Strategic Sourcing, Design & Construction

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI Finance ensures the organization is positioned for long-term success as we pursue our mission. The Strategic Sourcing & Procurement function plays a critical role in enabling OpenAI to deliver impact across its most important flywheels — research, product development, technology infrastructure, and services — by ensuring the company can scale responsibly, securely, and with strong commercial discipline. Our work sits at the intersection of innovation and execution. We partner closely with Research, Engineering, Product, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Security, and Workforce teams to translate rapidly evolving business needs into scalable, compliant, and economically sound external partnerships. As OpenAI continues to grow at pace, the ability to engage third-party expertise quickly — while maintaining consistency, governance, and long-term value — has become a strategic imperative. About the Role OpenAI is expanding its construction footprint to power advanced AI workloads at unprecedented scale. We’re building a world-class Sourcing and PMO function to ensure disciplined, predictable, and standardized execution across our capital projects portfolio. We are seeking a construction sourcing and program governance leader to build and drive the core program execution framework — including strategic sourcing, RFP development and execution, complex commercial negotiations, program controls, processes, templatization, reporting, risk management, vendor governance, and delivery standards across all projects and regions. You will design and implement the operating system for how OpenAI executes design and construction globally, partnering closely with Real Estate, Engineering, Design, Procurement, Finance, and Project Controls to safeguard schedule, cost, quality, and risk. 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

10+ years of strategic sourcing, procurement, cost control, or commercial management experience — ideally across large capital projects, REWS, or high-tech operations.
Proven success leading complex portfolios spanning construction, facilities, robotics, or engineering services.
Proven success implementing standardized delivery frameworks across multiple geos and project teams.
Deep understanding of contracting models (Lump Sum, GMP, CMAR, T&M) and service operations procurement.
Deep experience with cost, schedule, change control, and risk management practices.
Experience establishing category playbooks, supplier performance frameworks, and savings governance.
Excellent stakeholder management across technical and executive functions.
Comfort navigating ambiguity and building scalable sourcing processes in high-growth, high-stakes environments.

Responsibilities

Establish PMO operating model, governance rhythms, and workflows for global build programs.
Develop buying strategies, create and maintain program playbooks, delivery standards, RACI frameworks, and execution SOPs.
Stand up program health dashboards, schedule controls, and standardized reporting across project lifecycles.
Lead complex, strategic RFP processes across Real Estate and other construction categories, ensuring alignment with business and financial goals.
Manage and negotiate a high volume of strategic deals end-to-end using Zip (sourcing intake) and Ironclad (contract negotiation).
Partner with executive leadership to plan long-term capital sourcing roadmaps and supplier capacity alignment.
Manage a global ecosystem of architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as well as service partners for workplace, robotics, and operational support.
Establish supplier KPIs, performance scorecards, and governance models across numerous disciplines per site.
Partner with Legal to structure scalable commercial frameworks and contracting templates.
Support downstream procurement change orders, and operational contracting in partnership with Buyers and Project Controls.
Collaborate with Project Controls and Finance to forecast spend, validate budgets, and ensure real-time cost transparency.
Proactively identify delivery bottlenecks, operational risks, and systemic improvement opportunities.
Build scalable mechanisms to accelerate speed-to-build while maintaining quality, safety, and commercial discipline.