So the problem was just my configuration, not the lack of a root account password. I tried to use disko to set up a ZFS pool and datasets, which failed to automount because of this known issue. This left me in a state where the following message was displayed:
You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl default" or “exit” to boot into default mode.
Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked. See sulogin(8) to continue.
Press Enter to continue.
I interpreted this incorrectly, thinking the locked root account was the issue, because I could not ssh into the machine. However, after pressing Enter once, systemd brought up all services required for the default target, including ssh.
After fixing the configuration issue, this error message went away.