Legal Program Manager

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

3d•$162,000 - $180,000•Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI’s Legal team works on novel legal issues in AI and includes professionals across technology, privacy, intellectual property, corporate, employment, tax, regulatory, and litigation. Its regulatory compliance work turns legal requirements into practical programs that support responsible AI development and deployment. The Legal Program Manager independently manages assigned programs and workstreams across Legal priorities, with a focus on emerging user risk. The portfolio may include sensitive user escalations, intake and response workflows, and improvements informed by recurring issues, with the work evolving alongside team needs. The role partners with counsel, senior legal program managers, and technical and business teams to establish priorities and scope, organize information, coordinate partners, and move open questions toward decisions. Over time, the role takes on more ambiguous projects and builds repeatable processes that help teams work more effectively. This is a full-time role based in San Francisco, California, or New York, New York. OpenAI uses a hybrid work model requiring three days in the office per week and offers relocation assistance to new employees.

Requirements

Demonstrated experience independently managing programs or projects from planning through delivery in legal operations, business operations, compliance, policy, investigations, or a related field.
Experience coordinating work across teams, maintaining reliable records, and driving open questions and actions to resolution.
Ability to take ownership of execution, set and achieve milestones, anticipate dependencies, and follow through without frequent direction.
Strong organizational, analytical, and communication skills; sound judgment under pressure; adaptability to changing priorities; and ability to determine when to proceed independently or seek guidance.
Ability to handle sensitive information and difficult subject matter with discretion and care, distinguish evidence from assumptions, and recognize when counsel or specialist input is needed.
Resourcefulness and a hands-on approach, enthusiasm for AI technology, ability to learn unfamiliar subject areas, and ability to use AI tools thoughtfully and verify their outputs.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with an in-house legal team or in a technology environment.
Familiarity with user safety, legal escalations, preservation, incident response, or operational data.
Experience improving a recurring workflow, documenting the change, helping others adopt it, and explaining what improved and how the result was assessed.

Responsibilities

Independently manage assigned legal programs and workstreams by defining plans, owners, milestones, and dependencies within agreed scope; anticipate blockers and drive execution.
Translate counsel and specialist teams’ guidance into repeatable workflows, playbooks, and documentation, potentially covering intake, sensitive user escalations, information gathering, and response coordination.
Build partnerships across Legal, Product, Safety, User Operations, Policy, and other teams to clarify ownership, coordinate handoffs, and drive commitments through completion.
Clarify open questions, gather and verify information, synthesize partner input, and bring recommendations and tradeoffs to decision-makers; escalate decisions that require changes to priorities, scope, or resources.
Maintain a reliable source of truth for matters, source documents, owners, deadlines, decisions, and actions; provide concise reporting on progress, blockers, and decisions needed.
Identify recurring issues and execution gaps, propose practical improvements, and lead agreed changes through implementation and adoption.
Use tools and automation thoughtfully, verify outputs, and assess improvements in quality, timeliness, and partner effort.