[Hiring] Public Sector Account Executive @Elastic

Role Description

Elastic, the Search Analytics company, is seeking a dynamic Public Sector Account Executive to lead our growth into State Government and High Education - a significant market opportunity for Elastic. This is a critical hire for our business, we need someone with a genuine track record selling into State Government and/or High Education, the instincts of a Challenger seller, and the hustle to build pipeline and create new opportunities in complex, multi-stakeholder accounts. Always driving value for the customers we serve. To excel as an Account Executive at Elastic, you need a blend of high-level technical curiosity and the gravitas of a value-based seller. Because Elastic isn't just a product, but a versatile search, observability, and security platform, the role requires moving beyond simple transactions to solving complex data problems. As a Public Sector Account Executive, you will be an integral part of our growth strategy. You will drive net-new revenue and expansion within Public Sector Accounts in an assigned territory. This is an opportunity for those passionate about empowering government and education through innovative search technology and analytics, enabling them to unlock the full potential of their data.

What You Will Be Doing

• Prospect; Create Opportunities: Proactively build and self-generate pipeline in net new government/higher education accounts through outbound prospecting, event and network-driven activity and creative account penetration - this is a build role, not a farm role.
• Drive Adoption: Fuel the adoption of Elastic’s AI-powered search solutions, Observability and Security solutions within (new) Enterprise accounts while deepening engagement with existing ones.
• Be a Trusted Advisor: Assist users and customers in harnessing the full power of search analytics to transform data into actionable insights.
• Sovereignty; Compliance Fluency: Speak credibly to the data sovereignty, security clearance, and compliance requirements that shape how government and Education clients evaluate and procure technology, and position Elastic's platform accordingly.
• Identify New Use Cases: Showcase how Elastic's solutions enable users to work more efficiently and intelligently.
• Solve Complex Problems: Help customers get ahead of exploding data volumes and emerging agentic AI-driven threats by giving them the observability and visibility to see, secure, and act on what's happening across their environment.
• Champion Open Source: Articulate the value of our advanced commercial features while advocating for our Open-Source offerings.
• Strategic Planning: Develop comprehensive business plans using community, customer, and partner ecosystems to drive significant territory growth.
• Navigate Sales Cycles: Proactively identify new opportunities and successfully manage complex sales cycles.
• Deep discovery; qualification: Uncover pain, business impact, budget, and decision criteria using frameworks like MEDDPICC so you chase only the highest-confidence deals.
• Cross-functional partnership: Work hand-in-glove with Solutions Architects, Customer Success, Marketing, and RevOps to accelerate deals and drive exceptional customer outcomes.

Qualifications

• The Right Blend: A combination of high-level technical curiosity and the grit of a value-based seller.
• Proven Track Record: For this role we are specifically focusing on people who do have a proven selling track record with State Government and/or Higher Education accounts.
• Challenger Mentality: You lead with insight, not features. You help customers learn something new about their business, tailor your message to different stakeholders and can respectfully have a point of view and can drive a conversation.
• Value Storytelling: The ability to craft tailored narratives that link Elastic’s technical capabilities (Search, Observability, Security) to outcomes that matter for government and education - citizen, staff, student experience, tools and cost consolidation, and risk, compliance and public trust.
• Executive negotiation & closing: Lead high-stakes contract and pricing discussions.
• Executive Communicator: Confidant presenting to and influencing C-suite and senior stakeholders, translating technical detail in a clear, credible business case.
• Technical & cloud fluency: Comfortable discussing a broad range of technical topics including security, observability, vector/traditional search, and cloud cost optimization.
• Relationship Building: Adept at establishing credibility with both technical developers and executive leadership.
• Mutual deal strategy & forecast accuracy: Consistent, predictable and accurate sales forecasting skills. Collaborate with customers to build formal close plans and keep your CRM up to date.
• Cross-Team Alignment: Ability to create alignment across teams to accelerate deals.
• AI Mentality: Use new technologies for performance advantage and deal structuring.
• Open-Source Appreciation: Enthusiasm for the Open-Source model and the community.

Benefits

• Competitive pay based on the work you do here and not your previous salary.
• Health coverage for you and your family in many locations.
• Ability to craft your calendar with flexible locations and schedules for many roles.
• Generous number of vacation days each year.
• Increase your impact - We match up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent) for financial donations and service.
• Up to 40 hours each year to use toward volunteer projects you love.
• Embracing parenthood with a minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave.