Operations Program Manager, AI Infrastructure

About the Team

OpenAIs Hardware organization develops silicon and system-level solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. The team is responsible for building the next generation of AI-native silicon while working closely with software and research partners to co-design hardware tightly integrated with AI addition to delivering production-grade silicon for OpenAIs supercomputing infrastructure the team also creates custom design tools and methodologies that accelerate innovation and enable hardware optimized specifically for AI.

About the Role

We are seeking an Operations Program Manager (OPM) to serve as the single-threaded operational leader for new hardware introductions (NPI) and production ramps across OpenAIs AI infrastructure systems.

This role combines hands-on execution with strategic ownership. You will be responsible for defining the operating model aligning cross-functional stakeholders setting the critical path making informed tradeoffs escalating decisively and ensuring hardware programs deliver on schedule quality cost and scalability.

Success in this role requires comfort operating in ambiguity influencing without authority and driving alignment across internal teams and external partnerswhile keeping eyes firmly on long-term system scalability and repeatability.

In this role you will:

Strategic & Leadership Ownership

• Act as the single-threaded owner for operational readiness across NPI and ramp accountable for outcomes from early bring-up through sustained production

• Translate OpenAIs infrastructure strategy and engineering objectives into clear operating plans execution priorities and decision frameworks

• Drive alignment across Engineering Operations Strategic Sourcing Finance Capacity Planning and Executive stakeholders by framing tradeoffs risks and recommendations

• Proactively identify inflection points where decisions or investments are required to protect long-term scale reliability or cost targets

• Influence operational strategy with manufacturing partners by setting expectations on execution rigor accountability and continuous improvement

Program Execution & Operational Excellence

• Drive overall NPI build readiness including material accountability manufacturing and test readiness product data availability factory infrastructure and qualification plans

• Lead transition activities from NPI to mass production partnering closely with Sustaining Operations teams to ensure seamless ownership transfer

• Translate engineering requirements into actionable factory-ready plans with tier-1 manufacturing and integration partners

• Lead cross-functional build and debug cadences; ensure issues are clearly owned aggressively driven and formally closed with root cause and prevention

• Drive factory and deployment ramp readiness including throughput site readiness yield targets quality controls and reliability gates

• Own end-to-end risk managementidentification mitigation planning escalation and executive-level communication

• Surface systemic bottlenecks inefficiencies or failure modes; propose and implement durable solutions across process tooling and organizational interfaces

• Build formalize and scale repeatable operating mechanisms that enable predictable high-velocity hardware development

Systems Process & Partner Leadership

• Define requirements for operational systems (e.g. PLM enablement) and partner with internal teams to implement test and operationalize them

• Establish clear scopes roles and responsibilities across internal teams and external partners to ensure clean execution boundaries

• Build strong trust-based relationships with contract manufacturers OEMs and integratorsdriving accountability performance and transparency

• Support onsite factory builds and field deployments as needed (domestic and international travel)

You Might Thrive in this role if:

• 8 years of experience in Operations Engineering Program Management or equivalent within hardware development manufacturing or supply chain domains (compute networking datacenter or similarly complex systems)

• Proven track record leading complex hardware NPI programs end-to-end from early bring-up through production ramp

• Strong understanding of manufacturing and supply chain fundamentals including BOM management ECO/MCO processes build readiness factory test quality controls and material planning

• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams influence senior stakeholders and drive decisions in ambiguous time-compressed environments

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with the ability to distill complex issues for executive and external audiences

Preferred

• Experience operating in hyperscale datacenter or large-scale infrastructure environments

• Familiarity with supplier engagement models build cost drivers and NPI scaling tradeoffs

• Technical background in server rack and/or network hardware

• Experience designing or improving operational processes dashboards governance forums or execution metrics

• Experience supporting PLM processes and familiarity with ERP systems

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:

Manager