Account Director, State and Local Government

About the team OpenAI’s mission is to build safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity. This long-term undertaking brings the world’s best scientists, engineers, and business professionals together in one organization to accomplish this.

In pursuit of this mission, our OpenAI for Government team helps customers understand how to leverage and deploy our highly capable AI products across their organizations. The team comprises Sales, Solutions, Support, Marketing, and Partnerships professionals who collaborate to create valuable solutions and bring AI to as many users as possible.

About the role

Our OpenAI for Government team has a unique mission to help government customers understand the transformative impact that highly capable AI models can have on their agencies and missions. This role combines technical understanding, strategic vision, partnership management, and a value-driven approach tailored to state and local government customers.

This Account Director will own a portfolio of strategic state and local government accounts. 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 lead key opportunities through the entire sales cycle, from pipeline development through close. You’ll collaborate closely with researchers, engineers, and solution strategists to help government customers advance their missions through AI.

This role requires regular travel 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.

In this role, you'll:

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

We're seeking someone with experience including:

Bringing 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