Founding Public Sector Account Executive

To date, all of our contracts have been a founder-led effort. Our growth is now at a point where we need to scale this function, and we're looking for a talent who believes we can unify the workforce-development system and deliver second chances at true scale. We hope that can be you.

This role blends traditional sales with public policy, program operations, and strategic leadership. Your job is to win transformative public-sector deals that expand Emerge Career’s footprint across the U.S. You'll manage an entire region, identify opportunities, forge relationships, influence decision-makers, and most importantly, close state and federal contracts that fund life-changing workforce programs. We’re looking for someone who is energized by ownership, obsessed with partner outcomes, and excited to work across domains to make things better. If you’re the kind of person who wants to be hands-on with everything-strategy, execution, proposals, and building relationships with decision-makers-you’ll thrive here.

What We’re Looking For:

• Willing to relocate and work 5x/week in-person in Harlem, New York City
• 5+ years of professional experience in sales, partnerships, public sector engagement, or government affairs.
• Experience closing multi-year, 7-figure contracts with state or federal agencies (this is the primary marker of success in this role).
• Strong understanding of state and federal government agencies, their budgetary cycles, and procurement processes.
• Demonstrated experience performing lead prospecting responsibilities: identifying and researching potential clients, contacting leads through various channels, and assessing their needs, interest levels, and purchasing power.
• Demonstrated experience drafting and writing compelling proposals tailored to client needs and objectives, highlighting the value and benefits of the product or service after client meetings or calls.
• Demonstrated experience setting up and operating Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to track interactions, manage client information, and analyze sales performance for strategic planning.
• Demonstrated work with lobbying firms and political stakeholders to drive funding or programmatic initiatives.

What you will be doing

• Winning transformative public-sector deals. Your job is to expand Emerge Career’s footprint across the U.S. You will be the tip of the spear-identifying opportunities, forging relationships, influencing decision-makers, and most importantly, closing state and federal contracts that fund life-changing workforce programs. This is a high-responsibility role for a strategic, independent leader who can take deals from ideation to execution.

• Creating critical partnerships and finding champions. You will be responsible for outreaching to government officials using all means possible, from cold emails and sequences to picking up the phone. You’ll attend conferences to forge key partnerships and find champions who can help us secure funding. You’ll be constantly looking for opportunities to present Emerge as a vital alternative to current systems. You will also cultivate and maintain relationships with key stakeholders, including community-based organizations, workforce boards, and other non-profits, to build a network of support that amplifies our mission.

• Owning your region end-to-end. You will manage an entire region, create and implement sales initiatives, and lead relationship-building efforts that unlock long-term funding partnerships. You'll play a critical role from day one, utilizing your resourcefulness and agility akin to a sales athlete. This includes everything from drafting and reviewing contracts to tracking state and federal legislation to identify opportunities and changes that might help us. You'll also be responsible for presenting our program's outcomes and impact data in a compelling way that resonates with government partners and demonstrates a clear return on investment.

• Building the machine. As a founding member of our team, you’ll be responsible for building and operating our sales engine. This means building CRM sequences, collecting and cleaning contacts. You will also analyze sales performance for strategic planning. You’ll take what you learn from your interactions and turn it into scalable systems. You will also document your processes and strategies to help us build a repeatable and teachable sales playbook for future team members.

• Drafting and delivering proposals and collateral. You'll draft compelling proposals and be responsible for producing sales collateral using Claude Design.

• Identifying workforce trends. You will identify trends in workforce needs for government clients to help us cater Emerge Career’s training programs to be exactly what they are looking for. This requires you to be a deeply curious and highly attuned leader who can inform our product and training strategy. You will also gather feedback from potential partners to ensure our programs are a perfect fit for their communities.

Compensation

Compensation

This role uses an OTE (on-target earnings) structure, meaning your total comp is a combination of base salary and performance-based bonus.

You choose your split. Lower base means higher OTE potential -- and a higher total comp ceiling. Higher base means more guaranteed income, with a smaller bonus component.

• Total Comp: $150K - $240K

  • Base Salary: $120K - $150K

  • OTE: $20K - $120K

Start Date:

ASAP

Process

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about Emerge Career's interview process.

Below is what to expect in our interview process.

• Intro Chat (15 min)
• Take-Home Challenge (3 hours at your own pace)
• Submission Review (60 min)
• Background Deep-Dive (60 min)
• Cultural Fit (30 min)
• Reference Checks
• Paid Work Trial (ideally full-time for 2-5 days, but we know not everyone can accommodate this - we can be flexible with a few hours per day, weekend arrangements, or other schedules to make it possible!)

Timing

The typical interview process takes two-three weeks from start to finish. That said, we have moved more quickly and look to accommodate candidates who might have a short timeline or competing offers. The more information you can share about your situation and where you are in the process, the more we can either attempt to expedite/match, or save you time if we cannot.