SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Salary: USD 144,000 - 200,000 / annual
Skydio is the leading US autonomous drone company, serving defense, public safety, and enterprise customers. This role leads a national sales team focused on State Departments of Corrections and state-funded Port Authorities—a high-stakes market where drone technology enables rapid emergency response.
As Key Account Director, Corrections, you will build and lead a first-line sales team selling into SLED (State, Local, Education) customers, specifically corrections agencies. You own three core responsibilities: recruiting exceptional sellers, coaching them into top performers, and retaining them. You will not carry your own accounts; your success is measured by your team's collective attainment.
Your impact spans multiple dimensions. You will recruit and hire to a high bar—integrity, team instinct, conversational craft, and AI fluency matter as much as sales track record. You will coach through 1:1s, deal reviews, and field engagement, building judgment and competitive rigor. You will retain by designing equitable territories, having honest career conversations, and creating a team people want to stay on. You will run the segment by owning pipeline coverage, forecast accuracy, and competitive strategy, while partnering with channel, marketing, product, and government relations teams.
The role requires deep expertise in SLED procurement, budget cycles, and corrections-specific dynamics. You will represent customer insights and competitive intelligence to leadership, attend national events (CLA, ACA), and serve as executive sponsor on major pursuits. You will model and coach systematic use of AI tools—research, call prep, RFP response, pipeline analysis—while maintaining rigorous quality control.
Skydio emphasizes high integrity, team-sport selling, conversational craft, and curiosity. You will set the standard for how your segment operates, not just what it sells. The environment is competitive; you will coach your team to win against incumbent platforms and well-funded challengers, often working alongside channel partners.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 3+ years leading quota-carrying sellers as a first-line manager, with documented year-by-year team attainment (including misses and corrective actions)
- 4+ years total in enterprise software, hardware, or SaaS sales, with personal success closing complex, multi-stakeholder deals
- Demonstrated success recruiting sellers: real network, clear hiring criteria, structured process, ability to close candidates
- Articulated coaching approach with specific examples of people who improved measurably under your leadership
- Strong voluntary retention history and track record developing people into larger roles
- Experience selling or leading teams into SLED customers, with working knowledge of procurement vehicles, budget cycles, and grant cycles
- Experience selling or leading teams into State Department of Corrections customers, with working knowledge of their procurement and budget cycles
- Fluency selling with and through channel partners
- Daily, systematic use of AI tools in your own work; at least one workflow, analysis, or tool you built or changed in the last two years that demonstrably improved results (you will be asked to show it)
- Executive presence with customer leadership and your own team; high personal integrity under quota pressure
- Ability to travel at least 50% of the time; role can be based anywhere in the United States
PREFERRED:
- Experience in public safety, specifically corrections, and relationships across CLA and ACA communities
- Experience building a team from a small base rather than inheriting a mature one
- You have built something with AI that other people use (research tool, analysis, team workflow) and can discuss what the first version got wrong
- Demonstrated curiosity: can explain how something outside sales works (agency budget, airspace waiver, aircraft autonomy) in plain language; learns fast
- Familiarity with MEDDPICC, Salesforce, Clari, BGov, GovWin, Slack, Google Workspace
- UAV, robotics, or emerging technology background; comfort in fast-moving environment
About Skydio
Defense / GovTech; Industrial — autonomous drones for defense, public safety, and enterprise.
