Vertical Marketing Lead

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI is expanding into priority industries such as education, finance, healthcare, government, and retail — each with its own customers, constraints, and adoption patterns. As AI rapidly reshapes these sectors, we need someone who can deeply understand the landscape, translate product value into compelling narratives, and guide how we show up across audiences. We are hiring a Vertical Marketing Lead who will sit at the intersection of product marketing, industry strategy, and go-to-market execution. You’ll help define how OpenAI speaks to the real problems, workflows, and opportunities inside each vertical — and ensure our solutions are positioned in a way that drives adoption, credibility, and long-term customer success. This role is based in San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

Requirements

6+ years of experience in product marketing, vertical or industry marketing, solutions marketing, or go-to-market strategy.
Built compelling narratives and frameworks—including positioning, messaging, and playbooks—for specific customer segments, industries, or complex products.
A strong storytelling muscle, with the ability to translate technical capabilities into clear, resonant messaging for non-technical and industry buyers.
Strategic instincts, able to spot patterns, define the “so what,” and shape a clear, differentiated point of view.
Proven cross-functional influence, partnering closely with product, PMM, solutions, and sales to bring a cohesive story to life across the full go-to-market motion.
Operational rigor and executional strength, bringing structure to ambiguity and moving quickly from insight to shipped output.
A data-informed mindset, using metrics and qualitative signals to refine strategy and understand what’s working—and what’s not.

Responsibilities

Build clear, differentiated go-to-market strategies for priority industries, grounded in customer needs, emerging patterns, and market shifts.
Develop industry-specific messaging, positioning, and proof points that empower sales, solutions, and product teams to engage buyers with confidence.
Partner closely across PMM, product, and GTM to operationalize vertical insights into campaigns, events, enablement, and customer conversations.
Define and maintain strategic vertical plans, including target audiences, key use cases, competitive context, and success metrics.
Create compelling, industry-tailored content such as playbooks, narratives, pitch decks, use cases, and customer stories.
Lead vertical-focused activations, including campaigns, events, sponsorships, and executive-level initiatives.
Serve as an embedded partner within vertical pods, synthesizing customer and market signals into actionable insights for PMM, product, and sales.
Drive measurable pipeline and engagement through targeted programs, storytelling, and data-informed execution.
Ensure GTM teams are fully enabled with the right messaging, tools, and materials to consistently deliver value to industry buyers.