Account Director, State & Local Government

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

In pursuit of this mission, our Go To Market (GTM) team is responsible for helping customers learn how to leverage and deploy our highly capable AI products across their organization. The team comprises Sales, Solutions, Support, Marketing, and Partnership professionals who collaborate to create valuable solutions that will help bring AI to as many users as possible.

About the role

Our State & Local Government (SLG) Sales team helps customers across state agencies, municipalities, counties, and public sector organizations harness the power of AI to improve public service delivery, operational efficiency, and constituent engagement. This role blends technical acumen, public sector insight, partnership development, and strategic execution tailored specifically to state and local government customers.

You’ll lead strategic sales efforts throughout the entire SLG cycle—from pipeline development through to adoption and growth. You’ll partner with researchers, engineers, and solution strategists to empower SLG agencies to solve pressing community challenges using AI.

This role is U.S. remote-flexible, with a preference for candidates based near major metros. 

In this role, you'll:

• Manage a focused portfolio of key state and local government accounts, developing and executing comprehensive SLG account plans

• Guide SLG customers through their AI adoption journey—from initial education to successful, scalable deployment

• Partner with technical and research teams to build high-impact solutions tailored to government priorities such as public health, infrastructure, safety, education, and labor

• Own and manage a state and local government revenue target with a focus on consumption-based growth

• Forecast, report, and analyze SLG performance and pipeline metrics

• Stay current with public sector trends, funding cycles, legislation, and procurement frameworks that influence state and local IT strategies

• Collaborate cross-functionally across product, marketing, legal, support, operations, and engineering to deliver exceptional value to customers

• Help onboard and mentor team members focused on state and local accounts

Cultivate a public service-oriented culture within our SLG practice
We're seeking someone with experience including:

• 5+ years selling into state and/or local government accounts

• Demonstrated ability to consistently meet or exceed $2M+ in annual revenue targets within SLG organizations

• Deep understanding of SLG procurement processes, budget cycles, and RFP/contracting mechanisms (e.g., cooperative purchasing vehicles, NASPO, state contracts)

• A strong network and history of engagement with key SLG decision-makers and influencers

• Comfort navigating complex deal structures and coordinating internal resources to drive outcomes

• Experience leading SLG-focused events, demos, workshops, and co-innovation sessions

• Ability to synthesize public sector priorities (e.g., digital equity, smart cities, workforce modernization) and translate them into AI-powered solutions

You might thrive in this role if you: 

• Are customer-first. You’re passionate about helping government agencies better serve the public. You build trust with leaders in state departments, city governments, and public agencies.

• Are public-sector fluent. You understand the nuances of SLG structures, budget cycles, funding streams, and procurement challenges—and know how to navigate them effectively.

• Are a problem-solver. You embrace the complexities of government work and bring creative, AI-enabled solutions to unique community needs.

• Are a builder. You’re energized by shaping a new business segment. You create repeatable processes and scalable strategies tailored to SLG.

• Are passionate about AI. You are excited about the opportunity to help public institutions responsibly adopt powerful technology that can improve lives and communities.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at it