Senior Account Executive (Department of Homeland Security)

Senior Account Executive

Mclean, Virginia

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.
• You get to set the foundation. The territory plan you write, the accounts you decide are worth our time, and the standard you set for how Red Cell Federal shows up in a program office become the defaults for everyone hired after you. Sellers who join in year three will inherit a machine. You get a say in what the machine does.
• Strategy is set together. Where we go first, and what we attach our name to, are decided with our CSO team, executive leadership, and our senior government advisors. Our standing in this community is our most valuable asset and we will not spend it carelessly. Bring the ground truth, argue your case hard when you see it differently, and execute without hesitation once the call is made.

Compensation: $175,000 / $175,000 $350,000 OTE. $185,000 / $185,000 $370,000 OTE with an active TS/SCI. Uncapped, plus equity. Clearance preferred, not required.

Our Red Cell Partners Benefits:

For full-time roles

• Career track opportunity with potential for rapid advancement with strong performance as the firm grows
• 100% employer paid, comprehensive health care including medical, dental, and vision for you and your family.
• Paid maternity and paternity for 14 weeks at employees' normal pay.
• Unlimited PTO, with management approval.
• Opportunities for professional development and continued learning.
• Optional 401K, FSA, and equity incentives available.
• Mental health benefits are available through Tara Mind.
• Cost effective GLP-1 solutions available through Crux.

We're an Equal Opportunity Employer: You'll receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or on the basis of disability.