Open Role
Principal, Customer Success (R5246)
at Shield AI
Washington, D.C.·Posted Jun 24·$150,000–$230,000 / year
Job description
Founded in 2015, 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 and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. 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.
Job Description:
Shield AI is seeking a Principal, Customer Success to establish and lead the Aircraft Division Customer Success function and own the Critical Accounts Program for V-BAT and X-BAT customers. This leader will ensure customers achieve mission value, operational readiness, adoption, and long-term success across the full customer lifecycle.
This role combines team leadership, customer success execution, executive account governance, operational awareness, and critical-account recovery. The ideal candidate has led customer-facing teams in aerospace, defense, aviation, complex enterprise, or mission-critical technology environments and can create repeatable customer operating rhythms while responding decisively to escalated, at-risk, or strategically sensitive accounts.
As the owner of the Aircraft Division Critical Accounts Program, this leader will establish clear account health criteria, executive visibility, cross-functional recovery plans, risk burn-down discipline, decision cadence, and accountable closure. This person will serve as a senior customer advocate and cross-functional leader, ensuring customer risks are surfaced early, resolved with urgency, and converted into lasting improvements across product, operations, training, sustainment, and support.
About Shield AI

Builds autonomous AI pilots.
View full profile →- HQ
- San Diego, CA
- Stage
- Series C+
- Total Raised
- $4.2B
- Employees
- 1,001-5,000
- Founded
- 2015