Director, Federal Sales, Civilian

Get to Know Us Horizon3 is a fast-growing, remote cybersecurity company dedicated to the mission of enabling organizations to proactively find and fix and verify exploitable attack vectors before criminals exploit them. Our flagship product, the NodeZeroTM platform, delivers production-safe autonomous pentests and other key assessment operations that scale across the largest internal, external, cloud, and hybrid cloud environments. NodeZero has been adopted by organizations of all sizes, from small educational institutions to government agencies and Global 100 enterprises. It is used by ITOps/SecOps teams, consulting pentesters, and MSSPs and MSPs.  We are a fusion of former U.S. Special Operations cyber operators, startup engineers, and formerly frustrated cybersecurity practitioners. We're committed to helping solve our common security problems: ineffective security tools, false positives resulting in alert fatigue, blind spots, "checkbox” security culture, cybersecurity skills shortage, and the long lead time and expense of hiring outside consultants. Collectively, we are a team of learn it alls, committed to a culture of respect, collaboration, ownership, and results.   What You’ll Do Horizon3.ai http://Horizon3.ai is seeking a Director, Federal Civilian to own and scale our Federal Civilian business. This leader will be accountable for the team, revenue, go-to-market motion, market strategy, capture and pursuit execution, and operating rhythm. You will lead and be responsible for creating and closing complex opportunities across civilian departments, agencies, bureaus, independent agencies, federally funded organizations, and their broader ecosystem. You will set the strategy, align resources, develop the team, establish the operating model, and ensure that customer and partner engagement translates into durable revenue and measurable mission impact. The successful candidate will bring the credibility to engage senior civilian agency leaders, CIOs, CISOs, mission owners, acquisition executives, and program leaders; the leadership presence to develop high-performing teams; the commercial judgment to navigate complex government buying processes; and the operating discipline to turn strategic opportunities into funded adoption and repeatable growth. This role will be responsible for: - Own the Federal Civilian business plan, revenue target, territory and coverage model, and operating cadence. - Recruit, lead, coach, and develop the sales team. Set clear expectations for account ownership, pipeline creation, qualification, forecasting, and execution; recognize strong performance and address gaps fairly. - Build strategic account plans and qualified pipeline. Map agency missions, organizational structures, stakeholders, budgets, funding cycles, acquisition strategies, contract vehicles, and procurement timelines. - Lead the team through the full sales and capture cycle—from discovery and qualification through pursuit, procurement, award, deployment, expansion, and renewal. - Develop executive relationships with civilian agency leaders, CIOs, CISOs, mission owners, program and acquisition leaders, and industry partners. - Position NodeZero around mission outcomes such as reducing exploitable risk, validating defensive improvements, accelerating remediation, and improving security decisions. - Set pursuit strategy and coordinate the right sales, technical, partner, legal, compliance, and executive resources for complex opportunities. - Establish disciplined opportunity reviews, close plans, next steps, and evidence-based forecasts. Surface risks, dependencies, and requests for executive support early. - Partner across Solutions Engineering, Federal Operations, Product, Customer Success, Marketing, RevOps, Compliance, and executive leadership to remove deal friction and improve customer outcomes. - Develop repeatable messaging, references, playbooks, and pursuit patterns that strengthen our position in the Federal Civilian market. - Represent Horizon3.ai http://Horizon3.ai at relevant customer, partner, government, cybersecurity, and industry events. Share market feedback to inform product, compliance, packaging, and partnership decisions. - Maintain accurate account, contact, activity, and opportunity data in Salesforce and related systems. - Build a culture of accountability, learning, collaboration, and customer focus; lead effectively across functions and balance near-term bookings with the foundations for sustained growth. What You’ll Bring - 10+ years of experience in enterprise technology, cybersecurity, federal sales, public-sector technology, or a related field. - 7+ years selling to U.S. civilian departments and agencies, or closely related federal, public-sector, or regulated-market organizations. - Experience leading teams to win complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise or federal opportunities. - Knowledge of civilian agency organizations and federal acquisition, budgeting, appropriations, procurement, and contracting—including the roles of integrators, resellers, contract vehicles, and channel partners. - Experience building strategic government account plans and advancing opportunities through complex buying processes.  - Ability to translate cybersecurity and technical concepts into mission, operational, risk, compliance, and financial outcomes for executive audiences. - Strong discovery, qualification, negotiation, presentation, and executive communication skills. - A track record of accurate forecasting, identifying deal risks, and making clear recommendations to senior leaders. Work Authorization & Security Clearance Requirements - Must be a U.S. person and eligible to obtain and maintain any required U.S. Government security clearance or suitability determination associated with assigned customers and opportunities. - The ability to successfully complete any required background investigation is a condition of employment. - An active security clearance or federal suitability determination is preferred, but not required if the candidate can meet the applicable eligibility requirements. - Candidates must be able to work with customer information and environments subject to applicable U.S. government security, privacy, data-handling, and export-control requirements. What Sets You Apart? - Active U.S. Government security clearance or federal suitability determination. - Experience with civilian agency missions, federal shared services, public-sector modernization, or government cybersecurity programs. - Experience selling offensive security, penetration testing, exposure or vulnerability management, cyber validation, or related solutions. - Familiarity with federal cybersecurity programs and requirements such as zero trust, continuous monitoring, FedRAMP, FISMA, RMF, ATO, privacy, and risk-based authorization. - Experience with federal acquisition pathways, including GWACs, BPAs, IDIQs, SEWP, CIO-SP3, OASIS, Alliant, and 8(a) vehicles. - Established relationships with civilian agency decision-makers, acquisition stakeholders, systems integrators, resellers, or technology partners. - Experience building a territory, category, or federal growth motion from an early stage. - Ability to explain how autonomous penetration testing and continuous validation can improve cyber readiness, mission resilience, compliance evidence, and security outcomes. Location & Travel: - Reside in or relocate to the DC Metro area - Willing to travel up to 50% of the time Perks of Horizon3 - Inclusive Team: We value diversity and promote an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive. - Growth Opportunities: Be part of a dynamic and growing team with numerous career development opportunities. - Innovative Culture: Work in a collaborative environment that encourages creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. - Hybrid & Remote Work: We embrace a mix of remote and hybrid work models depending on role and location, including our Chicago office, where some roles require regular in-office presence. - Competitive Compensation: We offer competitive salary, equity and benefits. Our benefits include health, vision & dental insurance for you and your family, a flexible vacation policy, and generous parental leave. Compensation and Values At Horizon3, we believe that our people are our greatest asset, and our compensation philosophy reflects this core value. We are committed to fostering an environment where all employees feel valued, respected, and rewarded for their contributions. Our compensation structure is designed to be fair, competitive, and transparent, ensuring that every team member is recognized and compensated equitably across roles, levels, and locations. In accordance with various State’s transparency regulations, we provide the following salary range information for this position: - Total On-Target Compensation: $400,000 - $440,000 annually on a 50/50 split. The exact salary will be determined based on the selected candidate’s location, qualifications, experience, and relevant skills. - Additional compensation: All full-time roles are eligible for an equity package in the form of stock options. You Belong Here Horizon3 is not just an equal opportunity employer - we are a community that values diversity, equity, and inclusion as fundamental principles of our culture and success. We are dedicated to fostering a workplace where everyone feels welcome and respected, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, hair length or any other legally protected status by law. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion means we strive to attract, develop, and retain a workforce that reflects the varied communities we serve. We believe that diverse perspectives drive innovation and strengthen our ability to create cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions. At Horizon3, every team member is valued and supported in an environment that encourages personal and professional growth. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and experiences, and we encourage all qualified individuals to apply. Come be a part of Horizon3, where your unique contributions are recognized, and your potential is limitless. Other Duties Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.  Application Note In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.