Senior Account Executive (National Labs & Federal Health)

Red Cell Partners · McLean · $175,000 (stated in the posting)

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

This is the broadest of our territories and the one with the most room to shape. Your core focus is two markets: the national laboratory complex and federal health. Beyond those, you have latitude to pursue the wider civilian landscape where our capability clearly fits.
Core focus — National Laboratories
- The complex, Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, Idaho National Laboratory, and the wider DOE lab system
- The buyer, In most cases the M&O contractor that operates the lab, not DOE directly — a materially different path to contract than standard federal procurement
- Program sponsors, NNSA and the relevant DOE program offices that fund lab mission work

Core focus — Federal Health
- Veterans, Department of Veterans Affairs, including VHA and the Office of Information and Technology
- Military health, Defense Health Agency and the Military Health System
- Public health, HHS and its operating divisions, including CMS, NIH, and ASPR/BARDA

Extended landscape — opportunistic
- Where our capability is a clear fit and the path to contract is real, you have room to pursue the broader civilian market, including the science and research agencies and civilian enterprise IT organizations. This is upside, not your year-one commitment. We would rather you go deep on the two core markets than thin across ten agencies.

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 demonstrated wins in at least one of our two core markets — the national labs or federal health.
A real point of view on which of the two they would attack first and why. We want the reasoning, and we want it grounded in where their network actually is.
For the labs half: understanding that you are frequently selling to the M&O contractor operating the lab rather than to the government directly, and experience navigating that path. Candidates who have only sold FAR-direct will misjudge this entirely.
For the health half: fluency in the vehicle-gated nature of federal health procurement, and command of how VA, DHA, and HHS each buy differently from one another.
A verifiable record of first-dollar-in wins where your company had no prior footprint.
Funding literacy across civilian agencies, including how research and mission funding differs from enterprise IT funding.
Comfort operating with less structure than a single-agency territory provides. This seat rewards someone who prioritizes ruthlessly and can tell us clearly what they chose not to chase.
Ability to sell with active, opinionated executive involvement.
U.S. citizenship. Bachelor's degree, or equivalent depth of operational experience.

Preferred

Experience across both core markets rather than one. Rare, and valuable enough that we will look hard at anyone who has it.
Prior time inside a national laboratory, an M&O contractor, or a federal health organization.
Experience selling AI/ML, data platform, or decision-support software into scientific or clinical environments.
A track record of turning a research or pilot engagement into production scope and durable funding.
Active TS/SCI. Not required across most of this territory, but useful at the labs and worth the premium to us.

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 (may differ for each incubation):

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.

Applicant Data Disclosure

By submitting an application, you acknowledge that Red Cell Partners, LLC ("Red Cell") uses third-party service providers to facilitate its recruitment and hiring processes. These providers include applicant tracking systems, candidate verification platforms, and fraud detection tools (collectively, "Hiring Platforms"). Your application materials, including your résumé, cover letter, work samples, responses to application questions, and any other information you submit, may be transmitted to and processed by these Hiring Platforms for the following purposes:

Managing and administering your application throughout the hiring process;

Verifying the accuracy and authenticity of application materials, including by cross-referencing information you provide against publicly available sources and proprietary databases;
Identifying indicators of potentially fraudulent, fabricated, or materially misleading application content, including but not limited to discrepancies between submitted materials and publicly available professional profiles, geographic anomalies, and fabricated work histories.

Applications that are flagged through this process as containing indicators of fraud or material misrepresentation may be declined from further consideration. If you have questions about the status of your application or the evaluation process, please contact talent@redcellpartners.com.

Red Cell requires its Hiring Platform providers to process your information solely for the purposes described above and in accordance with applicable law. Your information will be retained only for as long as necessary to fulfill these purposes and any applicable legal obligations, after which it will be deleted in accordance with Red Cell's data retention policies.

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