Government Solutions Account Lead
Sanctuary Computer · New York City
We are hiring a commission-based Government Solutions Account Lead for Sanctuary Computer, to stand up and lead our civic technology practice.
💾 About Sanctuary Computer
Sanctuary Computer is a technology studio based in New York's Chinatown (and remotely, all around the world). Since 2015 we've built web platforms, native apps and connected devices for clients like Google, Stripe, Figma, Mozilla and The Nobel Prize, and we're the software team behind The Light Phone and Mill. We approach building things more like a restaurant than a traditional agency, with an emphasis on hospitality and close collaboration between the client and the craftsperson.
Sanctuary Computer is part of garden3d, a worker-owned creative collective, alongside our sister design studio XXIX and the community spaces of Index.
🌎About garden3d
We are a worker owned creative collective, innovating on everything from brands and IRL communities to IoT devices and cross platform apps. We share profit, open source everything, spin out new businesses, and invest in exciting ideas through financial and/or in-kind contributions.
Our client roster includes Google, Stripe, Figma, Hinge, Black Socialists in America, ACLU, Pratt, Parsons, Mozilla, The Nobel Prize, MIT, Gnosis, Etsy & Gagosian.
We’re the software team behind innovative products like The Light Phone & Mill, and we operate a global, decentralized community space collective called Index Space.
We think of our garden3d as collective for creative people, prioritizing a happy, talented, and diverse studio culture. We work on projects that bring value to our world, and we balance deep care for the work we do with a genuine curiosity about life outside of our jobs.
Sanctuary Computer - Development
At Sanctuary Computer we’re building a different type of technology shop – one that prioritizes close collaboration between the client and the craftsperson.
Our projects range from design-forward websites, to robust web apps, to native mobile development.
XXIX - Design
When we started XXIX in 2013, we set out to create a different kind of design studio and we’ve thrived because we continually ask what a creative practice can be.
We’re building a radically different kind of organization that values autonomy, growth, transparency, and shared responsibility.
Index - Community
Index is network of physical spaces all around the world, Index provides space for the exchange of knowledge and tools.
We nurture trust within the creative community through generosity and abundance of ideas and care.
garden3d TK — Media
At garden3d, we’re in the early stages of building an experimental media company exploring emerging themes related to the evolving landscape of technology, design and culture.
We aim to monetize this outlet, publish books, produce screenplays, and release music.
Plus, our partner organizations
⛰️ Government Solutions Account Lead Role
Sanctuary Computer's Government Solutions Account Lead has one mandate: win public-sector work we're proud of, and see it through. Cities, states, public universities and agencies are rebuilding the digital services their residents depend on - senior services apps, transit tools, university platforms, economic development sites - and those projects often carry first-year budgets of $500K - $800K. We see more of these opportunities every month. Working in close partnership with our founder & president Hugh Francis, this person builds our government practice from the ground up.
You can be based anywhere. A lot of our people are in New York and there's some gravity here, but we already work across timezones and we would happily hire in Europe, Singapore, Chicago, or wherever you are. If you're the right person, we want to hear from you.
This role works with our Head of Technology, studio leads, developers, designers, our operations team, procurement officers and public-sector clients.
This person can read a 90-page RFP on Monday, walk a city CIO through a React Native architecture on Wednesday, and file a compliant bid on Friday.
This role sits squarely within Sanctuary Computer. The government work we pursue is technology work first: web platforms, mobile apps, headless CMS builds, integrations and accessibility, with our sister studio XXIX bringing design and brand when a project calls for it. So this is a technical sales role. This person has to be able to sell React, React Native, a modern CMS and everything that comes with public-sector software (accessibility, security, privacy, AI governance) to a buyer who has been burned by vendors before.
This is an entrepreneurial seat. We have the team, a track record with clients like Google, Stripe, Brooklyn Museum and The Nobel Prize, our SAM.gov registration, and a steady stream of RFPs that fit us well. What we don't have yet is the public-sector past performance many RFPs require, or someone whose whole job is to win this work. The ideal candidate looks at that gap and sees a civic technology practice they can build into one of the best in the country, and get paid well for it.
Responsibilities & Mandates
🏛️ Standing up Government Solutions
This person builds our government practice: which markets we go after first (city, state, higher education, federal civilian), which contract vehicles and vendor lists we get on, and what our pipeline looks like a year from now. They own the strategy and the number.
🔎 Finding and qualifying the right bids
They work the bid platforms, procurement portals and relationships where good opportunities show up, and they qualify hard and early. Past performance requirements, insurance minimums, certifications and submission mechanics get checked on day one, before anyone spends a week on a proposal we can't submit.
📚 Building our past performance
Many public-sector RFPs ask for three or more prior government references, and every civic project we win makes the next one easier. This person gets us there: smaller awards first, teaming and subcontracting with established primes, and turning finished projects into references and case studies procurement teams trust.
✍️ Proposals that win
Government RFPs are often scored on quality first and price last. This person runs the response end to end: compliance matrix, technical approach (written with our Head of Technology and studio leads), accessibility and security plans, past performance, pricing, forms and signatures, submitted on time and in the right format.
🧑💻 Selling technology credibly
They can sell React and React Native apps, headless CMS platforms like Sanity, Postgres-backed web applications and the integrations that tie them together. They're fluent in what public-sector buyers ask about: WCAG 2.1 AA and Section 508 accessibility, multilingual content, data privacy, security reviews, hosting, and responsible use of AI.
🧭 Upholding our moral compass
We pursue civic infrastructure: work that makes public services better for the people who use them. We don't do defense or military work, including defense-adjacent and dual-use projects. This person vets every opportunity against our moral compass before we pursue it, and is comfortable walking away from a bid that doesn't pass.
🤝 Stewarding accounts to completion and beyond
Winning the contract is the start. They stay the client's point of contact through delivery: regular check-ins, clear change management, invoicing that follows the agency's process, and the renewals and option years that turn one project into a long relationship.
📇 Registrations and compliance
Working with our operations team, they keep us bid-ready: SAM.gov and state vendor registrations, small business and diversity certifications where we qualify, insurance requirements, and a reusable library of the forms and boilerplate every bid asks for.
🌭 Culture
They model our values of partnership, curiosity, and accountability. They bring our team work they're excited to do, and they make the people who deliver it look good.
🔥 Special Projects
In addition to day to day responsibilities, here’s an idea of some of the projects this role may spearhead or support in coming years →
- Winning our first three public-sector contracts, and turning them into the references that unlock larger bids
- Building teaming relationships with established government contractors
- Getting Sanctuary Computer onto the state, city and cooperative contract vehicles where civic technology gets bought
- Building a proposal library (past performance, technical approach, accessibility and security plans, compliance forms) so every bid is faster than the last
- Landing a flagship civic technology project that changes what people think we do
- Writing and speaking about our government work, so public-sector buyers find us
Qualifications
This is a great opportunity for someone looking to make a significant impact in a growing, dynamic company. Based on the responsibilities of this role, we think the right candidate has the following experience and skills:
🔑 Must have:
- 7+ years selling digital or technology services to government: city, state, higher education or federal civilian agencies
- A track record of winning public-sector contracts as the lead, with references who will say so
- Deep fluency in public procurement: RFPs, RFQs, sources sought notices, SAM.gov, bid portals, cooperative contracts, and the compliance forms and insurance requirements that come with them
- Technical enough to sell React, React Native, headless CMS platforms and modern web applications, and to hold their own with a CIO or CTO
- Working knowledge of accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA, Section 508), security and privacy requirements in public-sector software
- Excellent proposal writing: clear, compliant, and persuasive under deadline
- Experience teaming with prime contractors or bringing in subcontractors
- Comfortable with pure-commission compensation, and motivated by it
- A commitment to civic work, and to our moral compass: no defense or military work
🧁 Nice-to-have:
- Existing relationships with procurement offices, CIOs or digital service teams in New York, California or other large states and cities
- Experience in civic technology: a state or city digital service team, USDS, 18F, Code for America or similar
- Experience with small business, MWBE or mentor-protégé programs
- Experience with bid intelligence tools for state, local and education (SLED) opportunities
- Higher education, transit or social services sector experience
- Experience in a Sales Engineer or Solutions Architect role
- Experience at a digital agency, studio or consultancy
- Experience inside a worker-owned, open-book, or otherwise unusual company
🧗 Who you are
The person we’re looking for is happy, relaxed and easy to get along with and appreciates a commitment to a culture of transparency, non-dictatorial leadership styles, and alternative methodologies. They’re flexible on anything except conceits that will lower their usually outstanding work quality. They work “smart” by carefully managing their workflow and team.
🎤 How we interview
After you submit your application, a member of our team will reach out. Our interview process starts with an intro call to answer any questions you have about the role and to learn a bit more about your experience and interests.
From there, we’ll follow up with a panel interview call where you get to meet a few members of our team, to openly discuss some of our challenges and ensure your skills and interests align with where we’re going as a business.
For qualified candidates, the process wraps with a reference call, and an offer to follow.
💸 Compensation
This is a pure commission role. There is no base salary, and the right candidate is comfortable with that.
At Sanctuary Computer, we believe that those who shoulder the most responsibility, and create the greatest impact, should be paid accordingly. Like our other Account Leads, this role operates like a partner at a law firm, with compensation that grows alongside the success one has in the role.
→ The Government Solutions Account Lead is paid 8% of all gross revenue that they steward, from new business to completion and beyond, for up to a year per project. Additionally, this role will receive a dividend in our Quarterly Profit Share.
For the right candidate, we may be open to a recoverable advance of roughly three months of expected earnings, paid back against commission over the first one to two years.
After a period of proven success in this role, this individual will become eligible to join our worker ownership program, too.
This role greatly favors autonomous, competent & ambitious operators.
👩🏭 How we work:
We believe that there’s a better balance between the poles of freelancing & full time, and for that reason we work differently to most shops:
- Transparency & Ownership: We release out Profit & Loss statements to the community each year, open source our best ideas, and talk business & money with everyone in the company. We’re proud to run our business with integrity, and for that reason we share everything with our team & community.
- 150% Carbon Negative: Our studio offsets 150% of the carbon we use to do business each year, dated back to our founding in 2015. We turn down work that is not in-line with our morals, and we encourage our peers to do the same. We have been certified climate neutral since 2021.
- Strong Morals: Since our founding, we've turned down somewhere between $1mm - $2mm of work that didn't meet our moral standards. (Most of that was DTC brands that can't show a valid sustainability initiative).
- Async & Decentralized: We use tools optimized for calm, thoughtful communication, and opt for async whenever possible. We fight hard to maintain our focus time.
- Remote Friendly: Our company is fluent in remote work, making our workplace more decentralized, and democratized in the process.
- Ideas & Products: In our spare studio time, we work to build our own open source or internal products to diversify & bolster our income. We create amazing technology products for our clients, so why not for the studio?
→ Read more on our Substack, over here.
💌 How to apply
We’re excited to hear from you!
Kindly submit a complete and thoughtful application, including relevant links that help verify your work experience and identity. Applications with missing or insufficient information will not move forward in the review process.
Our team carefully reviews every complete submission, and we truly appreciate the time and effort you put into applying!
