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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. This role leads a regional sales team focused on the high-volume small-city public safety segment (agencies with 1–40 sworn personnel).
As Key Account Director for the Eastern U.S. territory, you will manage a team of Key Account Leaders selling into Drone as First Responder (DFR) programs and related public safety initiatives. This is a first-line management role with three core responsibilities: recruiting talented sellers, coaching them into high performers, and retaining them.
You will not carry your own accounts; your success is measured by your team's attainment. You will sharpen deal strategy, participate in competitive pursuits, and build 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 small-city segment is characterized by high volume and velocity. You will manage the funnel through metrics—conversion rates, cycle time, stage velocity, activity quality—to intervene early. You also own the region's upmarket radar, identifying agencies that may graduate to larger segments and routing them appropriately.
You will model and coach systematic use of AI tools as a normal part of territory management and sales execution. You will set the standard for how the team works: high integrity, team-oriented, conversational excellence, and fluency with emerging tools.
Key responsibilities include:
- Recruiting and hiring to a high bar: building a continuous pipeline, running a rigorous process, screening for evidence of attainment and judgment, and personally closing candidates.
- Coaching through 1:1s and deal reviews that build judgment; getting into the field on demos and customer meetings; coaching competitive strategy, MEDDPICC rigor, and AI tool fluency.
- Retaining talent by setting clear expectations, creating development paths, designing equitable territory and quota assignments, and addressing disengagement early.
- Running the region: owning pipeline coverage, forecast accuracy, linearity, and analysis; partnering with Channel on strategy and deal structures; acting as executive sponsor on largest pursuits; representing customer and competitive insights to Product and Marketing; coordinating with peer Directors on account routing and graduation.
You will travel at least 50% of the time within the Eastern U.S. territory (AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV).
REQUIREMENTS:
- 2+ years leading quota-carrying sellers as a first-line manager, with documented team attainment year by year, including a year missed and what you changed.
- 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 what good looks like, structured process you can describe, 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 someone isn't right.
- Experience selling or leading teams into SLED (State, Local, Education) customers, with working knowledge of procurement vehicles, budget cycles, and 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 (you will be asked to demonstrate 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 and be based in Eastern U.S. region.
- Personal success in high-velocity, high-volume selling environments.
- Data-fluent coaching: manage a funnel by its metrics and point to specific levers behind rep results.
- Experience building or maintaining a repeatable sales process that scales with volume and headcount.
PREFERRED:
- Experience in public safety (law enforcement, fire, emergency management); experience standing up or scaling a high-volume segment.
- Experience building a team from a small base rather than inheriting a mature one.
- You have built something with AI that others use (research tool, analysis, team workflow) and can discuss what the first version got wrong.
- Curiosity demonstrated through ability to explain how things outside sales work (agency budgets, airspace waivers, aircraft autonomy) in plain language; fast learner.
- Familiarity with MEDDPICC, Salesforce, Clari, BGov, GovWin, Slack, Google Workspace.
- UAV, robotics, or emerging technology background; comfort in fast-moving environments.
About Skydio
Defense / GovTech; Industrial — autonomous drones for defense, public safety, and enterprise.
