[Hiring] Account Director @deepset

Role Description

You'll open and build deepset's public sector business across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, selling sovereign AI to federal, state and municipal administrations, both directly and through partners. It's a new-business role. There's already strong activity on the patch, and you'll have full ownership of how we win and direct access to leadership. You'll report to the Public Sector Lead and be based in Germany (ideally Berlin), with regular travel across DACH.

What you will do

• Define the DACH public sector go-to-market and build a qualified pipeline from zero across federal, state and municipal accounts.
• Map buying centres end to end (CDOs, CIOs, IT service providers, procurement, DPOs, works councils, budget holders) and time pursuits to budget cycles and funding windows.
• Lead tenders end to end with pre-sales, legal, security and finance: bid / no-bid, pricing, compliance documentation and EVB-IT contract terms.
• Shape requirements early through market consultations and pilots, and run below-threshold deals quickly where they open the door to larger frameworks.
• Build a partner ecosystem with SIs, public sector IT service providers, framework holders and sovereign cloud providers, including consortium bids and framework listings.
• Close complex multi-stakeholder deals, turn first deployments into references, and bring market and compliance insight (e.g. BSI C5, IT-Grundschutz) back to Product and Leadership.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in enterprise software sales, with at least 5 selling to the public sector in DACH.
• A record of new-business wins in government: named contracts you sourced and closed, not only renewals you inherited.
• Hands-on experience leading tenders under EU and national procurement law (e.g. GWB, VgV, UVgO and the Austrian and Swiss equivalents), including framework agreements and EVB-IT.
• An active network across federal, state and municipal administrations, plus experience selling through partners (SIs, framework holders, resellers, cloud providers).
• Comfort selling technical platforms to technical buyers, and credibility on data protection, security and sovereignty.
• Native or near-native German and professional English.

Nice to have

• Experience selling AI, data or open-source infrastructure.
• A scale-up background where you built a territory from scratch.
• Existing relationships with public sector IT service providers or municipal IT cooperatives.
• Familiarity with BSI C5, IT-Grundschutz and the Swiss and Austrian equivalents.
• Security clearance, or eligibility for one.

Benefits

• 💻 Remote-first setup with flexible hours & tech of your choice.
• 🌱 30 days vacation + extra days for family sick leave.
• 📈 Competitive salary & stock options for every team member.
• 🏋️ Monthly sports & mental health support allowance with Oliva.
• 🌱 Annual learning & development budget.
• 🤝 Monthly team socials & in-person meetups.
• 🐶 Dog-friendly Berlin HQ.