Account Director, State and Local Government (West Coast)

OpenAI•Washington, DC

12d•$261,000 - $335,000•Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI's Government team is responsible for helping customers learn how to leverage and deploy our highly capable AI products across their organization. This role combines technical understanding, strategic vision, partnership management, and value-driven strategy tailored specifically to state and local government customers. This Account Director will own a portfolio of strategic West Coast state and local government accounts, with a primary focus on California and other key public sector customers across the Western United States. The ideal candidate brings deep knowledge of the state and local government landscape, established relationships with government leaders, and a track record of driving technology adoption within complex public sector organizations. You’ll drive key opportunities through the entire State and Local Government sales cycle, from pipeline generation to closure. You’ll collaborate closely with researchers, engineers, and solution strategists to help government customers advance their missions through AI. This role requires regular travel throughout the Western United States to engage customers, partners, and industry stakeholders. This role is based in Washington DC or San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

Requirements

10+ years of experience either selling enterprise technology solutions into state and local government customers or leading digital transformation, AI adoption, enterprise technology modernization, innovation initiatives, or large-scale technology deployments from within state and local government organizations.
Achieving state and local government revenue targets of >$2M per year consistently over multiple years
Designing and executing complex state and local government deal strategies, including experience with state procurement processes, cooperative purchasing vehicles, RFPs, and government contracting mechanisms
Supporting growth in fast-paced, high-performance state and local government environments
Working directly with senior government executives and state and local government agency leaders
Communicating technical and strategic concepts clearly to government customers and internal stakeholders
Leading high-visibility state and local government customer events, briefings, and industry engagements
Gathering, distilling, and processing detailed state and local government market intelligence (agency priorities, policy changes, competitor activities, etc.)
Experience selling into large state agencies, cities, counties, public safety organizations, transportation agencies, higher education institutions, or other complex public sector organizations
Deep familiarity with California and broader West Coast government ecosystems, including established relationships with government leaders, technology stakeholders, and partner communities

Nice To Haves

Thrive in a startup environment. This role requires someone who is able to operate at a very high strategic level, and willing to roll up your sleeves and execute at a tactical level as an account lead.
Are a strategist. You deeply understand go to market best practices and raise the bar for our organization. You think and plan forward on the order of years and bring internal and external stakeholders along with your strategy.
Are customer-centric. You are motivated to deeply understand state and local government customers’ priorities and help them achieve their mission-critical objectives using AI. You build trusted relationships with government executives and stakeholders across agencies.
Have a passion or deep curiosity about artificial intelligence. You embrace the opportunity to help deploy OpenAI’s technology in a way that benefits state and local government missions and humanity. You’re enthusiastic about educating government customers on AI capabilities and strategic implications.
Are a builder. You enjoy impacting how our company grows its state and local government business. You excel in establishing robust systems and processes tailored to state and local government requirements, executing them with precision and agility.
Are excited by new challenges. You thrive when solving complex state and local government-specific problems. Bespoke challenges requiring multidimensional state and local government knowledge excite you, and you’re eager to experiment with innovative solutions within government environments.
Push the organization. You deeply understand state and local government go-to-market best practices and proactively contribute to strategic initiatives. You plan years ahead, effectively aligning internal and external state and local government to achieve long-term objectives.

Responsibilities

Manage a focused set of key state and local government accounts, developing and executing comprehensive state and local government account plans
Lead state and local government customers through their AI adoption journey, from consideration to successful deployment
Partner with solutions and research engineering to build and execute complex government customer programs and projects
Own and manage a state and local government consumption revenue target
Oversee consumption revenue forecasting and reporting
Analyze key state and local government account metrics and provide insights to internal and external stakeholders
Closely monitor the state and local government landscape (agencies, policies, competitors, partners, etc.) to inform product roadmaps and corporate strategies
Build and maintain executive relationships with state CIOs, agency leaders, innovation offices, procurement stakeholders, and other senior public sector decision-makers
Collaborate cross-functionally with solutions, marketing, communications, business operations, people operations, finance, product management, and engineering
Support the recruitment and onboarding of state and local government-focused team members
Foster the development of our company culture within the state and local government practice