Account Director for Higher Education in AMER (AI)

Location: Hybrid in San Francisco, New York City, or Seattle, with US remote availability.

Salary: $305K–$352K base pay, plus equity and potential performance-related bonuses.

Company

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company developing general-purpose AI systems with a focus on safe, responsible deployment.

What you will do

• Own the AMER higher education territory and account strategy, prioritizing institutions for responsible and scalable AI transformation.
• Create and manage complex new-business and expansion opportunities from initial engagement through procurement, deployment, adoption, value realization, and expansion.
• Build executive relationships with presidents, provosts, CIOs, CTOs, researchers, administrators, security teams, procurement stakeholders, and end-user champions.
• Lead cross-functional teams across Solutions Engineering, Customer Success, Product, Research, Security, Legal, and other functions through evaluations, pilots, technical validation, business cases, deployments, and adoption plans.
• Translate AI capabilities and limitations, integration approaches, governance, privacy, security, and safety requirements into technical plans and multi-year transformation roadmaps.
• Own subscription and consumption revenue, forecast pipeline and usage-based growth, and bring higher education market insight into product, policy, partnership, and go-to-market strategy.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience selling platform-as-a-service and/or software-as-a-service solutions, with a sustained record of meeting or exceeding meaningful revenue targets through complex, multi-year enterprise sales motions.
• Direct experience selling to higher education institutions or systems, including understanding of decentralized decision-making, academic and administrative stakeholders, governance, procurement, privacy, security, and change management.
• Experience owning consumption- or usage-based revenue, including forecasting usage, driving adoption, creating use cases, and converting customer outcomes into expansion.
• Technical depth to learn complex AI products, lead discovery, partner with technical teams, explain technical concepts accurately to executives and practitioners, and connect them to academic, operational, research, and commercial outcomes.
• Experience leading strategic transformations involving governance, change management, adoption, and measurable operational, academic, research, or user outcomes.
• Strong executive presence, structured communication, and the ability to earn trust across senior leaders, technical experts, faculty, administrators, and end users.
• Strong account planning, qualification, negotiation, forecasting, and cross-functional orchestration skills.
• High judgment, curiosity, resilience, and comfort operating through ambiguity, product change, and evolving customer needs.
• Mission-driven approach to deploying AI responsibly and helping institutions build durable capabilities rather than short-lived pilots.

Nice to have

• Customer-centric approach focused on institutional missions, users, constraints, and desired outcomes.
• Ability to move between institutional strategy discussions and working sessions on architecture, data, governance, rollout, and measurement.
• Interest in adoption, usage growth, value realization, and expansion after contract signature.
• Ability to create repeatable sales plays while adapting to each institution’s culture and operating model.
• Informed optimism about AI combined with rigor in assessing risks, tradeoffs, and implementation realities.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time, at-will employment with hybrid work in selected US cities or US remote work.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance; HSA contributions; FSA and dependent-care accounts; and a 401(k) with employer match.
• Paid parental, medical, caregiver, sick, and safe leave; flexible PTO for exempt employees; and 13+ paid company holidays.
• Mental health and wellness support, employer-paid life and disability coverage, and an annual learning and development stipend.
• Office meals, eligible meal delivery credits, commuter benefits, and relocation support for eligible employees.
• Commitment to responsible AI, inclusion, equal employment opportunity, and reasonable accommodations.

Hiring process

• Further benefits details are provided during the hiring process.
• Background checks are conducted in accordance with applicable law for US-based candidates.