Strategic Sourcing Manager (Software)

About the Team

OpenAI Finance is responsible for ensuring the organization is set up for success in pursuit of its mission. Our Procurement team partners closely with internal stakeholders and vendors to develop optimal cost-efficient strategies that enhance operational effectiveness and enable broader organizational goals.

About the Role

As a Strategic Sourcing Manager (Software), you’ll refine and enhance our software procurement function by working closely with stakeholders to understand sourcing needs, develop category strategies, manage RFPs, build robust vendor relationships, and oversee key software spend areas. You’ll have expertise in software procurement and a good understanding of engineering principles to bridge the gap between our engineering and finance teams.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. 

In this role, you will:

• Assist in devising and implementing a comprehensive strategy for our software procurement—aligning with OpenAI’s broader financial, operational, and technology objectives.

• Develop strategic partnerships with internal stakeholders to understand procurement needs and create and execute category strategies accordingly.

• Participate in the strategic sourcing process for key software spend areas, ensuring a streamlined approach for managing RFPs and vendor selection.

• Help manage key supplier relationships, including contract negotiations and performance evaluations, to ensure alignment with OpenAI’s financial policies and procedures.

• Ensure continuous improvement by owning supplier performance metrics, ensuring thorough and timely evaluations to enhance supplier quality and performance.

• Assist in managing and optimizing our sourcing systems, ensuring seamless procurement operations and data-driven decision-making.

• Contribute to software procurement reporting and analytics initiatives, generating insightful reports and dashboards to monitor performance, identify trends, and support data-driven decision-making aligned with OpenAI's financial and operational goals.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• 5+ years of experience in technology procurement at fast-growing technology companies.

• Proven technical ability to engage credibly with engineering teams, leveraging your technical background to understand their needs and challenges.

• Strong skills in managing relationships with key suppliers, skillfully negotiating contracts, and working closely with internal stakeholders to understand and address their procurement needs.

• An analytical mindset to generate insightful data to monitor performance, identify trends, and support informed decision-making.

• Strong collaboration skills to partner with various internal departments (e.g. Legal, Security) to ensure compliance and timely vendor assessments.

• A proactive approach in engaging internal departments, refining the procurement function, and contributing significantly to operational efficiency and fiscal discipline within OpenAI.

• Mission-driven focus in understanding and commitment to support OpenAI’s ambitious projects and long-term mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity through strategic procurement practices.
  

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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. 

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.