Strategic Finance, Hardware Product Finance Lead

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI’s mission is to build safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) which benefits all of humanity. This long-term undertaking brings the world’s best scientists, engineers, and business professionals together under one organization to accomplish this. We're building the most advanced AI models and platforms, making it easy for developers and customers to benefit from AI via our suite of products. OpenAI is expanding into consumer hardware to explore new human-computer interaction experiences. Success in hardware requires world-class financial stewardship across the entire product cost stack, from early design and sourcing decisions to scaled manufacturing and lifecycle cost optimization. The Strategic Finance team provides financial insights and guidance to support the organization's long-term goals and strategies. We partner across the business to allocate and deploy our resources for the highest impact outcomes. We are hiring a Lead, Hardware Product Finance to build and own the financial foundation that supports hardware product strategy across development stages.This role sits at the intersection of Product, Engineering, Design, and Finance, and is responsible for ensuring that every major hardware decision — from feature tradeoffs to performance targets to launch timing — is anchored in rigorous product-level economics. This person will serve as the primary finance partner to Product, Engineering leadership, Supply Chain Operations and Manufacturing with full ownership of roadmap financial models, unit economics, SKU-level P&Ls, COGS, Inventory and margin trajectories. You will translate product strategy into financially grounded execution plans and help leadership optimize for profitability, capital efficiency, and long-term platform value. We have a strong preference for candidates who can be based in our San Francisco HQ. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

Requirements

12+ years of progressive finance experience with significant exposure to hardware, manufacturing, or complex supply chain businesses
A passion for helping build world-class finance teams and driving business and financial outcomes, as measured on margin improvement, working capital efficiency, forecast accuracy, and execution of cost-reduction initiatives
A strong ability to critically evaluate opportunities and risks
Expert modeling skills with best-in-class attention to detail and unwavering commitment to accuracy
Exemplary ability to distill complex financial information into actionable insights
Excellent communication skills and “story telling” ability when presenting data insights
Strong enthusiasm for building the human-computer interface for the AI era.
A track record of building and leading high-performing teams.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end hardware product financial models across the full lifecycle, from concept, prototyping, and launch to scale
Serve as the embedded finance partner to Product and Engineering leadership, guiding: feature tradeoffs, design-for-cost decisions, and performance targets vs. cost curves
Translate product roadmaps into financially grounded execution plans, integrating demand and pricing assumptions; yield and ramp profiles; mix, lifecycle margin, and portfolio profitability
Drive product-level profitability and capital efficiency, identifying cost inflection points; ROI tradeoffs across features and SKUs; and margin and risk implications of roadmap sequencing
Shape long-term hardware portfolio strategy, including product portfolio mix
Build and own end-to-end COGS models, incorporating BOM, yields, capacity, tariffs, logistics, and ramp curves.
Lead cost forecasting across product generations, including sensitivities, scenarios, and long-term cost curves.
Translate manufacturing and supply chain performance into actionable financial insights.
Own supply-chain-specific P&L and cash-flow forecasting, including inventory, working capital, and manufacturing readiness.
Partner with Procurement on supplier terms, pricing roadmaps, and multi-year cost-down strategies.
Evaluate contract manufacturing economics, tooling investments, capacity footprints, and multi-country supply chain options.
Drive financial rigor with engineering, identifying cost inflection points early in the product lifecycle.
Guide major decisions on vendor selection, manufacturing geography, capacity, and build plans.