Account Director, Commercial

OpenAI; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Hybrid work model (3 days in office)

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking an Account Director in New York to own SMB-to-commercial opportunities, from discovery through close and expansion. This high-ownership role blends consultative selling with technical curiosity and disciplined execution, building a pipeline and guiding customers as they connect business priorities to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and API offerings.

The position is hybrid, based in New York, with relocation assistance and travel as needed.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software sales experience.
• At least 3+ years closing SMB/mid-market deals.
• Proven track record meeting or exceeding revenue targets.
• Strong discovery, qualification, pipeline-generation, and account-planning skills.
• Ability to clearly communicate complex technical value to business and technical audiences.
• Comfort navigating conversations with C-suite stakeholders.
• Customer-centric mindset with a drive to enable AI adoption.
• High ownership and sound judgment in fast-moving environments.
• Experience building new systems, processes, and ways of working.

Responsibilities

• Own commercial opportunities from qualification through close, onboarding, and expansion.
• Build and manage a healthy pipeline across inbound, outbound, and existing customer opportunities.
• Lead discovery conversations and translate customer priorities into compelling use cases for OpenAI products.
• Develop trusted relationships with business, technical, and executive stakeholders.
• Navigate cross-functional processes with Product, Finance, Legal, Growth, and Revenue Operations.
• Maintain accurate pipeline and forecasts toward revenue and adoption goals.
• Identify expansion opportunities and develop account strategies that maximize value.
• Share market insights to inform product, programs, and the SMB sales motion.

Skills

Pipeline management

Executive stakeholder management

Discovery & qualification

Close & expansion

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic selling

Job description

The Commercial Sales team helps growing businesses adopt OpenAI’s products and translate emerging AI capabilities into meaningful business outcomes. We work with customers across industries and use cases, helping them evaluate, deploy, and expand their use of ChatGPT and the OpenAI API.

Our team partners closely with Growth, Product, Finance, Legal, Revenue Operations, and other cross-functional teams to create a high-quality customer experience and build a scalable commercial sales motion.

About the Role

We are looking for an Account Director to own customer relationships and the commercial process across the SMB segment, from initial discovery through close and expansion.

This is a fast-moving, high-ownership role that combines consultative selling, technical curiosity, and disciplined execution. You will build and manage pipeline, help customers connect their business priorities to OpenAI’s products, and navigate technical, commercial, and executive stakeholders throughout the buying process.

You will also play an important role in shaping how OpenAI serves commercial customers by sharing market insights, improving our sales motion, and helping the team build repeatable approaches that support responsible and successful adoption.

This role is based in New York NY. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. Occasional travel will be required.

In this role, you will:

Own commercial opportunities from qualification through close, onboarding, and expansion.

Build and manage a healthy pipeline across inbound, outbound, and existing customer opportunities.

Lead thoughtful discovery conversations and translate customer priorities into compelling use cases for ChatGPT and the OpenAI API.

Develop trusted relationships with business, technical, and executive stakeholders throughout the customer organization.

Navigate complex commercial processes in partnership with internal teams, including Product, Finance, Legal, Growth, and Revenue Operations.

Maintain accurate pipeline and forecasts while consistently working toward revenue and adoption goals.

Identify expansion opportunities and develop account strategies that increase the value customers realize from OpenAI’s products.

Bring customer and market insights back to the organization to help improve our products, programs, and SMB sales motion.

Contribute to the systems, processes, and playbooks needed to scale a high-performing commercial sales organization.

You might thrive in this role if you:

Have 5+ years of relevant software sales experience, and at least 3+ years of closing experience, including ownership of SMB, mid-market, or commercial sales cycles.

Have a demonstrated track record of meeting or exceeding revenue targets.

Bring strong discovery, qualification, pipeline-generation, and account-planning skills.

Can communicate the value of complex technical products clearly and credibly to both business and technical audiences.

Build trust with senior executives and are comfortable navigating conversations with C-suite stakeholders.

Are deeply customer-centric and motivated to understand customers’ priorities, challenges, and vision for adopting AI.

Operate with high ownership and sound judgment in fast-moving, ambiguous environments.

Are a builder who enjoys developing new systems, processes, and ways of working, then executing them with precision.

Approach unfamiliar or multidimensional problems with curiosity and energy.

Are willing to experiment, learn quickly, and adapt your approach based on customer and market feedback.

Bring exceptional communication, collaboration, and organizational skills.

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.

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.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form . No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link .

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.