Senior Account Executive (Department of Homeland Security)

Job description

### About Us Red Cell Partners is an incubation firm building and investing in rapidly scalable technology-led companies that are bringing revolutionary advancements to market in three distinct practice areas: healthcare, cyber, and national security. United by a shared sense of duty and deep belief in the power of innovation, Red Cell is developing powerful tools and solutions to address our Nation’s most pressing problems. **The Role** Red Cell Federal is seeking a driven Account Executive with a proven track record of selling enterprise software and services to the public sector. Reporting directly to the CRO, you will own new business development across the military services and Combatant Commands, from the earliest customer engagement through signed contract and award. This role requires a proven enterprise software seller. You have carried an individual quota as an Account Executive, you have consistently hit it, and you can speak precisely to your numbers. Experience selling for a startup or early-stage company — a product without an established category or reference base — is what we value most. This is not a seat where we develop a seller; you arrive knowing how to run a cycle **Territory** - Enterprise & HQ - DHS Headquarters, the Office of the Chief Information Officer, the Management Directorate, and Science & Technology - Cyber & infrastructure - CISA, including its operational divisions and stakeholder engagement organizations - Border & immigration - Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - Transportation & protective - Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Secret Service - Maritime & response - U.S. Coast Guard and FEMA **What You Will Own** - **Territory strategy, built jointly.**Develop the account plan for your segment with the CSO team, executive leadership, and your peers on the federal team. Bring the field intelligence and a clear recommendation, expect real debate, own the execution once direction is set. - **New business capture.** Personally source, qualify, and close new-name business. Own the full cycle from first introduction through award and initial expansion. - **Expansion of existing footholds.** Grow the accounts where we are already delivering. Turn a successful pilot or initial award into follow-on scope, adjacent adoption, and durable funding. - **Path to contract.**Find the fastest legitimate route onto contract and know why you chose it. Own the vehicle and teaming decisions for your accounts. - **Funding fluency.** Identify and align to available funding, work within budget cycle timing, and help customers build the justification to fund a new capability. - **Relationship depth.** Build durable trust at the working level, with contracting officers, and at the senior decision layer. Be the person the customer calls before there is a requirement. - **Brand stewardship.** Exercise judgment about what Red Cell Federal puts its name on. Credibility in this community compounds slowly and erodes quickly. Surface concerns early and do not chase revenue that costs us standing. - **Product feedback loop.** Translate mission problems into concrete input for engineering and product. At this stage, your read on the customer directly shapes the roadmap. - **Operating discipline.** Maintain the CRM hygiene, capture process, and forecast rigor that let leadership allocate capital against your pipeline. **Required Qualifications** - **Quota-carrying enterprise software AE experience** - 8+ years selling technology into the federal government, with a majority in new business, and substantial recent time inside DHS specifically. - Genuine component-level depth. You know that CISA and S&T buy technology, that CBP, ICE, USCIS and the Coast Guard buy operational capability at scale, and that DHS HQ buys enterprise — and you can say which of those you know cold rather than claiming all of them. - Command of FAR-based competitive procurement, not only other transaction authorities. You know how to position for a publicly competed award, how to build a compliant and winning response, and when to prime versus sub. - Vehicle fluency. You understand which DHS and government-wide vehicles reach which components, how to get onto them, and how to sell through a vehicle you do not hold. - A verifiable record of first-dollar-in wins where your company had no prior footprint, with the specifics of how you did it. - Appropriations literacy: how DHS components are funded, budget cycle timing, and how to help a customer find or build funding for a new capability. - Ability to sell with active, opinionated executive involvement. - U.S. citizenship. Bachelor's degree, or equivalent depth of operational experience. **Preferred** - Prior government service inside a DHS component — uniformed, law enforcement, or civilian. - Experience selling AI/ML, data platform, or decision-support software rather than labor-based services. - Small business and teaming fluency. DHS set-aside dynamics reward sellers who understand them. - Active TS/SCI, or a clearance history that makes reinstatement straightforward. **Why Join?** - You are not starting cold. Red Cell Federal has new business on the books, customers asking for more scope, and capability delivering in the field today. You will inherit real momentum, existing relationships, and wins you can point to in a first meeting. Your job is to turn that foothold into something considerably larger. - You are not alone. This is an early seat on a federal team being assembled now. Peers cover other segments alongside you and more are coming. We would rather this team be generous with account intelligence than territorial about it. - You will have senior air cover most sellers never get. You will work directly with Red Cell's executive team and the senior government leaders who advise the firm. Knowing when to bring a principal into a room, and how to prepare them, is part of this job.