Technical Program Director (R3982)

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With nine offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide.

Shield AI is seeking a Technical Program Director to drive the development, integration, and deployment of the World’s Best AI Pilots onto various transformative unmanned vehicles.

What you’ll do:

• Ensure all program elements are flawlessly executed.
• Deliver exceptional, proven, and reliable performance in support of customer and end-user’s needs through execution of each phase (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring, Closure) of Shield AI’s programs.
• Support internal team and customer relationships.
• Facilitate execution and address or escalate issues for programs, projects, and operational performance.
• Own development and ongoing execution of project plans, scope, schedule, and management, astutely evaluating the balance and re-balance the often-shifting customer cost, schedule, and technical parameters/priorities of each program as it progresses during the overall life cycle.
• Develop and maintain effective relationships with a broad range of stakeholders including managers, customers, key partners and suppliers, both locally and internationally.
• Be able to operate and make decisions that reflect cultural nuances and overarching political and/or military factors.
• Drive the accurate and timely tracking and reporting of internal budget, resource, and project management standard metrics.
• Drive the accurate and timely tracking and reporting of all customer or end user contractually required deliverables.
• Drive a consistent cadence of well-organized, well-facilitated, and effective meetings, including preparation and follow up activities.
• Complete critical path analyses including the evaluation of potential means to accelerate the pace or mitigate identified risks.
• Identify potential bottlenecks or delays in programs and drive efforts to achieve schedule milestones.
• Support business development efforts as they develop & evolve from current programs and related opportunities, including requests for tender, proposal, or information, expressions of interest, and unsolicited offers.

Required qualifications:

• Ideally 15+ years of experience as a technical decision-maker with a bachelor’s degree in Engineering or similar; or 8 years and a master’s degree in Engineering or similar.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills (verbal and written) and ability to lead by influence and collaboration.
• Proven experience driving complex program execution and ability to focus on long-term business objectives.
• Experience with Earned Value and managing Gate Reviews, Estimates at Completion (EACs) and Program Management Reviews (PMRs).
• Experience in technical program management and ability to run multiple projects.
• Significant experience and excellent skills with Microsoft Office Suite and experience with scheduling tools such as Microsoft Project or similar.
• Superb skills in leadership, time management, organization, team management.
• Expert understanding of complex project financials.
• Demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and being kind to others.

Preferred qualifications:

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM).
• Experience in software development.
• Experience in autonomy development.
• DOD Contracting Experience.

Our international team members are employed through our Employer of Record (EOR) and receive a comprehensive international benefits package on top of base salary. For full details on compensation and benefits, please consult your talent acquisition partner.

116000 - 174000 GBP a year