Violence Risk & Legal Response Lead

OpenAI • San Francisco, CA

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

OpenAI's Legal team plays a crucial role in furthering OpenAI's mission by tackling innovative, fundamental legal issues in AI. If you're passionate about doing significant and unique work with technology lawyers, this team is for you. The team comprises legal professionals from diverse fields, including technology, privacy, IP, corporate, cybersecurity, employment, tax, regulatory, and litigation. OpenAI seeks an experienced, world-class threat assessment expert to strengthen, evolve, and scale OpenAI’s approach to high-risk safety scenarios involving potential proactive disclosures to law enforcement for threats of violence. As the Lead of Violence Risk & Legal Response, you will be responsible for ensuring that OpenAI threat assessment legal frameworks are based on the highest professional and industry standards, and aligned with legal, regulatory, and human rights standards globally. You will partner closely with teams across OpenAI, including investigations, policy, and safety teams, and engage externally with mental health, behavioural, and law enforcement experts to evaluate individual cases for potential referral and to refine our decision-making legal frameworks. This is a unique opportunity to shape industry-leading standards for how AI platforms responsibly address complex, challenging decisions as we strive to protect our users' privacy while also taking action when needed for public safety. This role is based in the United States and is remote-friendly, though you’re welcome to work from our San Francisco, New York, or Washington, DC offices if desired.

Requirements

• You bring deep expertise (15+ years of relevant experience, with significant leadership responsibility) in behavioral threat assessment and targeted violence prevention, with experience applying structured methodologies to evaluate real-world risk across a range of threat scenarios.
• You have experience building or leading threat assessment or violence prevention programs, including translating complex behavioral signals into practical, defensible frameworks used in operational environments.
• You are comfortable making or advising on high-stakes, time-sensitive decisions involving potential threats of violence, and can apply sound judgment in ambiguous situations with incomplete information.
• You have worked closely with law enforcement, legal, security, and multidisciplinary teams, and understand how to navigate the intersection of safety, privacy, and liability in complex cases.
• You have a track record of contributing to or shaping industry standards, research, or training in threat assessment, and can translate that expertise into scalable practices within a technology environment.
• You are able to distill complex behavioral and investigative insights into clear, structured guidance that improves consistency and decision-making across teams.

Responsibilities

• Establishing expert-informed thresholds for law enforcement referrals related to violent activities, and contributing to maturing and growing OpenAI’s efforts to mitigate credible and imminent threat of violence against others.
• Advising on high-risk cases, applying behavioral threat assessment expertise to evaluate whether user activity meets criteria for proactive disclosure, while ensuring alignment with legal obligations, privacy protections, and human rights standards.
• Engaging external experts (e.g., mental health professionals, behavioral specialists, and law enforcement) to inform case evaluations and continuously refine OpenAI’s legal and assessment methodologies.
• Ensuring that OpenAI’s internal protocols, policies, and practices for detecting and assessing potential indicators of violence align with professional and industry standards for behavioral threat assessment and risk management while respecting user privacy and free speech rights.
• Representing OpenAI in relevant violence detection and prevention-related external engagements and convening multi-disciplinary experts to advise on recommended guidelines related to law enforcement referrals.
• Collaborating with internal teams on other responses to violent activities, including model responses to concerning user content, and threat detection and assessment efforts including triage for identification of priority matters.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed