Public Sector Account Executive (Education)

About the role

Elastic, the Search AI company, is seeking a Public Sector Account Executive to lead its growth into State Government and Higher Education, a key market opportunity. The role is a critical hire for a person with a proven track record selling into State Government and/or Higher Education, with the instincts of a Challenger seller and the drive to build pipeline in complex, multi-stakeholder accounts. You will drive net-new revenue and expansion within Public Sector accounts in an assigned territory.

Key responsibilities

• Proactively build and self-generate pipeline in new government and higher education accounts through outbound prospecting, events and networking, and creative account penetration.
• Drive adoption of Elastic's AI-powered search, observability and security solutions in new enterprise accounts and deepen engagement with existing ones.
• Act as a trusted advisor, helping customers turn data into actionable insights.
• Speak credibly to data sovereignty, security clearance and compliance requirements that shape how government and education clients procure technology.
• Showcase new use cases and help customers cope with growing data volumes and emerging AI-driven threats.
• Advocate for Elastic's open-source offerings while championing its commercial features.
• Develop business plans using community, customer and partner ecosystems, navigate complex sales cycles and qualify deals using frameworks such as MEDDPICC.
• Work closely with Solutions Architects, Customer Success, Marketing and RevOps, and lead high-stakes contract and pricing negotiations.

Required profile

• A proven selling track record with State Government and/or Higher Education accounts.
• Challenger mentality: leads with insight, tailors messages to different stakeholders and holds a respectful point of view.
• Value storytelling: links Elastic's capabilities to outcomes such as citizen, staff and student experience, cost consolidation and risk, compliance and public trust.
• Executive communicator: confident presenting to C-suite and senior stakeholders and building credibility with technical developers and executives.
• Relationship building, mutual deal strategy, accurate forecasting and CRM discipline.

Required skills

• Technical and cloud fluency: security, observability, vector and traditional search, and cloud cost optimization.
• Open-source appreciation and enthusiasm for the open-source model.

What we offer

• Competitive pay based on the work done, not previous salary.
• Health coverage for you and your family in many locations.
• Flexible locations and schedules for many roles.
• Generous number of vacation days each year.
• Matching of up to $2,000 (or local currency equivalent) for financial donations and service, and up to 40 hours per year for volunteer projects.
• Minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave.