Account Director, Federal Partnerships (Defense)

The posting, as OpenAI wrote it

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 Federal Partnerships team brings advanced AI to the defense industrial base. You’ll own a portfolio of emerging defense technology accounts and lead their account and deal strategy. You’ll also work with the broader partnerships team to grow larger strategic relationships.

You’ll independently lead customer meetings and manage your assigned emerging defense technology portfolio, working with technical teams to turn customer needs into deployed capabilities. This is a demanding, hands-on role that requires initiative, persistence, and a strong sense of responsibility for getting useful AI capabilities into customers’ hands.

This role is based in Washington, DC, with up to 25% travel. 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

• 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.
• Work 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.

We're seeking someone with

• 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.
• Military service and/or defense technology experience are valued.
• 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

[…]
please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form https://form.asana.com/?d=57018692298241&k=5MqR40fZd7jlxVUh5J-UeA. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link https://form.asana.com/?k=bQ7w9h3iexRlicUdWRiwvg&d=57018692298241.

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy https://cdn.openai.com/policies/global-employee-and-contractor-privacy-policy.pdf

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.