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Salary: EUR 310,000 - 380,000 / annual
Anthropic is seeking a Public Sector Sales Lead for France to build the company's government business from the ground up. This is a founding, zero-to-one role with no existing public sector team in France. You will report to EMEA South leadership and serve as the senior face of Anthropic to the French State, driving adoption of safe, frontier AI across central government starting with major ministries (defence, finance, justice).
As a senior individual contributor, you will define and own Anthropic's public sector go-to-market strategy for France, including where to play first, how to win, and what capabilities to build. You will own the full sales cycle on strategic public sector opportunities from initial engagement through procurement, close, deployment and expansion. You will build trusted relationships with ministerial cabinets, senior officials, and digital/technology leaders across the largest ministries.
Key responsibilities include: defining the public sector go-to-market strategy; being the senior face of Anthropic to the French State; owning full sales cycles on strategic opportunities; working with Partnerships, Legal and Finance to establish routes to market including resale channels, framework agreements and central purchasing bodies (UGAP); partnering daily with Anthropic's Public Policy lead to align commercial and policy engagement; leading conversations on data sovereignty, security and compliance (SecNumCloud, cloud doctrine); proving value with customers alongside Applied AI architects, cloud providers and systems integrators; learning from and contributing to UK and US public sector teams; and creating playbooks and operating rhythms for scaling the French public sector team over time.
This role emphasizes hands-on execution in the early stages, with the expectation that you will do much of the groundwork yourself while building the foundations for future team growth. Success in year one is measured by establishing Anthropic's presence with the French State through clear strategy, strong foundations, and first strategic agreements—not by team size.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 15+ years in enterprise technology sales, including significant time running a public sector business unit or leading sales teams selling to French central government
- Appetite to move from a leadership role into a hands-on senior individual contributor role with no team at the outset
- Proven track record building from zero: new market, new business line, or early-stage company where systems and processes were not yet in place
- Track record of landing large, complex, transformative agreements with major ministries as the deal leader
- Deep, senior network across central government with credibility to engage at director and cabinet level as well as with technical teams
- Practical command of French public procurement: tenders, framework agreements, central purchasing bodies, partner and resale routes
- Real expertise in data sovereignty, security and compliance requirements in the French State, with experience leading those conversations with customers
- Experience or clear aptitude for working closely with public policy or government affairs colleagues
- Ownership and resilience: treat what is missing as something to build, bring colleagues along
- Technical curiosity to learn products in depth and hold credible conversations with engineering leaders and senior officials
- Fluent French and English with excellent written and spoken communication in both languages
- Willingness to undergo French security clearance (habilitation) if required by specific accounts
- Genuine commitment to safe and beneficial AI and ability to articulate why it matters for public institutions
- Minimum education: Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience in a field relevant to the role
