Instructor & Customer Success Manager

About the company

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, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.

Your tasks

• Lead, develop, and mentor a team of customer training professionals and UAV instructors.
• Establish team priorities, performance expectations, staffing plans, and professional-development pathways.
• Oversee the development and delivery of classroom, simulator, flight, maintenance, and scenario-based training for Shield AI products.
• Ensure training programs prepare customers to safely operate, maintain, deploy, and effectively employ Shield AI systems.
• Maintain high instructional standards through instructor qualification, observation, coaching, certification, and continuous evaluation.
• Lead the development and standardization of curricula, lesson plans, lecture materials, simulator scenarios, practical exercises, assessments, and supporting documentation.
• Ensure student training records, instructor qualifications, course materials, and program metrics remain current and accurate.
• Coordinate training schedules, aircraft, simulators, facilities, airspace, frequency management, personnel, and other operational resources.
• Communicate directly with customers and partner-force leadership regarding training requirements, student progress, operational readiness, and program outcomes.
• Build lasting customer relationships through continuous engagement, refresher training, and support for effective product utilization.
• Adapt training for students with varying technical abilities, operational backgrounds, cultural contexts, and levels of experience.
• Support domestic and international training events, including extended deployments when required.
• Deliver instruction and provide hands-on training support when mission or staffing needs require it.
• Partner with engineering, product, design, and flight-operations teams to incorporate customer and instructor feedback into product and training improvements.
• Support new-product validation, testing, field evaluations, and the development of training capabilities for new product releases.
• Collaborate with business-development and sales teams to demonstrate Shield AI products to prospective customers.
• Establish and monitor training-program metrics, identify performance gaps, and implement improvements that increase safety, consistency, scalability, and customer success.
• Ensure training activities comply with applicable company policies, safety requirements, security procedures, aviation regulations, and customer expectations.

Requirements

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Five or more years of experience in technical, aviation, military, or UAS training.
• Two or more years of experience leading instructors, training teams, or comparable operational teams.
• Demonstrated experience developing and delivering classroom, simulator, flight, maintenance, or scenario-based instruction.
• Working knowledge of UAS operations, flight and mission planning, aviation safety, and training operations.
• Ability and willingness to travel internationally up to 50%, including for extended periods when required.
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Fluent in Ukrainian
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical and operational information to audiences with varying levels of experience.
• Experience managing multiple training events, resources, schedules, and customer requirements in a dynamic environment.
• Effective, highly logical problem-solver who remains focused on safety, learning outcomes, and customer success.
• Ability to work across organizational boundaries while maintaining a big-picture perspective and attention to operational details.

Preferred qualifications

• Graduate degree in education, instructional design, aviation, engineering, business, or a related field.
• Significant UAS experience as a pilot in command, instructor, maintainer, or mission operator.
• More than 1,000 hours of UAS pilot-in-command experience.
• Experience instructing or operating Group 1–3 UAS.
• Former Ukrainian military service or comparable defense-sector experience.
• Strong understanding of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, allied defense organizations, and international partner-force environments.
• Tactical field experience and knowledge of small-unit tactics.
• Prior overseas training or operational experience.
• Experience managing training programs for international customers and working across cultural and language differences.
• Experience with content-authoring and presentation tools such as PowerPoint, Prezi, http://Beautiful.ai , Camtasia, or comparable platforms.
• Experience with learning-management systems and online training-authoring or delivery tools.
• Experience supporting product demonstrations, new-product testing, curriculum validation, or fielding of emerging technologies.

What we offer

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.