Account Director, State and Local Government

OpenAI•Washington, DC

1d•$261,000 - $335,000•Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI's mission is to build safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity. The OpenAI for Government team helps customers understand how to leverage and deploy highly capable AI products across their organizations. This role combines technical understanding, strategic vision, partnership management, and a value-driven approach tailored to state and local government customers. The Account Director will own a portfolio of strategic state and local government accounts, leading key opportunities through the entire sales cycle, from pipeline development through close. This role requires regular travel to engage customers, partners, and industry stakeholders and is based in Washington, DC, or San Francisco, utilizing a hybrid work model.

Requirements

10+ years of experience selling enterprise technology solutions to state and local government customers or leading digital transformation, AI adoption, enterprise technology modernization, innovation initiatives, or large-scale technology deployments from within state or local government organizations
Consistently achieving annual state and local government revenue targets exceeding $2 million over multiple years
Designing and executing complex deal strategies, including navigating state procurement processes, cooperative purchasing vehicles, requests for proposals, and government contracting mechanisms
Supporting growth in fast-paced, high-performance environments
Working directly with senior government executives and agency leaders
Communicating technical and strategic concepts clearly to government customers and internal stakeholders
Leading high-visibility customer events, executive briefings, and industry engagements
Gathering, distilling, and applying detailed market intelligence, including agency priorities, policy changes, and competitor activity
Selling to large state agencies, cities, counties, public safety organizations, transportation agencies, or other complex state and local government organizations
Building strong relationships across government ecosystems, including with government leaders, technology stakeholders, and partner communities

Nice To Haves

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

Responsibilities

Manage a focused set of key accounts, developing and executing comprehensive account plans
Lead state and local government customers through their AI adoption journeys, from initial consideration through successful deployment
Partner with Solutions and Research Engineering to build and execute complex customer programs and projects
Own and manage a consumption revenue target
Oversee consumption revenue forecasting and reporting
Analyze key account metrics and provide insights to internal and external stakeholders
Closely monitor the state and local government landscape—including agencies, policies, competitors, and partners—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 team members focused on state and local government
Foster the development of our company culture within the state and local government practice