Program Manager, Strategic Futures

ABOUT THE TEAM The Strategic Futures team is a small, research- and writing-focused group exploring how advanced AI could reshape public policy, institutions, and society over the long term. We operate like an internal think tank: developing clear views of desirable long-range outcomes, examining the choices that could make those outcomes more likely, and producing ideas that help OpenAI and the broader public navigate profound technological change. The team is intentionally lean and highly collaborative. Our work draws from public policy, law, economics, political science, history, institutional design, technology, and other relevant disciplines. We partner closely with experts across OpenAI to connect long-range thinking with evolving AI capabilities, organizational priorities, and real-world policy questions. ABOUT THE ROLE We are looking for a highly organized and strategic operator to serve as Chief of Staff and Program Manager for the Strategic Futures team. Working closely with the team’s leader, you will translate broad priorities into coordinated execution, establish the systems and operating rhythms that keep a small team performing at a high level, and ensure important work moves forward with clarity and consistency. This is a hands-on role combining chief-of-staff partnership, program management, strategic planning, cross-functional coordination, and communications. You will make it easier for the team to focus on high-quality research and writing by ensuring priorities are clear, decisions are documented, dependencies are visible, collaborators are engaged, and follow-through is reliable. You will also serve as a central connector between Strategic Futures and teams across OpenAI, helping the group build trusted relationships, navigate organizational complexity, and contribute effectively to broader company priorities. IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL: - Partner closely with the leader of Strategic Futures to translate the team’s strategic direction into clear priorities, operating plans, and concrete deliverables. - Own team-wide planning and execution across research projects, publications, cross-functional collaborations, public-facing work, and special initiatives. - Convert open-ended goals into structured workplans with clear outcomes, owners, milestones, timelines, dependencies, and decision points. - Develop and maintain lightweight operating systems, including team roadmaps, project trackers, meeting cadences, decision logs, risk registers, and publication or launch plans. - Establish operating rhythms that give the team appropriate visibility and accountability without creating unnecessary process. - Coordinate work across Global Affairs, Legal, Research, product policy, safety, preparedness, Communications, and other relevant teams. - Build productive relationships with internal partners and help ensure Strategic Futures has a clear and consistent presence across the organization. - Prepare executive-ready briefings, strategic updates, presentations, agendas, decision documents, talking points, and other written materials. - Plan and run effective team and cross-functional meetings, ensuring participants are prepared, decisions are captured, and action items are completed. - Anticipate potential bottlenecks, gaps, and competing priorities, and proactively develop solutions that keep work moving. - Maintain visibility across the team’s portfolio and help the team leader make informed prioritization and resource-allocation decisions. - Coordinate internal review and approval processes for research, publications, presentations, and other public-facing work. - Support external engagements, convenings, and public communication when appropriate. - Develop AI-enabled workflows that improve project management, knowledge sharing, information synthesis, coordination, and team effectiveness. - Help define and evolve the team’s operating model, norms, and ways of working as Strategic Futures grows. YOU MIGHT THRIVE IN THIS ROLE IF YOU: - Have 5 or more years of experience in chief-of-staff roles, program management, strategic operations, research operations, consulting, policy, communications, or a related field. - Have demonstrated success driving complex initiatives involving multiple stakeholders, functions, and competing priorities. - Bring exceptional organizational skills and the ability to create clarity, momentum, and accountability in an ambiguous environment. - Can move fluidly between strategic questions and detailed execution, from helping shape a team-wide priority to ensuring the next meeting has the right pre-read and decision-maker. - Know when a new process or system will improve execution—and when it would simply add unnecessary overhead. - Are energized by helping highly independent researchers and writers do their best work. - Are an excellent writer and synthesizer who can turn complex discussions into clear decisions, plans, briefings, and communications. - Build trusted relationships across policy, legal, communications, product, safety, and technical research teams. - Can engage credibly with subject-matter experts without needing to be the deepest expert in every discipline. - Exercise excellent judgment and discretion when working on sensitive, high-visibility, or still-developing initiatives. - Proactively identify what needs to happen next rather than waiting for detailed direction. - Bring high ownership, strong attention to detail, low ego, and a consistent bias toward action. - Are comfortable operating in a fast-moving organization where priorities may evolve as AI capabilities and external conditions change. - Have strong interest in advanced AI and its long-term implications for public policy, governance, institutions, and society. - Are proficient with AI tools and can apply them thoughtfully to operational workflows, research synthesis, knowledge management, and coordination. IT WOULD BE NICE IF YOU: - Have worked in AI policy, emerging technology, government, public affairs, a think tank, a research organization, or another intellectually intensive environment. - Have supported a senior leader while simultaneously owning a broader portfolio of programs and team operations. - Have experience coordinating research publications, external communications, public events, or other high-visibility outputs. - Have helped establish or scale the operating model of a new team, organization, or function. - Are familiar with the organizational and policy questions surrounding advanced AI. LOCATION This role is based in San Francisco. 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 OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf. 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 information. 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