District Manager

What you'll do:

• Own and execute Shield AI’s LATAM go-to-market strategy, revenue plan, bookings target, pipeline health, forecast accuracy, and strategic-account performance.
• Develop country and account plans for priority markets, including target customers, programs, acquisition pathways, partner strategy, competitive positioning, and revenue milestones.
• Build executive relationships with military, government, acquisition, operational, aviation, and public-safety stakeholders.
• Lead the full opportunity lifecycle, including account planning, customer discovery, requirements shaping, capture strategy, proposal development, negotiation, award, and expansion.
• Build a qualified pipeline and prioritize internal resources, executive engagement, travel, and partner investment toward the highest-value opportunities.
• Convert demonstrations, pilots, and evaluations into funded programs, fielded deployments, and follow-on business.
• Lead cross-functional teams across product, engineering, program management, capture, contracts, finance, legal, and export compliance.
• Develop and manage strategic channel partners, systems integrators, distributors, representatives, and industrial partners to improve market access and in-country execution.
• Ensure disciplined CRM hygiene, forecasting, executive reporting, and compliance with applicable procurement, export-control, anti-corruption, and third-party requirements.
• Represent Shield AI in senior customer meetings, demonstrations, industry events, and government working sessions across the region.

Required Experience & Capabilities:

• Bachelor’s degree required, with 12+ years of sales, business development, capture, or related experience in aerospace, defense, UAS, aviation, ISR, security technology, or comparable mission-focused technology markets.
• 5+ years of commercial or business-development leadership experience, including a record of building and developing teams, partner networks, or regional organizations.
• Demonstrated success delivering revenue growth in complex government, defense, aerospace, public-safety, border-security, or national-security markets.
• Proven experience selling complex hardware, aviation platforms, integrated systems, autonomous capabilities, UAS, ISR solutions, or comparable mission systems with long sales cycles and multi-stakeholder buying processes.
• Ability to independently build pipeline, shape requirements, lead capture and account strategy, negotiate complex agreements, and close high-value public-sector opportunities.
• Extensive experience with LATAM government, defense, security, public-safety, aviation, or acquisition stakeholders, including knowledge of regional procurement processes, budget cycles, tenders, local partnership models, and long sales cycles.
• Experience working with prime contractors, systems integrators, distributors, channel partners, and local industrial partners to support capture and delivery.
• Strong knowledge of aviation and UAS concepts of operation, platform capabilities, customer missions, and competitive dynamics, particularly for Group 2–5 UAS, ISR, border security, maritime security, and expeditionary applications.
• Strong executive communication, negotiation, forecasting, cross-functional leadership, and strategic account-planning skills.
• Professional fluency in Spanish and English, with the ability to meet applicable export-control, travel, background-screening, customer-access, anti-corruption, and third-party compliance requirements.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Professional fluency in Portuguese.
• Experience selling Group 3–5 UAS, tactical ISR aircraft, aviation platforms, autonomy-enabled systems, AI-enabled software, command-and-control capabilities, or other advanced defense and security technologies in Latin America.
• Ability to translate aircraft performance, payload options, autonomy features, and technical specifications into mission value and customer outcomes.
• Experience advancing aviation, ISR, or unmanned-systems opportunities from demonstration or pilot through procurement, fielding, sustainment, and expansion.
• Familiarity with LATAM defense and public-sector procurement, tender, direct commercial sales, government-to-government, and defense-trade pathways.
• Experience operating in export-controlled or security-sensitive environments, managing third-party due diligence and anti-corruption requirements, or supporting operational military users.
• Experience scaling regional sales, capture, partner-management, or market-development organizations, with established relationships in Shield AI’s priority LATAM countries.