Strategic Pursuits Lead (R3979)
Shield AI
Full-time
On-site
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Aviation Tech
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. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Job Description:
We are seeking a Strategic Pursuits Lead to lead the development of persuasive, compliant, and strategically aligned proposals in support of U.S. Government and defense industry opportunities. This individual will play a critical role in shaping high-quality submissions that clearly articulate the value of our technical and management solutions.
The ideal candidate is a world-class technical proposal writer with a track record of securing U.S. Government wins. This includes a demonstrated history of producing 100+ proposals/white papers with above average conversion rates, exceptional throughput capacity, and the ability to mentor and elevate a team of writers.
What you'll do:
- Lead the development of written content across the full proposal lifecycle—including RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, and white papers.
- Translate win strategies, themes, and technical input into clear, compelling, and compliant proposal narratives.
- Serve as a volume lead (technical, management, past performance) on high-priority pursuits; collaborate with capture leads and SMEs to build differentiated responses.
- Develop and maintain compliant proposal structures, including annotated outlines, storyboards, compliance matrices, and response templates.
- Deliver high-throughput proposal production while maintaining exceptional quality and compliance — consistently producing winning submissions on aggressive timelines.
- Demonstrate a high yield rate (win/conversion rate) on competitive pursuits.
- Work closely with proposal managers to support kickoff meetings, color team reviews (Pink, Red, Gold), and final production.
- Ensure narrative consistency, accuracy, and alignment with PWS/SOW requirements and customer value propositions and win themes.
- Maintain a reusable content library, develop boilerplate content, and support the creation of strategic messaging and solution frameworks.
- Contribute to visual content including graphics, infographics, and tables that reinforce narrative clarity.
- Lead, coach, and mentor junior proposal writers to improve their technical writing skills, compliance discipline, and throughput.
- Provide quality assurance and peer reviews for proposals in development.
Required qualifications:
- Minimum 7+ years of proposal writing experience in the federal contracting environment, with Government-acquisition fluency.
- Proven track record: Authored 100+ competitive proposals or white papers with a 50%+ win/conversion rate.
- Demonstrated throughput capacity — ability to manage and produce multiple complex proposals concurrently without sacrificing quality or compliance.
- Strong understanding of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), proposal compliance, and evaluation methodologies.
- Expertise in technical proposal writing for complex solutions, including systems, software, engineering services, and R&D projects.
- Exceptional writing, storytelling, editing, and grammar skills tailored to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Ability to integrate technical, management, and past performance volumes into a cohesive, winning proposal.
Preferred qualifications:
- Proposal writing experience from FFRDCs (e.g., MITRE, MIT Lincoln Laboratory) or UARCs (e.g., Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins APL, Georgia Tech Research Institute)
- Experience leading proposal volumes or managing small-to-mid-sized proposals independently.
- Familiarity with producing bids for BAA, IDIQ, GWAC, and task order contracts.
- Experience in leading proposal volumes or managing small proposals independently.
- Background in supporting capture strategy and solution development.
$120,000 - $180,000 a year
#LD
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.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.