Early-Stage Ecosystem (IC)
About The Position
As an IC Ecosystem Lead, you will own a small, high-leverage portfolio of relationships quarterly (~5–15) with exceptional founders and technical teams - often before the market fully recognizes them. Your work will shape OpenAI’s reputation in the ecosystem, accelerate breakthrough partner outcomes, and create a durable pipeline of applied and research collaborations that benefit startups and help inform our product and model roadmap. This is a high-taste, high-agency role at the intersection of founder trust, technical depth, and cross-functional execution. You’ll operate closely with research, product, and go-to-market teams, as well as internal evaluation and model-improvement partners - turning startup needs into concrete technical engagements, evaluation work, and strategic opportunities.
Responsibilities
- Own a portfolio of high-taste startup relationships
- Manage ~5–15 key startup partnerships at any time (mix of new bets + series-a folks).
- Build deep founder trust through fast, thoughtful support and clear value creation.
- Identify the “correct” emerging companies each quarter - especially those likely to become major partners within ~24 months.
- Convert portfolio startups into high-touch strategic engagements by surfacing high-value evaluation opportunities and managing them end-to-end.
- Shape OpenAI’s early-stage perception and founder preference
- Identify the “correct” emerging companies each quarter - especially those likely to become major partners within ~24 months.
- Create and host high-quality founder gatherings with strong attendance bars.
- Work with Comms and Developer Experience to produce technical content (blogs, short-form, talks) that resonates with the next generation of founders.
- Build niche technical micro-communities around key developer/founder interests.
- Drive evals and research-adjacent engagements
- Partner with solutions and evaluation teams to translate real-world product usage into actionable improvements.
- Execute creative strategic/commercial work
- Support strategic recruiting and other high-conviction cross-functional opportunities as needed.
- Collaborate with co-sell / co-market motions when it accelerates top partners.
- Act as a sharp internal signal: what’s real in the ecosystem, what’s buzz.
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
No Education Listed
