Head of Government Affairs

Who We Are

Verkada is transforming how organizations protect their people and places with an integrated, privacy-sensitive AI-powered platform that includes solutions for video security, access control, air quality sensors, alarms, intercoms, and visitor management. 8B valuation , more than $1 billion in annualized bookings, and backing from CapitalG, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Felicis Ventures, Next47 and more. Physical AI is one of the most consequential technology shifts of our time, and Verkada is at the center of it.

You can look at all kinds of communities to see our platform’s impact in the world. It's the retailer that uses our agentic AI to deter theft before it happens. The warehouse that uses AI-powered alerts to make sure its team is protected on the floor with proper PPE.

The school that’s alerted to a threat in real-time and triggers a lockdown in seconds, not minutes. We’re rapidly scaling this impact: today, more than 2 million Verkada devices are deployed across 170+ countries.

About The Role

Verkada is entering a transformative phase of growth in the public sector. This is our first dedicated public sector leadership hire — a foundational role responsible for personally opening doors with government stakeholders across Federal and State/Local/Education (SLED) markets, shaping the policy and procurement environment in our favor. The role will start as an individual contributor and will have the ability to build a team in the future to scale that access into a repeatable sales motion.

This position reports directly to the VP of Public Sector and is foundational in nature: there is no existing team or playbook. You will build both, starting with your own relationships and credibility, and are expected to be the ultimate door opener for Verkada in government.

What You'Ll Do

Relationship Building: Personally build and maintain senior relationships across priority Federal and SLED targets, serving as Verkada's principal point of contact with government decision-makers, especially in year one. Policy Procurement Influence: Directly shape policy and procurement conversations in Verkada's favor — including advocating for funding and appropriations, such as school safety grants, that favor modern, cloud-based public sector infrastructure. Strategy Development: Develop the government sales playbook based on real, on-the-ground experience rather than theory, translating your personal network and knowledge into a strategy a growing team can execute.

Partner Vendor Management: Identify and engage external partners — lobbyists, consultants, and procurement specialists — to accelerate specific priority pursuits.

Requirements

, and support account-level strategy on active pursuits, owning time-to-close as a core performance metric. Policy Monitoring: Track legislative and regulatory developments relevant to Verkada's roadmap — including AI governance, data privacy (CCPA/GDPR), and data security programs such as FedRAMP and state equivalents — and flag implications to Legal and Product. Compliance: Partner with Legal to ensure all government-facing activity meets the highest standards of ethics and disclosure.

Team Building: This role begins as an individual contributor. You'll personally do the hands-on work of opening doors and building early traction before any team is in place. As the function proves out, you'll hire and structure a team covering Civilian, DoW/DoD, Federal broadly, and State Local, so the coverage doesn't depend on you being in every room forever.