Market Lead

About Obvio AI Each year, more than 40,000 people in the U.S. leave home and never make it back due to traffic crashes. At Obvio, we believe these deaths are preventable. We deploy solar-powered, AI-assisted cameras to enforce traffic laws where pedestrians are most vulnerable—automating enforcement in ways that traditional systems cannot. Our approach has already led to a 50% reduction in reckless driving in early partner cities. Founded by the team behind Motive's AI dashcam and backed by Bain Capital Ventures and Khosla Ventures, we are building the intelligence layer for safer streets globally. The Role We're looking for a builder—someone who wakes up thinking about how to open doors, close deals, and move an entire market forward. As General Manager / Market Lead, you are the Founder’s proxy in your territory. You drive market growth through strategic coordination across sales, government relations, customer pilots, lobbyists, and cross-functional teams. You won’t directly manage every function—but you’ll have dotted-line influence across all of them, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks and the market moves forward. This is not a “manage from a dashboard” role. You’ll be in the room with legislators and on-site with pilot customers. Think of the person who would have jumped at the chance to launch a new city for a company like Uber or Lyft in the early growth days—but with the added complexity of navigating public-sector stakeholders and shaping policy. What You’ll Drive Market Strategy & Revenue Growth — Build and execute the go-to-market plan for your assigned territory (e.g., Maryland). Own the revenue target and coordinate the people and resources needed to hit it. Outbound Sales & Business Development — Personally prospect and close new government and enterprise accounts. Legislative & Government Relations — Meet with state and local legislators, attend hearings, and build the relationships that turn policy conversations into procurement opportunities. Lobbyist Guidance — Strategically direct external lobbyists to ensure alignment with company priorities and messaging. Hold them accountable to outcomes, not activity. Pre-Sales Pilots & Customer Success — Coordinate pilot programs across product, engineering, and customer teams. Ensure pilots convert to contracts by staying close from kickoff through go-live. Sales Troubleshooting — Diagnose stalled deals, remove blockers, re-engage champions, and rescue at-risk opportunities. If something is broken in the funnel, you find it and fix it. Courtroom & Regulatory Presence — Attend court sessions, regulatory meetings, and public comment periods as the company’s representative on the ground. Cross-Functional Coordination — Serve as the connective tissue between HQ and your market. Rally product, marketing, legal, and ops teams around market-specific needs without needing a formal reporting line. Who You Are Entrepreneurial to your core. You’ve either started something yourself or operated like a founder inside a fast-scaling company. Ambiguity is where you do your best work. Relentlessly outbound. Your default mode is action: picking up the phone, walking into an office, sending the follow-up. Pipeline doesn’t build itself, and you don’t wait for inbound leads. A strategic thinker who can also execute. You can map a 12-month market entry plan on a whiteboard, then spend the afternoon knocking on doors to make it real. Comfortable in government and political environments. You understand how procurement cycles, legislative calendars, and policy advocacy work—or you learn fast and aren’t intimidated by them. An exceptional communicator. Whether it’s a 1:1 with a county commissioner or a panel at an industry conference, you command the room and build trust quickly. Energized by public-private partnerships. You see the intersection of technology and government as a feature, not a bug. The bureaucracy is the puzzle you want to solve. Scrappy and resourceful. You’re the person who figures out the workaround, calls in the favor, and ships it anyway. Ideal Background 8+ years of experience in high-growth, operationally intense environments. Startups, marketplace businesses, or territory-based sales organizations are ideal. High intellectual and strategic horsepower. You pattern-match quickly, synthesize complex information, and make sharp decisions under uncertainty. MBA, management consulting , or a founded-and-operated-something background are strong signals. Track record of opening or scaling a new market, city, or territory. You can point to a geography or vertical you built from zero (or near-zero). Strong outbound presence. You’re credible and compelling in a room with senior stakeholders—whether that’s a C-suite buyer, a state legislator, or a skeptical procurement officer. Government or public-sector experience is a plus, not a requirement. We have sales specialists and lobbyists who know the space—we need someone with the strategic chops and executive presence to lead the orchestra. Experience at companies that operate at the intersection of technology and the public sector would be a strong plus Why This Role This is a true general-management opportunity at an early-stage company with real traction. You’ll have the autonomy of running your own business inside the business, a direct line to the Co-Founder/President, and the chance to shape how an entire market adopts the product. If you’re the type of person who gets restless in a narrow lane and thrives when you own the whole picture, we want to talk. Compensation & Benefits Competitive base salary plus aggressive performance-based compensation tied to market revenue targets. Equity participation — you’re building this with us. Full benefits package including health, dental, and vision. Travel budget and autonomy to run your market the way it needs to be run. WhyObvio Your work will help save lives and improve road safety Series A of $22M led by Bain Capital Fast-moving startup environment with meaningful ownership Competitive compensation and early-stage equity Obvio is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Obvio considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. Obvio is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please let your recruiter know. #J-18808-Ljbffr obvio