Strategic Delivery Lead

About the Team
OpenAI's Forward Deployed Engineering team partners with customers to turn research breakthroughs into production systems. We embed deeply with users to solve high-leverage problems. We move quickly from prototype to deployment and surface patterns that shape the platform. We operate at the intersection of customer delivery and core development. We work closely with Product, Research, and Go-To-Market (GTM).

About the Role

The Strategic Delivery Lead (SDL) will help drive some of OpenAI's most complex and high-impact deployments. The SDL will work closely with our largest customers to ensure timely execution of AI solutions that span research, infrastructure, and application layers.

You'll lead multi-workstream programs that are often tied to contractual milestones and span multiple internal teams and external partners. The role is highly cross-functional and customer-facing: you'll partner with Research, Engineering, Go-to-Market, and external stakeholders to align on scope, unblock delivery, and communicate progress at every level, from technical teams to C-suite.

You will own and drive execution of technical delivery workstreams led by internal teams (Forward Deploy Engineers, Researchers, Solutions Architects), ensuring clear problem-framing, robust milestone definitions, proactive risk identification, rapid issue resolution, and effective translation between business objectives and technical solutions, while consistently communicating clear progress and demonstrating tangible customer value.

This is a high-trust, high-autonomy role. Success requires deep program management expertise, executive presence, and a passion for making novel technology deliver real-world value.

This role is based in NYC. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. We offer relocation assistance. This role also requires heavy travel requiring a eagerness to travel up to 75% and work on-site with customers to build strong relationships and deeply understand their needs.

In this role, you will:

• Serve as the accountable lead for delivering high-impact customer engagements tied to defined contractual milestones.

• Act as a key translator between technical teams and business stakeholders, clearly articulating technical progress, risks, requirements, and dependencies in language accessible to both senior executives and technical practitioners.

• Develop and deliver strategic advisory workshops that align executive stakeholders on vision, roadmap, milestones, and governance structures. Partner closely with customers to understand their goals and translate them into actionable delivery plans by designing and facilitating use case workshops that align technical feasibility with business impact.

• Coordinate and leverage cross-functional teams (Solution Architects, Forward Deployed Engineers, Researchers, Product) to execute multiple concurrent, complex initiatives. Establish and maintain rigorous internal operating models, including clearly defined roles & responsibilities, unified tracking mechanisms, and standardized reporting rituals. Effectively partner with research, technical teams, product, internal/external partners, and leadership to drive aligned execution.

• Partner deeply with technical teams (FDEs, SAs, Research) to frame complex business and technical problems into actionable, scoped projects, serving as a strategic sounding board and thought leader to guide technical direction, anticipate blockers, and align teams proactively.

• Lead and own delivery execution for technical workstreams, ensuring clear project charters, solution designs, defined milestones, robust evaluation plans, and rigorous tracking mechanisms are in place to achieve committed customer outcomes.

• Regularly demonstrate and communicate tangible progress from technical workstreams to internal stakeholders and external customers, driving clarity, transparency, and trust through frequent, clear, and impactful updates.

• Establish best practices around milestone tracking, internal coordination, and delivery operations at scale.

• Lead regular progress reviews with customer stakeholders, ensuring transparency and confidence in delivery.

• Identify delivery risks early and work cross-functionally to mitigate blockers and maintain program velocity.

• Navigate ambiguity and evolving requirements with composure, helping internal and external teams stay aligned.

• Help shape the future of how OpenAI engages with large enterprises through milestone-based delivery programs.

You'll thrive in this role if you:

• Have 10+ years of experience in consulting, delivery leadership, or senior program management roles, driving complex technical initiatives across cross-functional teams.

• Have experience leading organizational transformation initiatives (AI, digital, or business transformation).

• Have led complex customer programs in enterprise SaaS, AI/ML, consulting, or transformation environments.

• Proven track record influencing and shaping customer decision-making at executive/board level. Able to drive clarity, accountability, and alignment at senior levels.

• Are adept at translating business outcomes into technical execution plans with defined success metrics.

• Strong track of execution in delivering ambitious goals on complex cross-functional projects.

• Prior experience managing large scale AI/ML or enterprise API- based deployments.

• Communicate confidently with senior executives and technical teams alike.

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.

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. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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