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Salary: USD 144,000 - 200,000 / annual
Skydio is the leading US autonomous drone company, serving defense, public safety, and enterprise customers. As Key Account Director for the Majors East region, you will lead a regional sales team selling into the largest public safety agencies across the Eastern United States (AL, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV).
This is a first-line management role focused on 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 regional number. You will drive team performance by sharpening deal strategy, participating in competitive pursuits, and building territory pipeline and forecast discipline. You will work cross-functionally with peer Directors, Channel, Sales Engineering, Business Development, Marketing, Strategic Relationships, Government Relations, and Mission Success teams.
The role emphasizes setting standards for how the team works. You will model and coach systematic use of AI tools as a normal part of sales operations. You will compete against incumbent platforms and well-funded challengers in a highly competitive market, often selling alongside channel partners.
Key responsibilities include: owning regional hiring with a rigorous, structured process; coaching through 1:1s and deal reviews that build judgment; getting into the field for demos and customer meetings; building MEDDPICC rigor and forecast honesty; developing team fluency with AI tools; designing achievable and equitable territory and quota assignments; owning the regional pipeline, forecast accuracy, and linearity; acting as executive sponsor on largest pursuits; and representing customer insight and competitive intelligence to Marketing and Product.
The culture emphasizes high integrity (straight answers, selling on merits), team sport mentality (collective success over individual slice), conversational craft (asking better questions, genuine curiosity), and curiosity with AI tools (knowing what quality looks like, catching confident errors, embracing AI rather than resisting it).
REQUIREMENTS:
- 3+ years leading quota-carrying sellers as a first-line manager, with documented team attainment year by year, including years missed and changes made
- 4+ years total in enterprise software, hardware, or SaaS sales, including personal success closing complex, multi-stakeholder deals
- Demonstrated success recruiting sellers: real network, clear point of view on quality, structured process, ability to close candidates
- Articulated coaching approach with specific examples of people who improved measurably under your leadership
- Strong voluntary retention history, record of developing people into larger roles, judgment to move quickly when fit is wrong
- Experience selling or leading teams into SLED (State, Local, Education) customers, with working knowledge of procurement vehicles and budget/grant 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 made you or your team measurably better (must be able to demonstrate, not just describe)
- Executive presence with customer leadership and your own team; high personal integrity under quota pressure
- Ability to travel at least 50% of the time; based on East Coast
- FAA Part 107 certification within first 60 days of employment strongly encouraged and required for certain positions
PREFERRED:
- Experience in public safety (law enforcement, fire, emergency management)
- Experience building a team from small base rather than inheriting mature one
- Built something with AI that others use (research tool, analysis, team workflow); can discuss what first version got wrong
- 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.
