Strategic Account Director – Public Sector
Guild
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Remote
Location: Remote • Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin • 🇺🇸 United States
Visit company websiteSalary
💰 $200,000 per year
Job Level
Lead
About the role
- Conduct rigorous market research to surface new opportunities across public funding ecosystems and continue to hone in on ideal customer profiles.
- Analyze regulatory landscapes, policy trends, and local/state/federal funding programs to inform market entry strategies and best paths to navigate partnership within a priority state or region.
- Build and maintain a pipeline of market hypotheses and concepts for exploration and begin testing them in assigned territory.
- Partner with B2B Marketing to develop new business opportunities from the ground up (0→1), using creativity, curiosity, and deep ecosystem scanning.
- Engage with state and local stakeholders to uncover unmet needs and explore alignment with Guild’s capabilities.
- Leverage and develop frameworks to assess opportunity fit, strategic value, and long-term scalability within the Guild ecosystem.
- Make go/no-go recommendations based on market traction, financial viability, and mission alignment.
- Design and lead early engagements to validate demand, feasibility, and ROI of new market opportunities.
- Develop hypotheses, pilot concepts, and test value propositions with state funders, partners, and beneficiaries.
- Support the development of new business models and funding structures aligned with Guild’s impact and financial goals as it relates to state and local buyers.
- Translate validated opportunities into actionable go-to-market plans in collaboration with marketing, product, learning marketplace, government affairs, and operations teams.
- Define and track key success metrics and leading indicators of market traction - as defined by revenue and total education spend.
- Support initial GTM execution by providing tight feedback loops on market positioning, possible opportunities, and where and if local engagement and advocacy would be needed.
- Partner with internal teams (e.g., Finance, Legal, Policy, Product) to ensure new ideas are viable, scalable, and compliant.
- Help structure strategic partnerships that align with new market goals.
- Serve as a thought partner to senior leadership, offering clear, data-informed recommendations.
Requirements
- 10 - 12+ years of experience in strategy, business development and sales, consulting, venture building, or innovation roles—preferably with experience in government, philanthropic, or workforce-related sectors.
- Proven track record of evaluating, launching, and iterating on new business ideas or markets
- Experience developing business opportunities from the ground up—including ideation, outreach, diligence, and execution.
- Exceptional analytical skills, with fluency in building and interpreting market sizing, financial models, and business cases.
- Experience designing and running experiments or pilot programs in ambiguous environments.
- Comfortable engaging with senior-level external stakeholders including funders, government officials, and mission-aligned partners.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to synthesize complex ideas into compelling narratives and strategies.
- Mission-alignment with Guild’s vision for unlocking opportunity through education and career pathways.
Benefits
- Access to low-cost, high-quality health care options through Collective Heath and Kaiser (due to coverage limitations, Kaiser is currently only available in CA & CO)
- Access to a 401k to help save for the future
- Vacation policy to rest and recharge
- 8 days of fully-paid sick leave, to take the time to heal and or recover
- Family-friendly benefits, including 12 weeks of parental leave for non-birthing parents and 18-20 weeks for birthing parents; 4-week ramp-up period for when employees return from a leave of 6 weeks or more; as well as employer-paid short-term and long-term disability, employer-sponsored life insurance, fertility and caregiving benefits.
- Well-rounded wellness benefits including free and low cost mental health resources and financial wellbeing support services
- Education benefits and tuition assistance to help your future development and growth
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard skills
market researchregulatory analysisbusiness developmentfinancial modelinggo-to-market strategyhypothesis developmentpilot program designdata analysisopportunity assessmentbusiness model development
Soft skills
analytical skillscommunication skillscreativitycuriositystakeholder engagementstrategic thinkingcollaborationproblem-solvingnarrative synthesisthought partnership