Program Manager

Summary

Join OpenAI's Strategic Initiatives team as a Mergers & Acquisitions Program Manager and play a key role in managing the people-related aspects of M&A deals, from due diligence to employee onboarding. You will design and lead the M&A People workstream program, build and improve processes, deliver a positive candidate and acquired team experience, partner with senior leaders, conduct post-mortem retrospectives, and liaise with cross-functional partners. This role requires exceptional judgment, speed, and discretion, and you will work on some of OpenAI's most impactful decisions. The position is based in San Francisco or remote, with a hybrid work model offered for the office location. You will be at the center of shaping OpenAI's future by bringing in extraordinary, mission-aligned talent.

Requirements

• Have 4+ years of experience in program management within Mergers & Acquisitions
• Strong project management skills, including the ability to coordinate across stakeholders, timelines, and tools
• Analytical mindset—confident working with data to track program health and inform decisions
• Have a strong sense of ownership, are inquisitive and enthusiastic about technology, enjoy being continually challenged, and can demonstrate sound judgment in ambiguous situations
• Proven success operating with discretion and high judgment on sensitive or high-profile hires
• Ability to context-switch and operate at altitude, while still executing with precision
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Responsibilities

• Design, lead, and scale the M&A People workstream program, driving end-to-end management of timeline, candidate experience, and key touchpoints that enable smooth deal execution and set the stage for positive onboarding and integration
• Build and uplevel playbooks, processes, and communications to support increasing deal volume and complexity, creatively solving for new challenges while ensuring clarity, alignment, and efficiency across cross-functional stakeholders (ex: Recruiting Operations, Comms, Events, etc.)
• Deliver a high-impact candidate and acquired team experience, including producing events such as Town Halls, onboarding customizations, and cultural moments that reflect OpenAI’s mission
• Partner closely with senior leaders, founders, and acquired teams, demonstrating executive presence and the ability to navigate sensitive situations and competing priorities
• Lead post-mortem retrospectives for People XFN both at a deal and program level to build repeatable playbooks/process improvement for future deals
• Liaise with Recruiting Operations and cross-functional partners to build and scale efficient M&A recruiting processes and tools. This may include initiatives related to headcount tracking and allocation, offer creation and issuance, confidentiality workflows, etc
• Flex into other high-priority areas of Strategic Initiatives as needed

Preferred Qualifications

Familiarity with technical hiring, especially in research or machine learning domains

Benefits

For in office: we use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees