Sr. Employee Relations Partner (Non-Investigations)

About the Team

OpenAIs People team is committed to hiring engaging and supporting world-class talent to help safely build and deploy universally beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

The Global Employee Relations and People Standards team brings together expertise in employee relations employment investigations and People compliance policy and standards. We play a critical role in shaping how OpenAI supports its people through complexity growth and change.

Our team guides and supports the company through some of its most nuanced and high-impact people challenges. We operate with deep context and care balancing trust judgment and creativity in every situation. We dont default to predefined frameworks. Instead we take a principled yet flexible approach designing thoughtful tailored solutions that reflect our values the needs of our employees and the unique pace of OpenAI.

This role is based in San Francisco CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

About the Role

Were looking for a Senior Employee Relations Partner to focus on the non-investigative side of ER work supporting high-trust high-impact people matters. This includes conflict resolution high-risk performance management sensitive employee exits and navigating workplace dynamics that require thoughtful strategic support even when they dont involve formal investigations. This role will report to another senior member of the team.

Were looking for someone who brings creativity flexibility and a deeply human-centered approach to solving people challenges. Youre energized by complexity and nuance and instinctively seek out tailored thoughtful solutions rather than one-size-fits-all answers. You dont just apply rules; you understand context think strategically and help leaders make principled decisions that reflect our values and evolving culture. This role is a fit for someone who adapts quickly thrives in uncertainty and focuses on whats possible not just whats standard.

This work requires exceptional interpersonal skills and the ability to connect across all levels build trust quickly and guide leaders with clarity and confidence. You should be comfortable in a high-growth fast-changing environment making sound decisions with imperfect information. You bring expertise in navigating high-tension highly escalated employee situations and remain calm clear-headed and grounded under pressure. Youll approach your work with urgency empathy and strong judgment serving as a collaborative partner and steady presence in nuanced people moments. Your impact will help reinforce a culture of clarity accountability and psychological safety and support leaders and teams in doing their best work through times of growth and complexity.

This role will report to another Senior Employee Relations Partner on the team and will collaborate closely with cross-functional partners across the ER and People Standards organization.

Youll have several responsibilities including:

• Advise and guide managers HRBPs and cross-functional partners through complex or high-risk employee situations including conflict resolution interpersonal friction performance challenges and difficult conversations. Youll bring emotional intelligence and principled thinking to every interaction.

• Partner closely with Legal and HRBPs on strategic performance management offering guidance on performance improvement plans (PIPs) documentation and exit strategies. Youll help ensure decisions prioritize fairness to the individual while also supporting overall team health and business needs.

• Lead or support sensitive high-touch employee exits where preserving dignity ensuring compliance and maintaining cultural alignment are all essential.

• Act as a sounding board and escalation partner for workplace culture concerns manager-employee dynamics and early signals of broader people issues.

• Help build scalable tools and frameworks that strengthen ER support across the company and reduce over-reliance on formal processes or investigations.

• Collaborate cross-functionally with HRBPs Legal cross-functional partners and leadership to ensure alignment on people decisions organizational changes and policy implementation.

• Navigate ambiguity with a proactive calm creative and solutions-oriented mindset helping to clarify issues and move toward resolution in a dynamic evolving environment.

• Use data and insight to identify trends and advise on systemic solutions that promote trust engagement and long-term cultural health.

Well look for these qualities experience and skills:

• A Bachelors degree with 8 years of experience in employee relations or other People experience roles ideally in high-growth fast-paced and highly dynamic environments. Experience in tech research or mission-driven orgs is a plus.

• A non-conventional mindset. You bring creative outside-the-box thinking to complex people issues and youre not bound by the way things have always been done. You know when structure helps and when a bespoke approach is the better path.

• Proven experience managing high-tension highly escalated employee situations with discretion empathy and calm under pressure. You know how to de-escalate effectively build trust in difficult moments and support leaders through emotionally charged or high-stakes scenarios.

• A proven track record of handling complex performance management re-orgs position elimination sensitive exits and conflict resolution with a steady thoughtful and pragmatic approach.

• Exceptional interpersonal and relationship-building skillsyou build trust quickly communicate with warmth and clarity and can connect with employees managers and senior leaders alike.

• A low-ego high-ownership mindset. Youre equally comfortable advising executives and rolling up your sleeves to fine-tune a template fix a process or support an employee through a difficult moment.

• Strong instincts for people and culture with the ability to read situations understand organizational dynamics and offer grounded empathetic guidance.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills especially when navigating sensitive or high-stakes conversations.

• Comfort operating in ambiguity and rapid change with the ability to move quickly and decisively while staying aligned with OpenAIs mission and values.

• A commitment to fairness discretion and principled decision-making. Youre thoughtful balanced and clear-eyed even under pressure.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core and to achieve our mission we must encompass and value the many different perspectives voices and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer and we do not discriminate on the basis of race religion color national origin sex sexual orientation age veteran status disability genetic information or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information please see OpenAIs Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary confidential and non-public addition job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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Required Experience:

Senior IC