Head of People Science and Operations

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI’s People team is committed to hiring, engaging, and supporting world-class talent to help safely build and deploy universally beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). The People Science and Operations team is responsible for the systems, data, and operational rigor that underpin every stage of the employee lifecycle. Our work sits at the intersection of employee experience, regulatory compliance, and business velocity — ensuring that as OpenAI scales rapidly and globally, our foundations remain accurate, auditable, and human-centered. This is a high-trust, high-impact function. We partner closely with Finance, Legal, IT, Security, and the broader People team to support growth in a dynamic environment with significant internal and external scrutiny. Operational excellence here is not about process for process’s sake — it is about building durable infrastructure that enables fairness, transparency, and responsible scale. The Head of People Science and Operations is responsible for building and leading an integrated function spanning People Data Science and People Operations. Reporting to the Chief People Officer, this executive will define how the company uses experimentation, analytics, process design, technology, and service delivery to improve employee experience and organizational effectiveness. They will serve as the connective tissue between people strategy and execution, ensuring that ideas are translated into durable operating models, that decisions are grounded in evidence, and that core people systems scale with the business. 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.

Requirements

15+ years of experience across People Operations, HR Operations, People Analytics, organizational effectiveness, or related functions.
Significant leadership experience running scaled people systems in a complex, fast-moving environment.
Strong command of analytics, experimentation, and evidence-based decision-making.
Proven ability to redesign processes and build durable operating mechanisms across functions.
Experience leading through ambiguity, managing sensitive people data, and balancing speed with rigor.
High executive presence with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and align cross-functional partners.
Track record of building and developing senior leaders across multiple disciplines.

Nice To Haves

Experience with global operations, workforce systems, compliance considerations, and service delivery models preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead a unified strategy across People Data Science, Analytics, and People Operations.
Inject science into all aspects of People processes ranging from how we interview, how we compensate, grow, promote, reward, and recognize Talent.
Partner with Research, Engineering, and Product teams to apply OpenAI’s own technology internally—driving automation, intelligent workflows, and system improvements across People Operations, data science, and employee experience platforms.
Build an operating model that links experimentation, insight generation, process design, and service delivery.
Oversee the development of people analytics, dashboards, research agendas, and experimentation frameworks that improve decision quality.
Establish clear service standards, workflows, and controls across core people operations processes.
Partner with HRBPs, Talent, Total Rewards, Legal, Finance, IT, and Security to improve end-to-end execution on critical people programs.
Drive simplification and automation across onboarding, job changes, offboarding, case management, employee support, and data governance.
Create mechanisms to test new people programs quickly, learn from results, and scale what works.
Ensure people data is reliable, well-governed, and translated into actionable insights for executives and managers.
Lead teams in experimenting with and deploying OpenAI technology to modernize People systems and operations—embedding AI-enabled automation, decision support, and scalable operational infrastructure across the People function.
Build a high-performing leadership team with strong capabilities in operations, analytics, research, and change management.
Define success metrics for operational quality, employee experience, experimentation throughput, and impact on business outcomes.
Serve as a strategic advisor to the CPO on organizational health, workforce insights, and operating effectiveness.