Head of Public Sector Sales

Rapid7•Arlington, VA

19d

About The Position

The Head of Public Sector Sales will lead the adoption of cybersecurity solutions across the U.S. Federal, State, Local, and Education (SLED) agencies. You'll define strategy, manage revenue targets, and build relationships with key public sector partners, all while leading a high-performing sales team. The Public Sector Sales team is responsible for driving the adoption of cybersecurity solutions within U.S. Federal, State, Local, and Education (SLED) agencies. They are crucial for achieving revenue targets and building strategic relationships with public sector partners. Their work directly impacts the company's growth and its ability to secure critical government and educational infrastructures. The Head of Public Sector Sales responsible for defining, executing, and accelerating the adoption of the company's cybersecurity solutions across the U.S. Federal, State, Local, and Education (SLED) agencies. This role requires a deep understanding of public sector procurement, compliance frameworks (like FedRAMP), and the ability to build and lead a high-performing sales team. At Rapid7, our vision is to create a secure digital world for our customers, our industry, and our communities. We do this by harnessing our collective expertise and passion to challenge what’s possible and drive extraordinary impact. We’re building a dynamic and collaborative workplace where new ideas are welcome. Protecting 11,000+ customers against bad actors and threats means we’re continuing to push the envelope just like we’ ve been doing for the past 20 years. If you ’re ready to solve some of the toughest challenges in cybersecurity, we’re ready to help you take command of your career. Join us. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or any other status protected by applicable national, federal, state or local law. Rapid7 is creating a more secure digital future for all by helping organizations strengthen their security programs in the face of accelerating digital transformation. Our portfolio of best-in-class solutions empowers security professionals to manage risk and eliminate threats across the entire threat landscape from apps to the cloud to traditional infrastructure to the dark web. We foster open source communities and cutting-edge research–using these insights to optimize our products and arm the global security community with the latest in attacker methodology. Trusted by more than 11,000 customers worldwide, our industry-leading solutions and services help businesses stay ahead of attackers, ahead of the competition, and future-ready for what’s next.

Requirements

Public Sector Domain Expertise: 10+ years of progressive sales experience in Enterprise Software or Cybersecurity SaaS with at least 5 years in a sales leadership role managing a quota-carrying team focused on the U.S. Federal and SLED public sector. Deep, demonstrable knowledge of the Federal/SLED procurement process, contract vehicles (GSA, NASPO), and compliance mandates (FedRAMP).
Driving Outcomes and Accountability: Demonstrated commitment to delivering business and customer value, holding self and others accountable for meeting commitments and achieving multi-million dollar revenue targets.
Strategic Doing: The ability to translate a comprehensive GTM strategy into smaller, executable, time-bound milestones for the Public Sector Teams, while assessing progress and pivoting quickly to ensure meaningful outcomes.
Exceptional Communication and Executive Presence: Clear, persuasive communication skills and an executive presence essential for building commitment, managing conflict, negotiating complex deals, and fostering trusted relationships with CIOs, CISOs, and partners.
Navigating Change & Ambiguity: Eagerness to understand and drive change, making efficient, transparent decisions that resolve challenges and enable momentum for the public sector team.
Cross-Functional Collaboration & Self-Awareness: Proven ability to build a global network and work across boundaries, adapting behaviors with strong self-awareness to optimize collective impact and deliver sustainable improvements.

Responsibilities

Full Ownership of Revenue Targets: Develop and execute a comprehensive GTM strategy to achieve and exceed annual and quarterly revenue targets (ARR/bookings) for the assigned FED/SLED territory.
Pipeline Management & Forecasting: Drive a disciplined sales process, providing accurate and timely forecasts, and managing pipeline growth, velocity, and health using CRM tools (e.g., Salesforce).
Public Sector GTM: Customize the company's GTM strategy to align with state budgets, federal funding programs (e.g., IIJA, CISA Grants), and specific agency/departmental priorities (e.g., DoD, IC, K-12, Higher Ed).
Contract Vehicle Mastery: Leverage and manage strategic public sector contracts and cooperative agreements (e.g., GSA MAS, SEWP, NASPO ValuePoint) to enable faster procurement and scalable growth.
Complex Deal Navigation: Lead and serve as the final escalation point in complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles, including proposal development, RFP/RFI responses, and final contract negotiation.
Federal System Integrators (FSIs) & Channel: Build and deepen relationships with key System Integrators (SIs/FSIs like SAIC, GDIT) and channel partners to drive joint business opportunities and leverage partner portfolios.
Technical Value Proposition: Work closely with Sales Engineers and Product teams to translate complex cybersecurity features (e.g., Zero Trust, Threat Detection, SIEM/SOAR) into clear, compliance-aligned business outcomes for public sector agencies.
Recruit & Mentor: Hire, mentor, and lead a geographically distributed, high-performing sales team focused exclusively on public sector sales. Provide real-time coaching on deal strategy, public sector procurement mechanics, and advanced sales methodologies (e.g., MEDDPIC, Value Selling).
Compliance Frameworks: Ensure all sales and solution offerings align with public sector compliance requirements (FedRAMP, NIST, CJIS, FISMA, StateRAMP).
Executive Relationships: Build and maintain trusted, executive-level relationships with key decision-makers (CIOs, CISOs, Procurement teams) across Federal and SLED agencies.
Internal Alignment: Partner with Legal/Contracts, Finance, and Government Affairs teams to ensure policy compliance and efficient deal structuring (e.g., non-standard deal pricing).