About the Team
OpenAI’s People team aims to hire, engage, and retain world-class talent to safely build and deploy universally beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). The HR team, a vital subset of the People team, supports a diverse group of scientists, engineers, and business professionals, with expertise in employee relations, immigration, compensation and benefits, learning and development, project management, and more.
About the Role
As a Lead HR Business Partner, you’ll serve as the primary partner to members of our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and other key leaders—acting as their “Chief People Officer.” You’ll operate as a player-coach: ready to dive into details when needed while helping teams maintain strategic clarity and execution.
This role is ideal for HR leaders eager to both shape big-picture initiatives and roll up their sleeves. You’ll lead performance programs (Contributions & Impact), guide org design efforts, coach senior leaders, develop future talent, and mentor fellow HRBPs.
You’ll initially support technical teams across Product, Engineering, Cybersecurity, Hardware, and Infrastructure—expect rapid change and meaningful impact as OpenAI continues to grow. This role reports to our Head of HRBP, based in San Francisco.
Your Key Responsibilities:
Strategic HR Partnership: Partner directly with SLT members and senior leaders to drive HR strategies that support their organizational objectives and OpenAI.
Leadership Coaching & Change Management: Provide expert coaching to senior leaders and executives to enhance leadership capabilities. Drive change management efforts to support organizational growth and transformation.
Organizational Design & Planning: Implement optimal organizational design to enable the leadership team and the organization to scale effectively.
C&I Management: Manage performance expectations, calibration, and growth across entire orgs, including forecasting potential gaps and inconsistencies and proactively addressing them in partnership with leaders.
Talent Development: Build future bench strength and upscale capabilities through development of top talent and strategic hires.
Program Leadership: Lead important, and often custom, HR initiatives and projects with organization-level impact, planning on a quarterly and annual basis, looking ahead multiple years.
Mentorship: Mentor and support HRBP peers and junior colleagues, fostering a culture of continuous learning and development.
We’re seeking:
HR Expertise: 12+ years of experience in HRBP, employee relations, and talent management.
Employee Support & Manager Coaching: Experience in managing employee relations matters along with coaching managers through delicate matters, in partnership with ER.
Problem-Solving & Forecasting: Excellent critical thinking, root cause problem-solving abilities, and proficiency in using People metrics for data-driven decisions. Ability to diagnose cultural or management issues and implement effective strategies for improvement.
Agility & Growth: Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and manage multiple priorities, while continuously learning and adapting.
Leadership & Change Management: Strong ability to manage vertically and laterally, support leaders, drive change management initiatives, and lead organizational growth or transformation, with experience serving as a trusted advisor to managers.
Communication & Relationship Building: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, capable of drafting performance plans, annual reviews, and employee policies. Proven ability to build relationships, offer expert insights, challenge leaders, and maintain productive relationships.
Judgment & Integrity: Excellent decision making skills and a sense of urgency. Known for fostering respectful, trusting relationships across all levels of the organization, and for delivering thoughtful, sometimes tough feedback with care.
Workplace & Location
This role is based in our San Francisco office, and we chose this location to ensure you have direct and close access to the leaders and teams you'll support. We offer relocation support to new employees, and we use a hybrid work model: three days in the office per week with optional work from home on Thursdays and Fridays.
Our open-plan offices have height-adjustable desks, conference rooms, phone booths, well-stocked kitchens full of snacks and drinks, three in-house prepared meals daily, a private outdoor space for working in the sun or socializing, nap rooms, private bike storage, and more.
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 do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.
OpenAI Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement
For US Based Candidates: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.
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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.
