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 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.
We’re hiring a Strategic Talent Acquisition Partner to help power our next phase of growth across EMEA. This is a high-impact, business-critical role at the heart of Shield’s AI international expansion—supporting new market entries with strong focus on the Middle East region, building and scaling best-in-class sales and engineering organisations, and partnering with senior leaders to shape our future. This is not a transactional recruiting role. You will operate as a strategic advisor, market expert, and builder—owning how talent enables scale across diverse EMEA markets.
What You’ll Do
- Strategic Talent Partnership
- Partner closely with senior and executive-level stakeholders to understand business objectives, growth plans, and capability gaps.
- Translate market entry and growth plan into scalable, data-driven regional talent acquisition strategies.
- Act as a thought partner and advisor on talent trends, market intelligence, and competitive hiring strategies.
- Advise leaders on market feasibility from a talent perspective (availability, cost, timing, and risk).
- Execution with Excellence
- Own the end-to-end recruitment lifecycle for all roles including senior, critical, and hard-to-hire roles.
- Partner to design and execute sourcing strategies that attract high-impact engineering and commercial talent across the EMEA region
- Shape local hiring approaches while maintaining a consistent global hiring bar.
- Employer Branding & Talent Attraction
- Act as an EMEA ambassador for our employer brand, ensuring we are positioned as an employer of choice in the region
- Partner with Branding, Comms, and Leadership to shape and localise our employer value proposition for different EMEA countries.
- Identify and activate employer branding opportunities (events, content, communities, referrals, social presence).
- Ensure inclusive, consistent, and authentic candidate experience that reinforces our brand and values at every touchpoint.
- Driving at Scale
- Use data to forecast hiring needs, track progress, and continuously optimise our recruitment performance.
- Improve TA processes, tools, and ways of partnering to support speed, quality, and scale.
- Be a visible voice for talent across the EMEA leadership community.
What We’re Looking For
- Proven experience as a strategic talent acquisition partner driving full cycle hiring for both engineering and go to market talent within the defence space or Public Sector Saas space.
- Demonstrated success supporting new market entries and scaling teams at pace in particular the Middle East region
- Strong credibility working with senior leaders and executives as a trusted talent advisor and business partner
- Deep understanding of EMEA talent dynamics, sourcing strategies, and competitive intelligence.
- Highly consultative, commercially minded, and comfortable operating with ambiguity.
- Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution.
- Fluency in Arabic highly desirable
Our international teammates receive a comprehensive total rewards package aligned to your country office location. For full details on compensation and benefits, please consult your talent acquisition partner.