Senior Account Executive (National Labs & Federal Health)

Red Cell Partners

$175K — $370K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of experience selling technology to the federal government, focusing on new business in core markets
  • Proven track record of meeting sales quotas as an Account Executive in enterprise software
  • Knowledge of the unique sales processes for M&O contractors and federal health procurement
  • Strong network and strategic approach to targeting either national labs or federal health markets
  • Ability to navigate funding landscapes across civilian and federal entities, understanding both research and IT funding
  • Exceptional operational discipline and prioritization skills without a traditional structure

Responsibilities

  • Develop and execute territory strategy in collaboration with leadership and peers
  • Source, qualify, and close new business opportunities, managing the sales cycle from start to finish
  • Expand existing customer accounts and transform pilots into larger contracts
  • Identify and secure paths to contract using strategic decision-making
  • Cultivate deep relationships with customers and stakeholders at all levels
  • Provide strategic feedback from clients to influence product development
  • Maintain accurate and rigorous CRM documentation for effective pipeline management

Benefits

  • Career advancement opportunities based on performance
  • Comprehensive health care (medical, dental, vision) fully covered for employees and their families
  • Paid parental leave of 14 weeks at regular pay
  • Unlimited paid time off with management approval
  • Professional development opportunities for skill enhancement
  • Optional benefits like 401K and equity incentives
  • Mental health support through Tara Mind
  • Access to cost-efficient GLP-1 solutions through Crux
Full Job Description
The Role:

Red Cell Federal is seeking a driven Account Executive with a proven track record of selling enterprise software and services to the public sector. Reporting directly to the CRO, you will own new business development across the military services and Combatant Commands, from the earliest customer engagement through signed contract and award.

This role requires a proven enterprise software seller. You have carried an individual quota as an Account Executive, you have consistently hit it, and you can speak precisely to your numbers. Experience selling for a startup or early-stage company - a product without an established category or reference base - is what we value most. This is not a seat where we develop a seller; you arrive knowing how to run a cycle

Territory
  • This is the broadest of our territories and the one with the most room to shape. Your core focus is two markets: the national laboratory complex and federal health. Beyond those, you have latitude to pursue the wider civilian landscape where our capability clearly fits.
  • Core focus - National Laboratories
    • The complex, Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, Idaho National Laboratory, and the wider DOE lab system
    • The buyer, In most cases the M&O contractor that operates the lab, not DOE directly - a materially different path to contract than standard federal procurement
    • Program sponsors, NNSA and the relevant DOE program offices that fund lab mission work
  • Core focus - Federal Health
    • Veterans, Department of Veterans Affairs, including VHA and the Office of Information and Technology
    • Military health, Defense Health Agency and the Military Health System
    • Public health, HHS and its operating divisions, including CMS, NIH, and ASPR/BARDA
  • Extended landscape - opportunistic
    • Where our capability is a clear fit and the path to contract is real, you have room to pursue the broader civilian market, including the science and research agencies and civilian enterprise IT organizations. This is upside, not your year-one commitment. We would rather you go deep on the two core markets than thin across ten agencies.

What You Will Own
  • Territory strategy, built jointly. Develop the account plan for your segment with the CSO team, executive leadership, and your peers on the federal team. Bring the field intelligence and a clear recommendation, expect real debate, own the execution once direction is set.
  • New business capture. Personally source, qualify, and close new-name business. Own the full cycle from first introduction through award and initial expansion.
  • Expansion of existing footholds. Grow the accounts where we are already delivering. Turn a successful pilot or initial award into follow-on scope, adjacent adoption, and durable funding.
  • Path to contract. Find the fastest legitimate route onto contract and know why you chose it. Own the vehicle and teaming decisions for your accounts.
  • Funding fluency. Identify and align to available funding, work within budget cycle timing, and help customers build the justification to fund a new capability.
  • Relationship depth. Build durable trust at the working level, with contracting officers, and at the senior decision layer. Be the person the customer calls before there is a requirement.
  • Brand stewardship. Exercise judgment about what Red Cell Federal puts its name on. Credibility in this community compounds slowly and erodes quickly. Surface concerns early and do not chase revenue that costs us standing.
  • Product feedback loop. Translate mission problems into concrete input for engineering and product. At this stage, your read on the customer directly shapes the roadmap.
  • Operating discipline. Maintain the CRM hygiene, capture process, and forecast rigor that let leadership allocate capital against your pipeline.


Required Qualifications
  • Quota-carrying enterprise software AE experience
  • 8+ years selling technology into the federal government, with a majority in new business, and demonstrated wins in at least one of our two core markets - the national labs or federal health.
  • A real point of view on which of the two they would attack first and why. We want the reasoning, and we want it grounded in where their network actually is.
  • For the labs half: understanding that you are frequently selling to the M&O contractor operating the lab rather than to the government directly, and experience navigating that path. Candidates who have only sold FAR-direct will misjudge this entirely.
  • For the health half: fluency in the vehicle-gated nature of federal health procurement, and command of how VA, DHA, and HHS each buy differently from one another.
  • A verifiable record of first-dollar-in wins where your company had no prior footprint.
  • Funding literacy across civilian agencies, including how research and mission funding differs from enterprise IT funding.
  • Comfort operating with less structure than a single-agency territory provides. This seat rewards someone who prioritizes ruthlessly and can tell us clearly what they chose not to chase.
  • Ability to sell with active, opinionated executive involvement.
  • U.S. citizenship. Bachelor's degree, or equivalent depth of operational experience.


Preferred
  • Experience across both core markets rather than one. Rare, and valuable enough that we will look hard at anyone who has it.
  • Prior time inside a national laboratory, an M&O contractor, or a federal health organization.
  • Experience selling AI/ML, data platform, or decision-support software into scientific or clinical environments.
  • A track record of turning a research or pilot engagement into production scope and durable funding.
  • Active TS/SCI. Not required across most of this territory, but useful at the labs and worth the premium to us.


Compensation: $175,000 / $175,000 - $350,000 OTE. $185,000 / $185,000 - $370,000 OTE with an active TS/SCI. Uncapped, plus equity. Clearance preferred, not required.

Our Red Cell Partners Benefits:

For full-time roles
  • Career track opportunity with potential for rapid advancement with strong performance as the firm grows
  • 100% employer paid, comprehensive health care including medical, dental, and vision for you and your family.
  • Paid maternity and paternity for 14 weeks at employees' normal pay.
  • Unlimited PTO, with management approval.
  • Opportunities for professional development and continued learning.
  • Optional 401K, FSA, and equity incentives available.
  • Mental health benefits are available through Tara Mind.
  • Cost effective GLP-1 solutions available through Crux.

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