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Shield AI

a16z portfolio company

Capture Team Lead – Poland (X-BAT Programme)

Location
Warsaw
Work arrangement
Hybrid
Job type
Full-time

About the role

Posted Oct 5, 2026

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. 

At Shield AI, we’re redefining the battlespace with autonomy-enabled airpower. As part of our global expansion, we’re looking for a bold and visionary Capture Team Lead, Poland to lead an active and high profile campaign.

This will involve customer engagement and senior military, industry and government levels, while directing our  capture efforts for our X-Bat and Autonomy initiatives across Poland. This is a high-impact role at the cutting edge of aerospace and defense innovation. You’ll be on the front lines, driving adoption and revenue for Shield AI’s technologies by engaging directly with top-tier defense stakeholders—military customers, industry primes, and government decision-makers. Your mission: position Shield AI as the go-to partner for next-generation air combat solutions in Poland closing an active campaign.

You’ll bring a rare mix of defense sales expertise, technical credibility, and a deep understanding of air domain CONOPS and acquisition frameworks. From identifying new opportunities to closing complex deals and launching follow on programs, you’ll own the entire capture lifecycle.

What you'll do:

    • Drive Strategic Capture: Shape, and capture our X Bat campaign across Poland’s next-gen airpower program for X-Bat and autonomy.
    • Own our Polish Strategic Campaign: Lead the full business development lifecycle for X-Bat, from customer engagement through proposal, negotiation, and contract award.
    • Engage Key Stakeholders: Build and maintain trusted relationships with all key Poland stakeholders, partners and influencers.
    • Shape Requirements & CONOPS: Influence customer requirements and future CCA CONOPS to align with Shield AI’s product offerings.
    • Support Demonstrations & Campaigns: Lead Shield AI’s positioning and participation in regional flight demos, technical trials, and program pilots.
    • Coordinate Cross-Functionally: Collaborate closely with engineering, product, legal, and program teams to align technical solutions with customer needs and delivery requirements.

Required qualifications:

    • 10+ years in a relevant air force or industry occupation, bringing significant depth of understanding of relevant CONOPs and platform applications and program delivery.
    • 5+  years of experience in defense acquisition, business development, sales, or strategy, ideally with a focus on air platforms or autonomy.
    • Strong track record of capturing and closing defense programs or tech insertions with Polish defence.
    • Understanding of next-gen air combat trends, including CCAs, MUM-T, and AI-enabled CONOPS.
    • Ability to credibly represent technically complex products to both strategic and operational-level audiences.
    • Familiarity with key Polish acquisition pathways.
 
Our international teammates receive a comprehensive total rewards package aligned to your country office location. For full details on compensation and benefits, please consult your talent acquisition partner.

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At a glance

Location
Warsaw
Workplace
Hybrid
Employment
Full-time
Team
Growth Division
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The company

Shield AI

Shield AI

Shield AI's mission is to protect service members and innocent civilians with artificially intelligent systems. Our initial focus is on the last several miles of the battlefield where we lack capability to collect intelligence. This area is beyond the view of high altitude sensors, too dangerous for people, and too complex for robots to navigate. Consequently, service members are asked to make life altering decisions with limited information. Mistakes are made that cost lives and incur massive collateral damage. Such mistakes cause the United States to lose support of local populations and make conflict unwinnable. This problem is widely recognized throughout the DoD, including the most senior leadership. To address this problem, we are building swarms of small intelligent robots to collect the critical missing information. The systems will scour indoor and outdoor spaces in search of threats and innocent people. They will be deployed by people, trucks, ships, aircraft, and other robots. These robots will become more numerous in combat areas than soldiers. Synthesized information will be presented to service members who will be empowered to make decisions leading to intended outcomes without collateral damage. Conflict becomes less brutal.

Series G1,000–5,000 employeesAI

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