Head of Public Sector Sales

Who we are

The problem: Every minute matters in fire response.  As climate change amplifies the intensity of wildfires—with longer fire seasons, dryer fuels, and faster winds—new ignitions spread faster and put more communities at risk. Today, most wildfires are detected by bystanders and reported via 911, meaning it can take hours to detect a fire, verify its exact location and size, and dispatch first responders. Fire authorities need a faster way to detect, confirm, and pinpoint fires so that they can quickly respond—preventing small flare-ups from becoming devastating infernos.

About Pano: Pano is a venture-backed early-stage climate tech startup that is the leader in wildfire early detection, leveraging the latest advancements in IoT, AI, satellites, and SaaS software to deliver actionable intelligence to customers. Pano leverages mountaintop cameras and satellites to detect the first traces of smoke and put real-time fire images in the hands of asset owners and first responders to speed up containment. Pano is already partnering with major utilities, fire authorities, and government agencies in the USA and Australia. Recent media coverage includes being named one of the Top 10 most innovative companies in AI of 2023 by FastCompany and recipient of the Innovative Mobile Service and Application Award at Mobile World Congress through our partnership with T-Mobile.

Pano brings together a diverse team bridging frontline, wildland firefighting experience with best-in-class know-how in operations, logistics, artificial intelligence, and software. Our team is composed of experienced technology professionals from companies such as Apple, Cisco, Nest, DoorDash and Meta. Headquartered in San Francisco with an office and factory in the Mission District, our hybrid team works from locations around the world. Founded in mid-2020, we’ve raised over $40M from leading VC funds. 

The Role

Pano AI seeks an experienced Head of Public Sector Sales to help drive full-cycle sales initiatives with new and existing accounts within our public sector (federal, state, and local), during an exciting early growth phase of the business. You will be driven, well-versed in climate tech, safety, and/or disaster relief, passionate about supporting government agencies to address the growing threat of wildfires, and able to navigate the complexities of public sector sales. 

You will focus on developing and executing strategies to work with government agencies at all levels - Federal (e.g. BLM, USFS, DoD), State (Washington DNR, Texas A&M, Colorado DFPC) and cities/counties.  You will work hand in hand with Pano AI’s North America VP of Sales and the broader Go-To-Market team (which includes members vertically focused on Pano’s other segments, including utilities and private land owners). As we continue to scale our business and product, your work will be invaluable in setting the future trajectory of the commercial team.  This is an opportunity for a qualified candidate to be a key contributor to driving early-stage success for Pano AI, all while working on a meaningful and urgent issue.

• Lead and scale our Public Sector sales organization, driving revenue within both new and existing accounts.
• Develop go-to-market strategies to access all levels of government (federal, state, and local.)
• Structure and negotiate new business relationships including key pricing, commercial, and operational terms as part of complex contracting processes.
• Bring government contracting expertise to ensure Pano is best situated to contract at all levels of the government.
• Work closely with our Government Affairs VP (and broader team) to develop and execute against lobbying strategies to create long-term business opportunities.
• Manage senior-level relationships with customers and key partners.
• Leverage domain expertise to plan and execute sales tactics in the following areas: territory planning, prospecting, proposal development and RFP responses, relationship development, pricing, presentation and delivery (finalist or other), negotiations, closing and executing contracts.
• Drive ongoing account management in partnership with Customer Success to ensure customer satisfaction and drive additional expansion opportunities.
• Partnering with internal stakeholders in Sales, Marketing, Product, Operations, and Finance, you will own an assessment of the competitive landscape and technologies to help formulate and refine product/ GTM/ service/ support strategies unique to the Public Sector vertical.
• Ensure swift execution of new Pano Station installations during a challenging short pre-fire season purchasing window, by partnering closely with the internal ops team and facilitating necessary actions with customer operations teams, often in parallel with closing the contract.

• 10+ years of Public Sector and technology sales experience selling enterprise software, networking, infrastructure, managed hosting services, and/or cloud computing services, etc.
• 5+ years of sales leadership experience, with a focus on building and scaling sales organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically about aligning go-to-market strategies to the varying needs of the different segments of the public sector market (federal, state, and local).
• Excellent writing and verbal skills with an attention to organization, detail, and quality presentation.
• A track record of navigating multi-stakeholder and complex sales cycles, with an emphasis on engagement at the executive level.
• Highly competitive, ramp quickly, extremely adaptive, high sense of urgency, and pride yourself on exceeding production goals.
• Strong bias towards coaching and development of your team.
• Travel expectations at least 25%

Pano is an equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and supporting our team-members regardless of where they come from. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.