Account Executive, SLED

Abnormal AI; United States; On-site; USD 157,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

Abnormal AI is seeking an Enterprise Account Executive for the State, Local and Education sector in the United States. The ideal candidate will hunt and close large SLED accounts, leveraging a disciplined pipeline and a multi-pillar demand generation approach.

You will manage full deals, tailor messaging to government stakeholders, and collaborate with Sales Engineering and Marketing to drive revenue growth across identity, AI security, and insider threat offerings.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in direct enterprise SLED sales, prospecting and closing.
• Proven track record closing new logos and growing existing accounts in CA.
• Strong negotiation skills for complex multi-stakeholder cycles.
• Consistent over-quota performance, ideally top 5%.
• Technical fluency across security, email, cloud, and AI is required.

Responsibilities

• Sell Abnormal AI solutions to large Enterprise SLED agencies with agreed ARR quota.
• Run full deal lifecycle: discovery, eval, contract, renewal and upsell.
• Prospect and build new business to keep pipeline ahead of target.
• Demonstrate platform expansion from email to identity, AI security, and insider threat.
• Collaborate with Customer Success to secure renewals and expansions.
• Maintain accurate pipeline in Salesforce, Highspot, and Close Plan.
• Advocate for customers inside Abnormal AI with cross-functional teams.

Skills

Enterprise SLED sales

Account hunting

Negotiation

Sales cycle management

Cross-functional collaboration

Data-driven selling

Top-quartile performance

Security tech fluency

Tools

Salesforce

Highspot

Close Plan

Job description

About The Role

Cybercrime doesn't wait for anyone to catch up to it, and neither do we. Abnormal AI is looking for an Enterprise Account Executive to join our SLED team, selling behavioral AI security solutions into large, complex State, Local, and Education agencies within a defined territory.

About The Role

Cybercrime doesn't wait for anyone to catch up to it, and neither do we. Abnormal AI is looking for an Enterprise Account Executive to join our SLED team, selling behavioral AI security solutions into large, complex State, Local, and Education agencies within a defined territory.

We didn't bolt AI onto old security tools. We built our platform from AI up, to catch the human-targeted attacks that legacy tools miss, and public sector organizations need that protection as much as anyone.

The ideal candidate is local to the Sacramento area and brings experience selling cybersecurity solutions into large public sector environments, particularly Enterprise-level SLED organizations, along with:

• Proven hunter focused on selling to large state and local government agencies, with a disciplined approach to early pipeline development and prospecting.
• Skilled at leveraging all five demand generation pillars: AE prospecting, SDRs, marketing, channel partnerships, and customer referrals.
• Strong qualifier with the ability to uncover public sector pain points and map them to compelling, value-driven solutions.
• Effective presenter who tailors demos and messaging to resonate with government stakeholders and address their specific challenges.
• Process-oriented with a consistent sales methodology and strong time management skills to manage multiple deals efficiently.
• Data-disciplined, maintaining accurate and up-to-date account and opportunity data across systems.
• Experienced in building business cases that quantify ROI and value for diverse public sector audiences, including IT, procurement, and leadership.
• Knowledge sharer who captures and organizes customer insights and lessons learned to support team learning.
• Skilled at guiding public sector customers through complex internal buying processes, including procurement and RFP cycles.
• Resilient and resourceful, with a strong track record of success in early-stage environments.
• Effective at leveraging internal teams such as Sales Engineering, Marketing BDRs, Product, and Customer Success to drive results in the SLED space.

What You Will Do

• Sell Abnormal AI solutions to large Enterprise SLED agencies with a mandate to overachieve new annual recurring revenue quota, not just hit it.
• Run the full deal cycle in your accounts: first conversation, technical evaluation, contract signature, and the upsell conversations that follow once they're a customer.
• Prospect and build new business opportunities to keep your pipeline ahead of target.
• Sell a platform that's actively expanding underneath you: what started as email security now covers identity, AI security, and insider threat, giving you more surface area to bring value to every agency.
• Partner with Customer Success to protect timely renewals and surface expansion opportunities.
• Keep your data sharp across Salesforce, Highspot, and Close Plan, because accurate pipeline is how the whole team plans and wins.
• Be the customer's advocate inside Abnormal, working with Sales Engineering, Product, and Marketing to get the right things prioritized so more revenue closes, faster.

Must Haves

• Enterprise SLED Account Hunter: 8+ years of direct (not overlay) enterprise sales experience prospecting and closing large, complex SLED accounts.
• A proven track record of both closing new account logos and growing existing accounts through cross-sell and upsell within the State of California.
• Negotiation skill that holds up against large organizations and complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles.
• A track record to back it up: consistent over-quota performance, ideally top 5% of your sales org.
• Technical fluency across security, email, cloud, and AI, enough to hold your own in a conversation with a security or IT leader.
• Cybersecurity or security-adjacent SaaS sales experience, selling subscription software to CISOs and security personnel.
• A builder's mindset: you've thrived somewhere early-stage, an underdog, or up against bigger incumbents, and you know how to build territory with limited resources.
• Comfort selling within a company that's still writing its next chapter. We're growing 40%+ year over year, protecting more than 4,500 customers including over 25% of the Fortune 500, and expanding fast from email into identity, AI security, and insider threat. That means more to sell, more to learn, and more room to make your mark than a mature market leader can offer.

Actual compensation will be determined based on several non-discriminatory factors including skills, experience, qualifications, and geographic location.

In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for bonus or incentive compensation, equity, and a comprehensive benefits package.

Base salary range

$157,250—$185,000 USD

A note on AI in our process

Abnormal AI uses AI-assisted tools to help our recruiting team prepare for candidate interviews. These tools analyze resume content and role requirements to suggest interview questions and areas for the interviewer to explore. They do not make hiring decisions or screen candidates automatically. Every decision about a candidacy is made by a person. Further, if your application is successful and Abnormal AI makes a conditional offer of employment, we will carry out pre-employment checks which must be successfully completed to progress to a final offer. All processes and pre-employment checks are in line with prevailing legislation and Abnormal AI's policies relevant to our security and privacy standards.

Abnormal AI is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law. For our EEO policy statement please click here. If you would like more information on your EEO rights under the law, please click here.