Senior Manager, Strategic Sourcing (Product & Engineering Technology)

Openai • San Francisco, CA

264d • Hybrid

About The Position

We're seeking a Strategic Sourcing Senior Manager to lead technical procurement across software, cloud services, infrastructure, developer tools, APIs, and security technologies that power our research and product environments. Reporting to the Head of Strategic Sourcing, you'll partner with technical teams to shape and drive sourcing strategies, as well as structure and negotiate complex, scalable agreements. You'll enable OpenAI to move quickly, boldly, and responsibly, and help us achieve our mission to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of three days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

Requirements

• 10+ years in software, cloud, and technical procurement, ideally in high-scale, product-led, or research-driven environments.
• Technical fluency to engage credibly with engineers and security teams on infrastructure concepts like cloud architecture, distributed systems, APIs, and developer platforms.
• A track record of structuring and negotiating non-standard, usage-based, API-driven, or deeply technical agreements.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills with diverse stakeholders—such as Engineering, Product, Security, Legal, and Finance—with a focus on clarity, consistency, and responsiveness.
• Analytical rigor to interpret usage data, pricing models, and growth forecasts to inform sourcing decisions and negotiation strategies.
• Experience managing vendor relationships across renewals, performance reviews, escalations, and compliance.
• An autonomous, ownership mindset to independently drive work forward with urgency and precision, and balances detail with clarity.
• Strong alignment with OpenAI's values and commitment to enabling its research and product goals through effective sourcing.

Responsibilities

• Lead sourcing and negotiation efforts for software, infrastructure, APIs, and security services that directly support OpenAI's product development and research.
• Partner closely with Engineering, Product, Research, and Security teams to understand technical requirements and translate them into sourcing strategies and commercial models.
• Design and execute category strategies that anticipate growth across compute, observability, orchestration, developer tooling, and security infrastructure.
• Negotiate custom, usage-based, and non-standard agreements, focusing on flexibility, scalability, and alignment with how technical teams actually build and operate.
• Collaborate with Legal, Security, and Engineering to evaluate vendors, address data protection and architecture needs, and close contracts quickly and safely.
• Support infrastructure and cloud spend governance, helping teams plan for growth, optimize costs, and manage vendor performance.
• Serve as a sourcing advisor to technical leadership, providing clarity on commercial risks, options, and best practices.
• Continuously improve sourcing processes to keep pace with OpenAI's speed and technical complexity.

Benefits

• Relocation assistance
• Hybrid work model of three days in the office per week

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services