Strategic Sourcing Leader, Professional Services

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

4d•$266,000 - $295,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Strategic Sourcing & Procurement team at OpenAI is responsible for scaling the organization responsibly and at speed by selecting external partners, structuring commercial agreements, and building resilient supplier relationships. This role focuses on the Professional Services category, which includes consulting and advisory, finance and accounting, legal, people-related services, and managed services. The Strategic Sourcing Leader will lead and develop the Professional Services sourcing team, setting direction across its portfolio. This is a people-management role with accountability for team performance, commercial quality, stakeholder experience, and sustained business outcomes. The leader will translate business priorities into category strategies, delivery plans, and clear decision authority, while developing the team's judgment and independence. The role involves overseeing a broad portfolio, from strategic advisory relationships and enterprise programs to a high volume of statements of work and renewals. The individual will remain hands-on in selected complex negotiations and critical decisions, while enabling the team to own and deliver its work. Collaboration with senior leaders across Finance, Accounting, Legal, People, Extended Workforce, and the business is key to creating clarity from incomplete information, resolving competing priorities, and adapting the team's approach as OpenAI grows. This role is based in San Francisco, CA, with a hybrid work model (three days in the office per week) and relocation assistance offered.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive strategic sourcing, procurement or category management experience, with substantial depth across multiple Professional Services categories and ownership from strategy through supplier performance.
5+ years of people leadership experience, including formal responsibility for objectives, performance, development and delegation. Can demonstrate stronger team capability, independent judgement and sustained delivery through your leadership.
Personally led complex services negotiations and can explain the alternatives, commercial decisions and measurable outcomes, while showing how you coach others to deliver comparable quality.
Understand consulting, advisory, managed services and project-based commercial models, including experience with large multidisciplinary firms such as the Big Four and specialist providers. Bring breadth across areas such as finance, accounting, legal, healthcare or benefits-related services, alongside sound judgement on workforce boundaries.
Turned category strategies into practical operating improvements, balancing standardization with flexibility and strategic work with recurring demand. Can show adoption, reliable delivery and stronger stakeholder experience.
Influence senior stakeholders through trust, structured thinking and concise communication. Can work through disagreement, make trade-offs explicit and seek decisions at the right level.
Strong financial and analytical judgement, using imperfect spend, supplier and performance data to compare options, test assumptions and verify business value beyond negotiated savings.
Lead effectively through ambiguity, rapid change and limited structure. Can reset priorities, invite challenge and adapt working practices to different company stages, operating models and organisational cultures.
Practical experience using AI to redesign sourcing work and helping others adopt it, with clear human review, quality checks and evidence of improvement.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop the team: set clear objectives and expectations, delegate with appropriate decision boundaries, provide regular feedback, review performance and address persistent gaps. Build development and coverage plans that strengthen capability and reduce reliance on individual experts.
Set the Professional Services portfolio strategy and roadmap, connecting business objectives, demand, spend, supplier markets and risk. Guide category plans and decisions on where to compete, consolidate, retain specialist partners or change the service delivery model.
Manage the team's pipeline and capacity across strategic negotiations, supplier governance and recurring SOWs. Allocate work by capability, complexity and risk; make resource constraints and dependencies visible; and agree priorities and recovery plans before commitments become unachievable.
Personally lead selected critical negotiations and set standards for commercial quality across the team. Review strategy and assumptions early, using credible alternatives and comparable economics to shape scope, resource mix, pricing, deliverables, acceptance criteria, change controls, audit rights and exit protections.
Build proportionate intake, tiering, preferred-partner models, playbooks and review pathways with Procurement Operations, Contract Management, Enablement and control functions. Agree decision rights and usable handovers so repeatable work moves efficiently and material exceptions receive the right attention.
Strengthen supplier relationships and accountability through segmentation, competition, performance reviews and improvement plans. Agree post-signature owners with the business and use service evidence, concentration risk, renewal exposure and transition options to guide supplier decisions. Assess supplier productivity proposals for their effect on staffing, fees, quality and delivery risk.
Partner with Finance and Accounting on spend visibility, demand scenarios, forecasting, approval discipline and invoice-to-contract alignment. Test fee models, staffing assumptions, change exposure and total economics, with clear baselines for savings, cost avoidance and realized value.
Partner with Legal, People and Extended Workforce to select appropriate service models and distinguish Professional Services from contingent labour or hiring needs. Translate specialist guidance into practical safeguards for service delivery, intellectual property, confidentiality and workforce-related risk.
Establish a concise view of portfolio and team performance covering commercial and service outcomes, pipeline health, cycle time, risk, stakeholder experience and team capability. Use evidence to improve decisions, commitments and delivery; distinguish negotiated benefits from value realized.
Build trusted senior stakeholder relationships and challenge demand, scope or supplier preferences constructively. Resolve difficult trade-offs on value, speed, quality and risk, and escalate decisions beyond your authority with clear options and a recommendation.
Personally use approved AI tools and lead adoption of improved sourcing workflows across the team, including supplier research, proposal analysis, negotiation preparation and reporting. Validate sources and calculations, retain human commercial judgement, and measure adoption and gains in quality, speed or capacity.
Create an inclusive team environment with clear expectations, constructive feedback and room for respectful challenge. Combine accountability with coaching, recognize progress and build resilience through prioritization and dependable support.