Director, Sales - SLED

About Ping Identity: At Ping Identity, we believe in making digital experiences both secure and seamless for all users, without compromise. We call this digital freedom. And it's not just something we provide our customers. It's something that inspires our company. People don't come here to join a culture that's built on digital freedom. They come to cultivate it. Our intelligent, cloud identity platform lets people shop, work, bank, and interact wherever and however they want. Without friction. Without fear. While protecting digital identities is at the core of our technology, protecting individual identities is at the core of our culture. We champion every identity. One of our core values, Respect Individuality, reminds us to celebrate differences so you are empowered to bring your authentic self to work. We're headquartered in Denver, Colorado and we have offices and employees around the globe. We serve the largest, most demanding enterprises worldwide, including more than half of the Fortune 100. At Ping Identity, we're changing the way people and businesses think about cybersecurity, digital experiences, and identity and access management. The Role The Regional Director of Sales for SLED East will lead a team of Strategic Account Executives serving State, Local, Higher Education, and K–12 customers across the Eastern United States. This leader owns regional strategy, pipeline creation, forecast discipline, deal execution, partner activation, customer relationships, and team development to deliver profitable revenue growth and durable new-logo attainment for Ping Identity. The successful candidate is a customer-centered, outcomes-oriented sales leader who can translate identity security into mission value: modernizing legacy environments, enabling Zero Trust, strengthening identity assurance, protecting citizen and student services, securing workforce and third-party access, reducing fraud, and improving resilience across hybrid and cloud environments. Reports to: VP, Public Sector Sales Location: Field-based; Eastern U.S. preferred Travel: Regular travel across the territory and to customer, partner, and industry events; up to 50% as needed You Will • Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of Strategic Account Executives; set clear expectations for new-logo growth, pipeline creation, forecast accuracy, customer engagement, partner leverage, and deal execution. • Create and execute the SLED East go-to-market strategy, including territory design, account segmentation, whitespace analysis, state-by-state priorities, coverage plans, and quarterly operating rhythms aligned to Ping Identity’s broader public-sector strategy. • Build early-stage demand and new-logo pipeline before formal solicitations through executive outreach, mission-led account hypotheses, customer referrals, partner intelligence, associations, events, digital programs, and responsible use of AI and data signals. • Position Ping Identity’s identity-security platform against SLED priorities such as legacy modernization, Zero Trust, identity proofing and assurance, phishing-resistant authentication, workforce and contractor access, citizen and constituent services, student and faculty access, fraud reduction, privacy, auditability, and operational resilience. • Lead disciplined opportunity execution from discovery through award and expansion, including qualification, stakeholder mapping, technical validation, demonstrations, proofs of value, RFI/RFP responses, contract-vehicle strategy, pricing, negotiation, procurement, and close plans. • Maintain an accurate, evidence-based forecast that reflects funding and budget authority, compelling events, decision criteria, stakeholder support, procurement route, contract vehicle, competitive positio