Head of Public Sector Sales

Job description

HELP US TACKLE THE GROWING WILDFIRE CRISIS WITH THE LATEST ADVANCEMENTS IN AI AND IOT WHO WE ARE The challenge: Every minute matters in wildfire response. As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of wildfires—with longer fire seasons, drier fuels, and more extreme weather—new ignitions can spread rapidly, putting communities, critical infrastructure, and ecosystems at risk. Today, many wildfires are first reported by members of the public, meaning it can take valuable time to detect a fire, confirm its location and size, and mobilize responders. Fire agencies need faster, more reliable ways to detect, verify, and pinpoint new ignitions so they can respond quickly and prevent small fires from becoming catastrophic events. About Pano AI: Pano AI is the leader in AI-powered wildfire detection and intelligence, helping fire professionals detect, respond to, and contain wildfires faster and more safely. Our platform combines advanced hardware, software, artificial intelligence, satellite imagery, and other data sources to provide real-time situational awareness and actionable intelligence. Using a network of ultra-high-definition, 360-degree cameras positioned across high vantage points, Pano AI delivers a real-time view of wildfire activity, enabling faster, more informed decision-making when every second counts. We are a team of more than 175 people working in a hybrid-remote environment across North America and Australia, with headquarters in San Francisco. Our customers include government agencies, utilities, insurers, and private landowners who rely on Pano AI to help protect people, property, and natural landscapes. Pano AI currently serves customers across the United States, Australia, and Canada, monitoring more than 50 million acres worldwide. Our values are part of everything we do at Pano AI. They guide how we work together, how we serve our customers, and how we approach our mission. Impact: As we scale our business, we grow our impact—enabling emergency managers to protect people, infrastructure, and the environment from devastating wildfires. Service: We serve those who serve, and the teammates beside us. Trust: We earn trust through integrity, accountability, and an obsession with quality so that our partners can rely on us. Excellence and Speed: We produce exceptional work quickly because our mission demands both precision and urgency. Innovation: We apply cutting-edge technology to what we build and how we work. Our work has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative AI Companies in 2023 https://www.fastcompany.com/90846670/most-innovative-companies-artificial-intelligence-2023 and one of the World's Most Innovative Companies in 2026 https://www.fastcompany.com/91502951/pano-ai-most-innovative-companies-2026, ranking #1 in Sustainability. We have also been named to TIME's https://www.linkedin.com/company/time/ list of the 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025 https://time.com/collections/time100-companies-2025/7289577/pano-ai/ and recognized by MIT Technology Review https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/01/1104375/2024-climate-tech-companies-pano-ai-fire-detecting-ai/as one of the top climate technology companies to watch. Backed by $89 million in funding https://techcrunch-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/techcrunch.com/2023/07/10/pano-series-a-extension/amp/ from leading investors including Giant Ventures, Liberty Mutual Ventures, Tokio Marine Future Fund, Congruent Ventures, Initialized Capital, Salesforce Ventures, and T-Mobile Ventures, we're building technology that helps communities around the world become more resilient to wildfire. Learn more at www.pano.ai http://www.pano.ai. THE ROLE Pano AI seeks an experienced Head of Public Sector Sales to help drive full-cycle sales initiatives with new and existing accounts within our public sector (federal, state, and local), during an exciting early growth phase of the business. You will be driven, well-versed in climate tech, safety, and/or disaster relief, passionate about supporting government agencies to address the growing threat of wildfires, and able to navigate the complexities of public sector sales. You will focus on developing and executing strategies to work with government agencies at all levels - Federal (e.g. BLM, USFS, DoD), State (Washington DNR, Texas A&M, Colorado DFPC) and cities/counties. You will work hand in hand with Pano AI’s North America VP of Sales and the broader Go-To-Market team (which includes members vertically focused on Pano’s other segments, including utilities and private land owners). As we continue to scale our business and product, your work will be invaluable in setting the future trajectory of the commercial team. This is an opportunity for a qualified candidate to be a key contributor to driving early-stage success for Pano AI, all while working on a meaningful and urgent issue. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Lead and scale our Public Sector sales organization, driving revenue within both new and existing accounts - Develop go-to-market strategies to access all levels of government (federal, state, and local) - Structure and negotiate new business relationships including key pricing, commercial, and operational terms as part of complex contracting processes - Bring government contracting expertise to ensure Pano is best situated to contract at all levels of the government - Work closely with our Government Affairs VP (and broader team) to develop and execute against lobbying strategies to create long-term business opportunities - Manage senior-level relationships with customers and key partners - Leverage domain expertise to plan and execute sales tactics in the following areas: territory planning, prospecting, proposal development and RFP responses, relationship development, pricing, presentation and delivery (finalist or other), negotiations, closing and executing contracts - Drive ongoing account management in partnership with Customer Success to ensure customer satisfaction and drive additional expansion opportunities - Partnering with internal stakeholders in Sales, Marketing, Product, Operations, and Finance, you will own an assessment of the competitive landscape and technologies to help formulate and refine product/ GTM/ service/ support strategies unique to the Public Sector vertical - Ensure swift execution of new Pano Station installations during a challenging short pre-fire season purchasing window, by partnering closely with the internal ops team and facilitating necessary actions with customer operations teams, often in parallel with closing the contract WHAT YOU’LL BRING - 10+ years of Public Sector and technology sales experience selling enterprise software, networking, infrastructure, managed hosting services, and/or cloud computing services, etc. - 5+ years of sales leadership experience, with a focus on building and scaling sales organizations - Demonstrated ability to think strategically about aligning go-to-market strategies to the varying needs of the different segments of the public sector market (federal, state, and local) - Excellent writing and verbal skills with an attention to organization, detail, and quality presentation - A track record of navigating multi-stakeholder and complex sales cycles, with an emphasis on engagement at the executive level - Highly competitive, ramp quickly, extremely adaptive, high sense of urgency, and pride yourself on exceeding production goals - Strong bias towards coaching and development of your team - Travel expectations at least 25% Final compensation for regular full-time employees is determined by a variety of factors, including job-related qualifications, education, experience, skills, knowledge, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, regular full-time roles are eligible for equity. Benefits are tailored to local market standards and statutory requirements in the employee's country of employment, and may include health coverage, retirement or pension contributions, and paid time off. Specific benefit details will be shared during the interview process.