Program Manager, Procurement Center of Excellence

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

6d•$216,000 - $240,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Procurement organization enables OpenAI's mission by ensuring every dollar is spent responsibly, compliantly, and efficiently. Within Procurement, the Center of Excellence (COE) team is responsible for designing and scaling the processes, systems, governance, and operating models that enable Procurement to grow effectively alongside the business. This role partners closely with Procurement and cross-functional teams to simplify how work gets requested, routed, approved, and managed across the spend lifecycle. By combining program leadership, process design, and change enablement, we help Procurement scale while maintaining strong controls and delivering an exceptional experience for employees and business partners. As a Procurement Program Manager, you will lead complex, cross-functional initiatives that span Strategic Sourcing, Procure-to-Pay (P2P), Extended Workforce, Travel & Expense, Corporate Card, Risk, Legal, Finance, and Technology teams. You will not only drive project and program execution, but also actively contribute to solution design, requirements development, process optimization, testing, rollout planning, and stakeholder alignment. This is a highly collaborative role for someone who thrives in fast-moving environments, can bring structure to ambiguity, and is equally comfortable facilitating executive discussions, building project plans, and rolling up their sleeves to help move initiatives forward. 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

Excel at turning ambiguity into action, creating clarity and momentum in environments where priorities, requirements, and timelines evolve quickly.
Highly organized without being rigid, balancing competing priorities while maintaining focus on outcomes.
Enjoy operating at both strategic and tactical levels, moving seamlessly between executive discussions and hands-on execution.
Build strong relationships across diverse stakeholder groups, influencing without direct authority and bringing teams together around shared goals.
Have a systems mindset, understanding how processes, technology, data, and controls work together to create scalable solutions.
Take ownership beyond traditional program management, proactively identifying gaps, solving problems, and helping teams move work forward.
Communicate with precision and empathy, adapting your approach to technical, operational, and executive audiences.
Are energized by fast-paced, evolving environments, where priorities shift, new challenges emerge, and adaptability is essential.
Are excited about leveraging AI, automation, and technology to improve experiences, increase efficiency, and enable Procurement to scale.

Nice To Haves

7–10+ years of experience in project/program management, business operations, procurement operations or strategic sourcing, process transformation, consulting, or related fields.
Demonstrated success leading complex cross-functional initiatives involving multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
Experience translating business requirements into scalable operational processes, system enhancements, or technology solutions.
Strong understanding of procurement, purchasing, sourcing, finance, risk, legal, or operational workflows.
Experience partnering with technology teams to design, implement, and scale business processes and systems.
Proven ability to drive execution in high-growth, rapidly changing, and ambiguous environments.
Strong project management, communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
Experience with procurement and enterprise platforms such as Zip, Oracle, OneTrust, Navan, Brex, VNDLY, Salesforce, or similar systems.
Experience supporting change management, enablement, training, and organizational adoption efforts.
Enthusiasm for building scalable processes, enabling operational excellence, and leveraging AI and automation to improve business outcomes.

Responsibilities

Lead cross-functional procurement transformation programs spanning Strategic Sourcing, P2P, Extended Workforce, T&E, Corporate Card, Risk, and Procurement Systems.
Develop and maintain the Procurement transformation roadmap, partnering across teams to identify opportunities, prioritize initiatives, map dependencies, sequence work effectively, and align investments against strategic business objectives.
Translate business needs into scalable requirements, partnering with Procurement SMEs and EPT to design processes, workflows, controls, reporting, and user experiences.
Drive quarterly planning and execution, maintaining visibility into milestones, risks, dependencies, resource needs, and delivery timelines across multiple concurrent initiatives.
Contribute directly to project delivery, including requirements gathering, process design, testing coordination, documentation, rollout planning, training, and change enablement.
Partner with Procurement verticals to accelerate execution, helping teams define problems, structure workstreams, develop solutions, and move projects from idea to implementation.
Lead governance and operating rhythms, including project reviews, leadership updates, status reporting, issue escalation, and decision tracking.
Coordinate cross-functional implementations involving Procurement, Legal, Finance, Security, Privacy, Risk, and Enterprise Platform Technology teams.
Develop executive-ready communications and reporting, translating complex programs into clear updates, recommendations, risks, and outcomes.
Define success metrics and measure outcomes, leveraging data and insights to evaluate adoption, operational performance, process effectiveness, and business impact.
Support continuous improvement efforts, identifying opportunities to streamline processes, improve user experiences, strengthen controls, and scale operations through automation, analytics, and AI.