Tax Director - Infrastructure & Incentives

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

1d•$266,000 - $295,000•Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI is seeking a Director, Tax Infrastructure & Incentives to lead the company's global tax infrastructure strategy, focusing on AI infrastructure expansion programs. This role involves owning the tax strategy for data center development, site selection, infrastructure investments, and government incentive programs. The position requires a strategic leader who can manage risk, unlock incentives, and enable responsible global growth. The role will build scalable frameworks for negotiating and managing tax incentives, property tax, indirect tax, and infrastructure-related tax matters, developing repeatable processes for rapid expansion across multiple jurisdictions. It also involves establishing governance, reporting, and operational infrastructure for long-term compliance, financial reporting, and executive decision-making. The role is based in San Francisco, CA, with a hybrid work model of three days in the office per week.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in state and local tax, property tax, tax incentives, infrastructure tax, or economic development, including significant in-house leadership experience.
Deep experience supporting large-scale infrastructure investments, data centers, manufacturing, semiconductor, energy, or other capital-intensive industries.
Demonstrated success negotiating complex economic development incentives with state and local governments.
Strong understanding of property tax, sales and use tax, construction taxation, and infrastructure-related tax issues.
Experience building scalable tax processes and governance frameworks supporting multi-billion-dollar capital investment programs.
Strong financial modeling skills with the ability to evaluate investment returns, incentive value, and long-term financial impacts.
Experience partnering effectively with executive leadership and influencing cross-functional strategic decisions.
Exceptional communication and negotiation skills with the ability to represent OpenAI before government officials, external advisors, and senior executives.
Proven ability to lead highly cross-functional initiatives across Finance, Legal, Infrastructure, Engineering, Treasury, Public Policy, and Operations.
Experience building, mentoring, and developing high-performing teams in fast-growing organizations.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting hyperscale data center development or cloud infrastructure investments.
Experience negotiating incentives across multiple U.S. states and international jurisdictions.
Familiarity with energy markets, utility incentive programs, renewable energy investments, or transmission infrastructure.
Experience implementing tax technology solutions supporting property tax, incentives, and indirect tax processes.
CPA, JD, MST, or equivalent advanced tax qualification.
Experience in a high-growth technology company or other rapidly scaling global organization.

Responsibilities

Lead OpenAI's global tax infrastructure strategy supporting hyperscale AI infrastructure expansion.
Develop and execute tax strategies supporting site selection, data center development, and long-term infrastructure investments.
Structure, negotiate, and administer complex state, local, federal, and international incentive programs, including property tax abatements, PILOT agreements, sales and use tax incentives, grants, investment tax credits, and other economic development programs.
Partner closely with Infrastructure, Real Estate, Finance, Treasury, Legal, Public Policy, Energy, and Engineering throughout the lifecycle of major infrastructure projects - from early site evaluation through construction and ongoing operations.
Lead tax due diligence, financial modeling, and incentive valuation for new infrastructure investments and strategic expansion opportunities.
Establish scalable governance processes to manage incentive compliance, reporting obligations, audit readiness, and ongoing stakeholder communications.
Partner with Tax Technology and Financial Engineering teams to automate property tax, incentive administration, and indirect tax processes while improving data quality and operational efficiency.
Build executive-level reporting that communicates financial impact, investment returns, tax savings, compliance status, and strategic risks across the infrastructure portfolio.
Serve as OpenAI's primary tax advisor on infrastructure transactions, public-private partnerships, energy investments, and large-scale capital deployment initiatives.
Build strong relationships with state and local governments, economic development organizations, utilities, external advisors, and industry partners.
Monitor legislative and regulatory developments affecting data centers, AI infrastructure, energy, property taxation, and government incentives, translating emerging policy into actionable business strategy.