AI Safety Programs Lead — Safeguards & Frontier Risks

OpenAI, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 239,000 - 328,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental & Vision

401(k)

Parental leave

Paid time off

Paid holidays

Mental health support

Life & disability coverage

Learning stipend

Meals in offices

Relocation assistance

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Research Program Manager for Safety Systems in San Francisco. You’ll lead programs that develop and validate safeguards across models and launches, partnering with researchers, engineers, and policy teams.

The role requires strong technical judgment, 5+ years in technical safety or related programs, and the ability to translate safety questions into actionable roadmaps. Hybrid work with relocation assistance is available.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in technical safety work, owning technical programs in fast-moving environments.
• Led complex research or technical programs involving researchers and engineers, especially in AI/cybersecurity/biosafety.
• Understand frontier AI safety concepts and engage substantively with technical teams.
• Can translate evaluation results into actionable roadmaps and decisions.
• Able to coordinate across research, engineering, product, policy and communications.

Responsibilities

• Shape safety programs and technical roadmaps with research and engineering leads.
• Drive safeguards development and deployment across models and products.
• Coordinate evaluations, alignment and control assessments, and adversarial testing.
• Coordinate safety readiness and trusted-access programs for frontier launches.
• Turn findings into improvements and establish owners and escalation paths.
• Build evidence and safety cases, highlighting gaps and uncertainties.
• Scale programs across products with shared tooling and privacy/security requirements.

Skills

Technical safety work

Program management

Cross-functional collaboration

Safety concepts (AI)

Evidence-based decision making

Job description

OpenAI is seeking a Research Program Manager for Safety Systems in San Francisco. You’ll lead programs that develop and validate safeguards across models and launches, partnering with researchers, engineers, and policy teams.

The role requires strong technical judgment, 5+ years in technical safety or related programs, and the ability to translate safety questions into actionable roadmaps. Hybrid work with relocation assistance is available.