Technical Deployment Lead - Cleared - US

OpenAI Deployment Company

3d•$170,000 - $400,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Technical Deployment Lead turns complex customer deployments into shipped, adopted systems for customers whose work requires cleared personnel. The role leads day-to-day technical delivery, translating business outcomes into technical plans, coordinating Forward Deployed Engineers, researchers, customer engineers, Product, and customer teams, and carrying solutions from prototype through production adoption. It reports to DeployCo delivery leadership and partners closely with Forward Deployed Engineering, Product, Research, Customer Success, Partnerships, and customer stakeholders. The role maps customer workflows and success criteria; builds delivery plans; tracks dependencies; sequences workstreams; unblocks technical teams; makes scope tradeoffs; communicates risks; and drives readiness and change management. For cleared engagements, it accounts for access approvals, secure-facility scheduling, and customer security and infrastructure requirements, communicating through approved channels and respecting restrictions on data, connectivity, tooling, access, and reuse of information. It also codifies reusable patterns and shares field insights through approved channels. Success is measured by delivery reliability, quality of technical execution, customer trust, operating leverage, judgment under pressure, and the strength of field signal shared with Product and Research. The role is based in Washington, D.C., New York, or San Francisco, with candidates elsewhere potentially considered based on customer needs and access requirements. It uses a hybrid model with three days per week in the office, may require onsite work, and involves up to 50% travel, including possible access to secure facilities. Relocation assistance is offered.

Requirements

At least 5 years of customer-facing technical delivery, technical program management, deployment, consulting, solutions engineering, or implementation leadership experience.
Experience leading complex, ambiguous, cross-functional technical projects requiring close coordination and timely decision-making.
Technical fluency to assess architectures, integration plans, data and workflow constraints, and production readiness.
Ability to move between system-level strategy and execution-level detail, from executive objectives to ticket-level dependencies.
Clear communication with business leaders, technical teams, and customer stakeholders, particularly about tradeoffs involving risk, scope, speed, or adoption.
Strong customer empathy and willingness to work onsite with customers when it supports delivery and trust.
Ability to balance delivery momentum with customer security requirements and coordinate effectively when information or access is restricted.
Active U.S. government security clearance; candidates must be able to maintain the clearance and obtain customer-specific access.
Ability to work within customer-approved environments and account for restrictions on data, connectivity, tooling, and access.

Nice To Haves

Practical interest in or experience with AI/LLM systems, with eagerness to learn solution patterns, evaluation practices, and production pitfalls.
Experience with government, national-security, or other customers operating under clearance and access constraints.
TS/SCI clearance with polygraph is preferred; all clearance levels will be considered.

Responsibilities

Own technical delivery plans for customer workstreams, translating business objectives into milestones, dependencies, acceptance criteria, and operating rhythms.
Run day-to-day execution across DeployCo, OpenAI, and customer teams; sequence work, make risks visible, resolve blockers, and protect critical paths.
Embed with customers to map workflows, shape requirements, align technical plans to success criteria, and support production adoption.
Partner with FDEs, researchers, Product, customer engineers, and customer technical teams to progress prototypes through MVP, production readiness, launch, and scale.
Make pragmatic tradeoffs on scope, sequencing, resourcing, and quality while maintaining trust with technical and executive stakeholders.
Own value cases and impact measurement, including hypotheses, baselines, KPIs, adoption tracking, and sponsor readouts.
Codify reusable delivery patterns, implementation playbooks, evaluations, and field insights to improve future deployments and inform product roadmap priorities.
Account for access approvals, secure-facility scheduling, and dependencies on customer security and infrastructure teams in delivery plans.
Align technical teams and customer stakeholders on target-environment readiness criteria, including testing, operational ownership, and support.
Keep sponsors informed through approved channels, communicating delivery risks and decisions at the appropriate sensitivity level.
For cleared engagements, build within customer-approved environments and coordinate with customer engineers to establish a feasible path from prototype to a system the customer can operate.