Account Director, Federal Partnerships (Defense)

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. - 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. - Military service and/or defense technology experience are valued. - Initiative, urgency, and coachability, with a record of acting on feedback and following through. You might thrive in this role if you:  - Are customer-centric. You understand customers’ priorities and take ownership of helping them deploy useful capabilities quickly. - Are deeply curious about AI. You regularly test new capabilities, explore their limits, and identify practical uses for customers. - Bring a strong work ethic. You take initiative, prepare th