Special Projects Lead

About the Team

The Special Projects team focuses on shaping the commercial strategy of the business. We work directly with the COO and closely collaborate with commercial, product, and finance leaders to refine our strategy, address gaps in our operations, and build the organization needed to achieve our goals both now and in the future. 

About the Role

We are hiring a Special Projects Lead to join our dynamic, high-impact team. The role involves leading diverse projects across multiple business domains – including go-to-market, partnerships, strategic planning, and international. The ideal candidate will bring a unique blend of strategic thinking, analytical skills, and operational problem-solving abilities. Success in this role hinges on effective communication and collaboration with teams throughout the company, securing buy-in, crafting well-rounded solutions, and driving impactful results.

This role is based in our San Francisco HQ. We operate on a hybrid work model with three days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance. Travel is required up to 20% of the time.

In this role, you will:

• Assume end-to-end ownership of special projects, from defining project scope to collaborating with key stakeholders and driving projects from inception to completion.

• Support the COO and leaders in go-to-market, partnerships, and product to enhance strategic decision-making across the business.

• Identify and address gaps in our operations and organizational structure to help us move faster. 

• Scope and define new commercial opportunities within our B2B and B2C operations, contributing to business growth and diversification.

• Partner with finance and data science teams to refine how business health is communicated to executives, the board, and investors. 

• Build both a macro and micro perspective of the business, assessing our overall trajectory and diving into specific operational areas to identify and resolve inefficiencies. 

• Analyze product and sales trends to develop actionable recommendations.

• Communicate our strategy across the organization to ensure alignment and foster a shared understanding of our goals and objectives. 

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have 5+ years of experience in business operations, strategy, venture capital, private equity, or consulting, with at least 2 years operating within a company. 

• Have extensive experience in taking end-to-end ownership of large, ambiguous problems, and breaking them down into clear, actionable plans. 

• Have experience communicating with executives and senior leaders to influence and drive strategic decisions. 

• Are highly analytical – sophisticated in your understanding and approach to modeling, and familiar with SQL. 

• Are comfortable operating at all altitudes – working on strategy and vision with executives, and troubleshooting operations with individual contributors.  

• Have excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills. 

• Are passionate about technology and artificial intelligence, and interested in its impact on business and society.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. 

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For US Based Candidates: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.