Business Development Lead, Compute Strategy

OpenAI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 333,000 - 370,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Business Development Lead, Compute Strategy, to source opportunities and structure high-value partnerships across its compute infrastructure ecosystem in San Francisco. You will negotiate complex agreements, collaborate with engineering, legal, finance, and operations, and build strategic relationships with utilities, real estate developers, CSPs, and suppliers.

The role requires technical fluency, commercial judgment, and a proven ability to close multi-year, high-value

Qualifications

• 8+ years in business development or related field.
• Proven track record closing high-value deals.
• Expertise in at least one focus area: energy, real estate, colocation, CSPs, silicon, or capital markets.
• Ability to translate technical requirements into commercial terms.
• Excellent negotiation and stakeholder management with C-level involvement.

Responsibilities

• Own partnership opportunities end-to-end across one or more focus areas.
• Lead negotiations for complex commercial agreements.
• Build and manage relationships with utilities, real estate developers, colocation and cloud providers, semiconductor and equipment suppliers, financial institutions, and other capital providers.
• Develop market intelligence to inform OpenAI’s infrastructure roadmap and partnership strategy.
• Coordinate across engineering, legal, finance, Treasury, and operations to structure agreements aligning technical and business goals.
• Represent OpenAI in external forums, conferences, and industry working groups.
• Operationalize governance for signed agreements; track delivery, risks, and impact.

Skills

Negotiation

Relationship management

Analytical skills

Market intelligence

Strategic thinking

C-level engagement

Education

JD or MBA preferred

Job description

About The TeamOpenAI’s Compute Strategy team is responsible for securing and scaling the core resources that power our research and products. We partner across engineering, finance, legal, and operations to identify, negotiate, and execute strategic partnerships that expand OpenAI’s capacity for compute, power, and data center infrastructure. Our mandate spans energy procurement, real estate development, colocation, cloud service providers, silicon and strategic supply chain, and infrastructure financing—ensuring OpenAI can grow with speed, resilience, and cost-efficiency.

About The RoleWe are hiring several Business Development Lead, Compute Strategy positions focused on compute infrastructure. Each hire will bring deep expertise in one or more focus areas while collaborating across the broader infrastructure stack. In this role, you will source opportunities, structure partnerships, and negotiate high-value agreements across OpenAI’s infrastructure ecosystem. You will work directly with external partners and suppliers while collaborating internally with engineering, legal, finance, and operations to ensure we have the resources needed to support state-of-the-art AI systems. This role requires technical fluency, commercial judgment, and disciplined execution. Your work will directly shape how quickly, reliably, and efficiently OpenAI can bring new compute capacity online.

• Energy and Power: securing scalable and sustainable energy supply.
• Land and Real Estate: identifying and securing strategic sites.
• Colocation: evaluating and contracting for third-party data center capacity.
• Cloud Service Providers (CSPs): structuring partnerships with hyperscalers and specialized AI cloud providers.
• Silicon: building semiconductor partnerships to secure advanced silicon and resilient long-term supply.
• Fiber & Equipment: securing fiber & critical data center equipment from strategic suppliers.
• Capital Markets: partnering with Finance, Treasury, and capital providers to develop financing solutions for large-scale compute infrastructure investments.

Key Responsibilities

• Own partnership opportunities end-to-end—from concept formation and sourcing through evaluation, diligence, internal approval, negotiation, close, and post-close execution—across one or more of the focus areas above.
• Lead negotiations for complex commercial agreements, balancing cost, speed, and long-term scalability.
• Build and manage relationships with senior leaders across utilities, real estate developers, colocation and cloud providers, semiconductor and equipment suppliers, financial institutions, and other capital providers.
• Develop market intelligence to inform OpenAI’s infrastructure roadmap and partnership strategy.
• Coordinate across engineering, legal, finance, Treasury, and operations to structure agreements that align with technical and business objectives.
• Represent OpenAI in external forums, conferences, and industry working groups to strengthen our ecosystem presence.
• Operationalize and establish governance for signed agreements; track delivery, risks, economics, and business impact against commercial and technical objectives.

Qualifications

• Have 8+ years of experience in business development, strategic partnerships, private equity, corporate development, project development, or infrastructure finance, with relevant experience in at least one focus area above.
• Have a demonstrated track record of closing complex, high-value commercial agreements.
• Bring deep expertise in at least one of the focus areas above, with the ability to translate technical requirements and constraints into commercial structures and contract terms.
• Possess exceptional negotiation and relationship management skills with the ability to engage C-level stakeholders.
• Have strong analytical skills to assess market opportunities, model deal structures, and evaluate long-term ROI.
• Are comfortable navigating ambiguity in a fast-moving environment.
• Hold a JD, MBA, or equivalent experience is preferred but not required.

About OpenAIOpenAI 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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Compensation Range: $333K - $370K