Senior Manager, Procurement Operations - Hardware

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

9d•$216,000 - $240,000•Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI is building a future-focused Procurement team that leverages AI-enabled systems, clean data, and scalable processes to manage increasing complexity, speed, volume, and throughput. The Hardware Procurement Operations team specifically supports the operational flow of goods and hardware purchasing across OpenAI's hardware business units. They assist teams in transforming business needs into controlled, accurate, and executable procurement activities, covering the entire process from request intake to purchase orders, supplier coordination, change management, receiving readiness, and invoice support. As OpenAI scales, this team is responsible for developing procurement operations that can adapt to evolving hardware needs, new business unit priorities, and growing operational complexity. This involves establishing practical standards where beneficial, maintaining flexibility where required by the business, and continuously enhancing the movement of requests, suppliers, POs, data, and controls through their systems. As a Senior Manager of Procurement Operations focused on Hardware, you will be responsible for the procurement operations of one or more assigned hardware business units. This is a hands-on role where you will be the primary point of contact for daily hardware and goods procurement activities, managing the process from request intake through purchase requests, POs, supplier needs, changes, receiving readiness, and operational escalations. The ideal candidate is an operator-builder who understands the practical complexities of hardware and goods procurement and can both execute current tasks and redesign processes for future scalability. You will ensure work progresses efficiently while improving the operating model through enhanced systems, workflows, automation, AI-enabled processes, controls, metrics, and operating leverage. This involves evaluating the integration of people, process, policy, systems, data, fiscal controls, and accounting practices. You will collaborate with other Central Procurement and BU Procurement subject matter experts to define and implement standardization where practical and applicable. Close collaboration with hardware business teams, Strategic Sourcing, Finance, Legal, Security, Financial Risk Management, Accounting, and Accounts Payable is essential. The goal is to facilitate rapid progress for hardware teams while ensuring procurement activities are complete, policy-compliant, and reliable for dependent teams. This role demands strong judgment, ownership, and financial acumen. While hardware teams require speed and flexibility, Procurement Operations also needs accurate data, fiscal controls, accounting alignment, auditability, commitment visibility, accrual readiness, and dependable downstream handoffs. You will navigate these competing needs in a dynamic environment, understand the impact of upstream procurement decisions on downstream financial outcomes, and drive measurable improvements in request-to-PO cycle time, PO quality, exception rates, receiving readiness, invoice match performance, commitment visibility, and close readiness.

Requirements

7+ years of procurement operations, P2P, supply chain operations, or related experience, ideally in hardware, goods, manufacturing, infrastructure, lab, data center, device, or similarly complex physical-goods environments.
Strong working understanding of fiscal controls, accounting-adjacent procurement practices, invoice matching, accrual support, commitment visibility, and audit-ready documentation.
Proficiency in request-to-PO operations, supplier workflows, PO maintenance, receiving dependencies, change management, and downstream invoice-readiness requirements.
Understanding of how people, process, policy, systems, data, fiscal controls, and accounting outcomes holistically connect.
Experience leveraging procurement, intake, ERP, supplier, ticketing, and workflow platforms such as Zip, Oracle, Coupa, SAP, NetSuite, Jira, ServiceNow, or similar tools.
Ability to balance speed and business enablement with strong operational controls, particularly when urgent execution is required.
Comfort adapting to evolving policies, priorities, ownership structures, and operating models.
Ability to learn quickly and build context across new business areas, stakeholders, systems, and supplier models.
Effective communication skills with business partners, Procurement peers, Finance, Legal, Security, Accounting, AP, and Systems teams.
Experience using data and metrics to improve cycle time, PO quality, exception rates, receiving readiness, invoice match performance, commitment visibility, accrual readiness, and downstream financial accuracy.
Experience as an operator builder who can step into the queue when needed, identify recurring patterns, and translate them into scalable workflows, tools, automations, and operating improvements.

Responsibilities

Own procurement operations outcomes for assigned hardware business unit teams and serve as their primary Procurement Operations DRI.
Redesign workflows, intake paths, routing logic, and operating rhythms so hardware procurement operations can scale without linear headcount growth.
Lead hardware and goods procurement operations from request intake through PO creation, PO maintenance, supplier coordination, receiving readiness, and invoice-readiness handoffs.
Drive alignment with hardware stakeholders to clarify requirements, resolve blockers, and keep procurement activity moving with the right level of control.
Ensure requests and POs are complete, policy-aligned, audit-ready, and supported by clean operational data.
Identify and resolve issues related to supplier setup, supplier requirements, PO structure, receiving, documentation, approvals, and downstream invoice matching.
Balance urgent business needs with procurement controls, approval requirements, exception paths, and auditability.
Work closely with Procurement subject area owners as a team to standardize workflows, intake requirements, operating rhythms, and metrics where practical.
Identify repeatable work patterns, define system and process requirements, and help build scalable workflows, automations, controls, and reporting for assigned hardware business units.
Build operating leverage through practical documentation, SOPs, playbooks, dashboards, templates, self-service guidance, intake logic, and AI-enabled workflow improvements that reduce repeated manual follow-up and recurring exceptions.
Serve as the primary operational escalation point for assigned hardware business units, escalating risks early and driving issues through to clear resolution.