Senior SLED AI Account Executive

Cohere; Phoenix (AZ); Hybrid; USD 230,000 - 430,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lunch stipend

Health and dental benefits

RRSP matching/401K

Parental leave top-up

Enrichment benefits

Education stipend

Paid vacation (6 weeks)

Office travel budget and offsite

Job summary

Cohere is seeking an Account Executive to oversee the full sales cycle with State, Local, and Higher Education customers in the Western United States. You will identify targets, engage senior leaders, and tailor AI solutions to meet public-sector needs.

You will navigate procurement cycles, build strategic partnerships, and collaborate with Product, Success, and Marketing teams to drive territory growth in a fast-evolving, remote-friendly environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of direct public sector sales in the SLED market with a proven track record of closing $2M+ annual quotas.
• Deep knowledge of SLED procurement cycles and how to work with resellers, VARs and distributors.
• Established regional network including state/local departments, prime contractors, and industry associations.
• Experience selling SaaS/AI/enterprise software solutions to government clients.
• High tolerance for ambiguity; capable of building a market from the ground up.
• Strong organizational skills managing multiple internal and external stakeholders across fast-moving deals.
• Creativity and technical acumen to structure unique, mutually beneficial partnerships.
• Excellent communication skills; able to present to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Preference given to candidates in CA, TX, WA, AZ and CO with 25-35% travel.

Responsibilities

• Drive net-new customer acquisition through targeted outbound activity and senior leader engagement across SLED organizations.
• Develop and execute a sales plan for the SLED market in your territory, identifying pathways to scale growth.
• Act as a trusted advisor to SLED customers by understanding goals and shaping AI solutions that deliver measurable value.
• Collaborate with channel partners, distributors, VARs, and system integrators to scale outreach and adoption.
• Leverage executive relationships to drive strategic opportunities and long-term partnerships.
• Work with Product and Engineering on strategic efforts to deliver enterprise/public-sector solutions.
• Partner with SDRs and Marketing to drive top-of-funnel activity and territory growth.
• Own the full sales cycle from discovery to procurement and close in a team-selling environment.

Skills

Public sector sales

SLED expertise

Govt procurement

SaaS sales

Relationship building

Strategic selling

Job description

Cohere is seeking an Account Executive to oversee the full sales cycle with State, Local, and Higher Education customers in the Western United States. You will identify targets, engage senior leaders, and tailor AI solutions to meet public-sector needs.

You will navigate procurement cycles, build strategic partnerships, and collaborate with Product, Success, and Marketing teams to drive territory growth in a fast-evolving, remote-friendly environment.