priorities into people and organizational strategies that enable innovation, execution, and scale.
- Advise on talent and workforce investments, including build, buy, and partner decisions, required to deliver against product and business priorities.
- Serve as a trusted advisor and coach to senior leaders on leadership effectiveness, team performance, and complex people decisions.
- Shape organizational design, roles, and operating models to strengthen accountability, collaboration, speed, and scalability.
- Develop leadership and senior technical talent to strengthen organizational capability and succession.
- Partner on workforce and talent planning, identifying critical capability, capacity, succession, and retention risks and recommending actions aligned to business priorities.
- Shape workforce composition, location strategy, and talent approaches to build and retain critical capabilities.
- Use people and business data to assess organizational health, talent trends, leadership effectiveness, and workforce risks.
- Translate insights into clear recommendations that influence leadership decisions and improve organizational performance.
- Partner with key stakeholders on the people strategy for complex transformations, restructures, M&A, and organizational integrations.
- Collaborate on M&A due diligence and integration planning, including talent assessment, organizational design, retention, leadership alignment, and cultural integration.
- Advise leaders through change to maintain business continuity, organizational effectiveness, and employee engagement.
- Partner across PX, Finance, Legal, Corporate Development, Product, and other functions to deliver integrated solutions to complex business and talent challenges.
- Lead and contribute to cross-functional initiatives that strengthen scalable people practices and organizational effectiveness.
Strategic Engineering Partnership
Leadership Advisory & Organizational Effectiveness
Workforce & Talent Strategy
Data & Organizational Insights
Change, Transformation & M&A
Cross-Functional Leadership
What it takes to succeed:
- Strategic, business-first mindset. You understand how Engineering and Product organizations create value and connect people decisions to business and customer outcomes.
- Trusted and influential partner. You bring strong judgment, credibility, and the ability to coach and challenge senior leaders.
- Strong organizational effectiveness expertise. You bring depth in organizational design, workforce and talent planning, succession, leadership effectiveness, and change.
- M&A and integration experience. You understand the people implications of transactions and can effectively navigate talent, organizational, cultural, and change considerations.
- Data-driven problem solver. You use analytics and insight to identify patterns, simplify complexity, and influence decisions.
- Operationally strong and adaptable. You translate strategy into action and thrive in fast-paced, high-growth environments with evolving priorities.
- Systems thinker and collaborator. You connect business needs with the right partners and solutions while balancing immediate priorities with long-term organizational capability.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or a related field.
- 12+ years of progressive HR Business Partner experience, including experience supporting Engineering, Product, AI/ML, Platform, or other highly technical organizations.
- Demonstrated success partnering with VP and Director-level leaders to develop and execute people strategies aligned with business priorities.
- Deep experience in organizational design, workforce planning, talent management, change management, and leadership coaching within scaling technology organizations.
- Experience supporting the people aspects of M&A, including due diligence, integration planning, talent assessment, retention, organizational alignment, and cultural integration.
- Experience advising senior leaders through periods of rapid growth, organizational transformation, restructuring, or integration.
- Experience operating within a global People organization and leveraging Centers of Excellence (COEs) and Shared Services to deliver scalable solutions.
- Strong understanding of technical talent markets, job architecture, leveling frameworks, and compensation principles.
- Demonstrated ability to leverage workforce analytics and people data to diagnose challenges and influence decisions.
- Exceptional consulting, coaching, stakeholder management, and influencing skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and build alignment across senior leaders.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting high-growth, complex, or rapidly scaling technology-based organizations.
- Experience partnering with Software, Product, AI/ML, Platform, or Services organizations.
- M&A experience, including pre-close diligence and post-close integration.
- Experience supporting global or geographically distributed teams and navigating complex matrixed organizations.
- Demonstrated expertise in organizational effectiveness, including operating model design, team effectiveness, and organizational diagnostics.
- Experience using people analytics, workforce insights, and business metrics to inform talent and organizational decisions.
- Familiarity with emerging technologies, including AI, and their implications for workforce strategy, skills, and organizational design.
- Experience working in fast-paced environments requiring strong judgment, adaptability, and comfort navigating ambiguity.
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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.
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Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.