Director of Federal Sales

Remote; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote

Health benefits

Flexible time off

Learning & development fund

DEI commitment

Job summary

HiddenLayer is seeking a Director of Federal Sales to lead the Department of War and Intelligence Community business from a remote US location. This senior role owns sales strategy, pipeline, and partner management, driving growth across federal agencies and leveraging AI security capabilities.

The ideal candidate will have deep federal sales experience, strong stakeholder relationships, and the ability to scale a fast-growing organization.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of federal sales, capture, or business development experience.
• Experience with federal acquisition processes and budgeting.
• Ability to operate as a player‑coach to scale a federal sales organization.
• Existing relationships with senior leaders within the DoD/IC and related agencies.
• Experience with CRM and revenue-management platforms.

Responsibilities

• Own and execute HiddenLayer’s federal sales strategy for the Department of War, Intelligence Community, and related national security orgs.
• Serve as the senior sales leader and primary commercial point of contact for HiddenLayer’s federal business.
• Requalify and manage the federal pipeline with defined requirements, funding paths, and close plans.
• Build and maintain a qualified pipeline through account planning, engagement, capture, and partnerships.
• Develop relationships with SES-level executives, program leaders, contracting officials, and decision-makers.
• Lead complex federal pursuits from qualification through award and expansion.
• Coordinate with internal teams to develop tailored proposals and acquisition materials.
• Maintain accurate opportunity data, account plans, and forecasts in Salesforce and Clari.

Skills

Federal sales

Pipeline management

Executive engagement

Strategic planning

Channel partnerships

Sales forecasting

Senior stakeholders

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Salesforce

Clari

Job description

Director of Federal Sales

Remote [within the US], DC Metro Area preferred

Active TS clearance required; TS/SCI highly desired.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

We are seeking an experienced federal sales leader to serve as the senior commercial lead for HiddenLayer’s Department of War and Intelligence Community business. The Director, Federal Sales will own federal sales strategy, pipeline development, account growth, customer engagement, and partner management.

Initially operating as a player‑coach, this individual will build and scale the federal sales organization, establish disciplined sales processes, improve forecasting, develop account strategies, and collaborate across the company to drive growth. The ideal candidate understands complex federal acquisition environments, engages senior stakeholders, builds trusted partnerships, and translates AI security capabilities into mission outcomes.

WHO WE ARE:

HiddenLayer protects the world’s most valuable technologies from adversarial AI attacks. We were founded by AI professionals and security specialists with first‑hand experience of how insidious adversarial AI attacks can be to detect and defend against. Determined to prove that these attacks were preventable, the team developed a unique, patent‑pending, productized solution to support organizations in accelerating their adoption of AI securely.

Our dedication to innovation has been recognized by prestigious awards such as RSA's Innovation Sandbox Winner, CB Insights AI 100, CyberTech 100, and SC's Most Promising Early-Stage Start-up.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• Own and execute HiddenLayer’s federal sales strategy for the Department of War, Intelligence Community, and related national security organizations.
• Serve as the senior sales leader and primary commercial point of contact for HiddenLayer’s federal business.
• Requalify and manage the existing federal pipeline, ensuring each opportunity has defined mission requirements, customer alignment, acquisition strategy, funding path, next steps, and close plan.
• Build and maintain a qualified pipeline of new federal opportunities through account planning, customer engagement, capture activities, and partner collaboration.
• Develop and maintain relationships with senior government stakeholders, including SES‑level executives, program leaders, technical authorities, contracting officials, and acquisition decision‑makers.
• Lead complex federal pursuits from initial engagement and qualification through capture, proposal, negotiation, award, and expansion.
• Develop account, opportunity, and capture strategies for priority agencies, programs, contracts, and mission areas.
• Manage and expand relationships with federal partners, including VARs, FSIs, systems integrators, distributors, and other strategic channel partners.
• Establish partner engagement plans and identify joint business opportunities that contribute to qualified pipeline and contract execution.
• Coordinate with internal teams to develop tailored proposals, presentations, demonstrations, briefings, white papers, and other acquisition materials.
• Maintain accurate opportunity data, account plans, close plans, and forecasts in Salesforce and Clari.
• Provide market intelligence and customer feedback to inform product strategy, positioning, pricing, and federal go‑to‑market priorities.
• Represent HiddenLayer at federal conferences, industry events, customer engagements, and partner forums.
• Support the recruitment, onboarding, coaching, and development of future federal sales team members.
• Travel approximately 10–25%, based on customer, partner, and business requirements.

WHO YOU ARE:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, computer science, engineering, or a related field preferred.
• 8+ years of successful federal sales, capture, or business development experience, preferably in cybersecurity, AI, software, or national security technology.
• Experience managing and improving a federal sales pipeline, including opportunity qualification, requalification, capture planning, forecasting, and executive reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a player‑coach by generating revenue while establishing the processes and team structure needed to scale a federal sales organization.
• Existing relationships with senior leaders and decision‑makers within the Department of War, Intelligence Community, and related national security organizations.
• Experience developing and managing strategic partner relationships and joint go‑to‑market initiatives.
• Strong understanding of federal acquisition, contracting, budgeting, appropriations, procurement vehicles, and government buying processes.
• Ability to understand and communicate complex AI security and cybersecurity concepts, including machine learning security, threat detection, anomaly detection, model risk, and data protection.
• Strategic thinker with strong business judgment and the ability to translate customer and market insight into executable growth strategies.
• Highly organized and accountable, with strong forecast discipline and the ability to manage multiple complex pursuits.
• Entrepreneurial, self‑directed, and comfortable creating structure and momentum in a rapidly growing company.
• Experience with Salesforce, Clari, or comparable CRM and revenue‑management platforms.
• Experience applying a structured sales or capture methodology to federal opportunities.
• Willingness to contribute directly to customer engagement, pipeline generation, partner management, and team development as the federal organization grows.

WHY HIDDENLAYER?

We just raised $100M in Series B funding led by Delta‑v Capital, with backing from Morgan Stanley, Microsoft's venture arm, Booz Allen Hamilton, and others. It's a validation of what we've built: 10x revenue growth, 50+ new enterprise customers, and deployments across defense, finance, and the world's largest AI platforms. This funding goes straight into expanding our platform and GTM capabilities, and into growing our team globally.

Attracting and retaining the very best people is our #1 priority. That’s why we offer our team best‑in‑class benefits, including:

• Fully Remote: We are a completely remote global team. Though we’re distributed, we are intentional about getting the team together a couple of times a year. We offer a generous stipend for your home office setup, annual upgrades to ensure you have a comfortable workspace and a monthly stipend for internet/phone expenses.
• Comprehensive Health & Wellness Benefits: Better than your average startup healthcare benefits. With five options to choose from, of which are fully subsidized by HiddenLayer, we offer a variety of options to fit each person’s needs. We also offer vision, dental, and 401k offerings.
• Flexible Time Off: Enjoy unlimited and flexible time off for all salaried employees, in addition to 15 paid company holidays.
• Commitment to Learning and Development: We support personal growth and education through a dedicated L&D fund that can be used for training, conferences, certifications and industry events.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: We are committed to building a diverse team with individuals from various backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

HiddenLayer is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, age, marital status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status. We are committed to providing a workplace free of any discrimination or harassment.