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, visitwww.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI onLinkedIn,X,Instagram, andYouTube.

Job Description:

The Head of Deal Strategy and Execution (DSE) owns the operating model that turns Shield AI's most complex, highest-value domestic and international opportunities into repeatable, executable transactions. This is not a traditional deal desk. It is a strategic deal architecture and execution function: a force multiplier for the field that helps teams build winning deal structures, terms, and negotiation approaches faster, accelerate cross-functional decisions, protect margin and risk posture, and convert successful one-off transactions into reusable plays.
The role exists because Shield AI's opportunity set is increasingly defined by complex government and international transactions where a product sale alone is insufficient. Customers require combinations of autonomous platforms, software subscriptions, payloads, training, field services, integration, sustainment, and partner-led delivery. Each transaction introduces unique constraints around product maturity, delivery capacity, exportability, contracting pathway, pricing, and risk, and the company needs a single operating mechanism that translates all of it into viable, approvable, and scalable transactions.
This is a leadership role. The Head of DSE builds and directs three functions:



Regional Deal Strategists embedded with BD teams, a central Business Proposals function, and an Architecture and Packaging capability. The constant is the operating principle: standardize what can be standardized, and elevate and deliberately govern what must be bespoke.
What you'll do:

Team charter and operating model. Set engagement criteria, service levels, decision rights, approval thresholds, and the escalation framework. Define when DSE engages: a priority or non-standard opportunity involving complex configuration, international scope, a partner-led construct, a packaged offering, or an exception request.
Cross-functional deal governance. Chair cross-functional deal reviews and ensure executives receive clear decisions, trade-offs, and recommendations. Convene BD Ops, Sales, Product, Finance, Legal, Contracts, Delivery, and Partnerships around a structured process rather than disconnected approval gates.
Strategic deal architecture. Own the quality of deal strategy on priority pursuits: customer value hypothesis, solution configuration, commercial construct, pricing posture, terms, partner path, negotiation approach, and close plan. Challenge weak qualification and help account teams exit or reframe low-probability pursuits.
Modular deal catalog and packaging. Direct the build and maintenance of the authoritative capability catalog: approved configurations, modular bundles, eligibility criteria,



deployment assumptions, exclusions, dependencies, pricing guardrails, discount and volume logic, and delivery handoffs across hardware, software, subscriptions, services, training, sustainment, and integration.
Deal plays and repeatability. Establish the deal-play roadmap aligned to GTM priorities, product maturity, and international growth. Turn wins, losses, and delivery outcomes into qualification tools, discovery guides, value narratives, proposal modules, negotiation guidance, and win-wire content the field can reuse in the flow of work.
Exception governance. Govern pricing, terms, and delivery exceptions through clear thresholds and fast escalation, not bureaucracy. Serve as the escalation point for deal strategy conflict, cross-functional ambiguity, and strategic exceptions.
Measurement and continuous improvement. Measure business impact: cycle time, deal velocity, win rate on strategic pursuits, gross-margin protection, exception volume, reuse rate, and delivery outcomes. Lead postmortems on won and lost strategic business and feed the lessons back into the pre-sales motion.
Team leadership and role boundaries. Build and lead Regional Deal Strategists, the Business Proposals team, and the Architecture and Packaging function. Hold the line on the boundary that matters most: the Regional Deal Strategist owns the deal, and the Proposal Manager owns the submission.
Enablement and incentives. Partner with the GTM Enablement Lead on trainings and enablement, and work with Rev Ops and Business Ops on buying-program and product and deal-structure related SPIFFs.
Current priorities:

The agenda below reflects the founding priorities. Expect it to evolve as the organizat

📌 Senior Director, Deal Strategy Execution (Madrid)
🏢 shieldai
📍 Madrid