Lead strategic, full-cycle talent acquisition across APAC, partnering with senior leaders on market expansion, workforce planning, sourcing, employer branding, and recruitment operations. The role will hire engineering and commercial talent, advise on regional talent markets, optimize hiring processes using data, and ensure culturally authentic candidate experiences across multiple countries.
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.
We’re hiring a Principal Strategic Talent Acquisition Partner to help power our next phase of growth across APAC. This is a high-impact, business-critical role at the heart of Shield AI’s international expansion—supporting new market entries, building and scaling best-in-class software and commercial organisations, and partnering with senior leaders to shape our future in the region.
This is not a transactional recruiting role. You will operate as a strategic advisor, market expert, and builder, owning how talent enables scale across highly diverse APAC markets, cultures, and regulatory environments.
What You’ll Do
- Strategic Talent Partnership
- Partner closely with senior and executive-level stakeholders to understand business objectives, growth plans, and capability gaps across APAC.
- Translate regional market entry and growth plans into scalable, data-driven talent acquisition strategies.
- Act as a thought partner and advisor on regional talent trends, market intelligence, and competitive hiring strategies.
- Advise leaders on market feasibility from a talent perspective, including availability, cost, timelines, and risk across different APAC countries.
- Execution with Excellence
- Own the end-to-end recruitment lifecycle for all roles, including senior, critical, and hard-to-hire positions.
- Design and execute sourcing strategies that attract high-impact engineering and commercial talent across APAC.
- Adapt hiring approaches to local market realities while maintaining a consistent global hiring bar.
- Employer Branding & Talent Attraction
- Act as an APAC ambassador for Shield AI’s employer brand, positioning us as an employer of choice across the region.
- Partner with Branding, Comms, and Leadership to shape and localise our employer value proposition for different APAC markets.
- Identify and activate employer branding opportunities (events, content, communities, referrals, social presence).
- Ensure an inclusive, consistent, and culturally 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 recruitment performance across the region.
- Improve TA processes, tools, and operating models to support speed, quality, and scale in complex, multi-country environments.
- Be a visible and trusted voice for talent within the APAC 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 in high-growth tech environments (aerospace, defence, robotics, or deep tech desirable).
- Demonstrated success supporting new market entries and rapid scaling across the APAC region.
- Strong credibility partnering with senior leaders and executives as a trusted talent advisor and business partner.
- Deep understanding of APAC talent dynamics, including sourcing strategies, cultural considerations, and competitive intelligence across multiple countries.
- Highly consultative, commercially minded, and comfortable operating with ambiguity and complexity.
- Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution in a fast-moving environment.
Help us redefine what’s possible in AI-driven perception — apply today!
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, colour, 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.
Shield AI Melbourne, Victoria, AUS Office
85 Salmon St, Suite 1, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3207
Similar Jobs at Shield AI
Aerospace • Artificial Intelligence • Machine Learning • Robotics • Software
Design and implement autonomous behaviors for uncrewed aircraft, build sensor fusion and perception solutions, develop and test autonomy in high-fidelity and hardware-in-the-loop simulations, integrate autonomy with third-party systems, contribute to architecture and code quality, and lead and mentor junior engineers.
Top Skills:
AutonomyC++Guidance Navigation And ControlHardware-In-The-Loop SimulationHigh-Fidelity SimulationHivemind Autonomy SoftwarePath PlanningPerceptionReal-Time SystemsRoboticsSensor FusionState Estimation
Aerospace • Artificial Intelligence • Machine Learning • Robotics • Software
Design, develop, and integrate real-time computer vision algorithms into high-performance C++ pipelines for edge-deployed autonomous systems. Build geometry-based perception capabilities (camera calibration, multi-view geometry, geolocation, 3D reconstruction), translate research into deployable software, optimize for real-time reliability, and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to deliver mission-critical solutions.
Top Skills:
3D ReconstructionBundle AdjustmentC++Camera CalibrationComputer VisionDeep LearningEpipolar GeometryGeospatial RegistrationImage ProcessingImage RectificationMulti-View GeometryOpencvPhotogrammetrySlam
Aerospace • Artificial Intelligence • Machine Learning • Robotics • Software
Design, implement, and integrate real-time computer vision algorithms into high-performance C++ pipelines for edge-deployed autonomous systems. Focus on custom perception capabilities, model adaptation and evaluation, inference optimization, dataset curation, and cross-functional integration with AI, robotics, and optical teams to deliver robust mission-capable solutions.
Top Skills:
C++Camera CalibrationComputer VisionDeep LearningEdge ComputingImage ProcessingMachine LearningModel Inference OptimizationObject DetectionObject TrackingOpencvSemantic SegmentationSlam
What you need to know about the Melbourne Tech Scene
Home to 650 biotech companies, 10 major research institutes and nine universities, Melbourne is among one of the top cities for biotech. In fact, some of the greatest medical advancements were conceptualized and developed here, including Symex Lab's "lab-on-a-chip" solution that monitors hormones to predict ovulation for conception, and Denteric's vaccine for periodontal gum disease. Yet, the thousands of people working in the city's healthtech sector are just getting started, to say nothing of the tech advancements across all other sectors.
