Public Sector Sales Lead, France

About the role

Anthropic is looking for a Public Sector Sales Lead for France, a founding, zero-to-one role reporting to the EMEA South leadership. There is currently no public sector team in France, so you will build the strategy, routes to market and first strategic relationships from scratch. You will lead the adoption of safe, frontier AI across central government, starting with the largest ministries, and work closely with the Public Policy lead in Paris and with Partnerships, Legal, Security and Product.

Key responsibilities

• Define and own the public sector go-to-market strategy for France, including where to play first and how to win.
• Act as the senior face of Anthropic to the French State, building trust with ministerial cabinets, senior officials and digital and technology leaders in ministries such as defence, finance and justice.
• Own the full sales cycle on first strategic opportunities, from initial engagement through procurement route, close, deployment and expansion.
• Work with Partnerships, Legal and Finance on routes to market, including resale and partner channels, framework agreements and central purchasing bodies such as UGAP.
• Partner daily with the Public Policy lead so that commercial and policy engagement are aligned with French and European AI strategy and regulation.
• Lead customer conversations on data sovereignty, security and compliance (for example SecNumCloud and the State's cloud doctrine).
• Prove value with customers alongside an Applied AI architect, cloud providers and systems integrators, doing much of the groundwork yourself in the early stages.
• Learn from and contribute to the UK and US public sector teams, and create playbooks and references to scale a public sector team in France.

Required profile

• 15+ years in enterprise technology sales, including significant time running a public sector business unit or leading sales teams selling to French central government.
• Experience of building from zero: a new market, business line or early-stage company.
• Track record of landing large, complex agreements with major ministries as the deal leader.
• Deep network across central government, credible at director and cabinet level and with technical teams.
• Experience or aptitude for working closely with public policy or government affairs colleagues.
• Fluent French and English, with excellent written and spoken communication in both.
• Willingness to undergo French security clearance (habilitation) if specific accounts require it.

Required skills

• Practical command of French public procurement: tenders, framework agreements, central purchasing bodies and partner or resale routes.
• Expertise in data sovereignty, security and compliance requirements in the French State.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education, training and experience.

Hybrid work is expected at least 25% of the time in an office. Visa sponsorship is offered where possible, and the company encourages applications from candidates who do not meet every single requirement.