Description
Job Overview
We're seeking an experienced Account Director, Federal Partnerships (Defense) to join our Go To Market (GTM) team at OpenAI. You'll play a critical role in bringing advanced AI to the defense industrial base, leading a portfolio of emerging defense technology accounts and developing their account and deal strategy.
Responsibilities
- Lead account strategy and commercial execution for your emerging defense technology portfolio, from discovery and negotiation through close and expansion.
- Support the broader partnerships team on larger strategic relationships across the defense industrial base.
- Collaborate with solutions and engineering teams to move customers from AI evaluation to deployment and sustained adoption.
- Maintain accurate pipeline, consumption forecasts, and clear next steps.
- Build trusted executive and technical relationships, connecting AI capabilities to business and mission outcomes.
- Anticipate customer needs and bring customer and market insights into product and partnership decisions.
- Coordinate across OpenAI to advance deals, remove blockers, and deliver on customer commitments.
Requirements
- 8+ years of combined relevant experience across government, military service, defense technology, or PaaS/SaaS businesses, including at least 2 years in private-sector, customer-facing roles.
- Proven private-sector results, with clear examples of business or customer outcomes you personally drove.
- Strong business acumen and strategic judgment, including the ability to assess opportunities, navigate stakeholders, and turn insight into action.
- The ability to take initiative, set priorities, and deliver results amid the ambiguity and pace of defense technology.
- Polished, clear communication and experience working directly with senior executives in government or the private sector.
- Hands-on experience applying AI tools to practical problems, with the ability to explain the approach, results, and limitations.
- Strong understanding of APIs and workflow integration, with the ability to engage engineering teams credibly.
Nice to Have
- Military service and/or defense technology experience.
- Initiative, urgency, and coachability, with a record of acting on feedback and following through.
What Success Looks Like
- You're customer-centric, understanding customers' priorities and taking ownership of helping them deploy useful capabilities quickly.
- You're deeply curious about AI, regularly testing new capabilities, exploring their limits, and identifying practical uses for customers.
- You bring a strong work ethic, taking initiative, preparing thoroughly, and following through.
- You look ahead, anticipating what customers will need next and helping them identify new opportunities.
Salary
This role offers a salary of $261K - $305K per year.