Director, Applied AI Engineering – Digital Natives

OpenAI; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Relocation assistance

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Manager, Applied AI Engineering (Digital Natives) to lead a high-impact team delivering production AI applications for strategic technology customers in the Americas. You will guide hands-on customer work, shape the operating model, and collaborate with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Research to drive adoption of frontier models.

You will mentor engineers, establish repeatable patterns, and ensure safe, reliable deployment of OpenAI technology while growing customer value

Qualifications

• 8+ years in deeply technical, customer-facing roles such as applied engineering, solutions architecture, deployment engineering, or similar roles.
• 2+ years of experience leading technical teams, with a proven ability to hire, develop, mentor, and manage engineers.
• Experience building or deploying generative AI, machine learning, or cloud-based software solutions in production.
• Strong depth across APIs, AI/ML systems, architecture, cloud infrastructure, and modern developer workflows.
• Hands-on software engineering with Python or JavaScript.

Responsibilities

• Own the strategy and operating model for the Digital Natives Applied AI Engineering team, aligned with OpenAI’s objectives.
• Lead, hire, mentor, and develop a team delivering meaningful technical and customer outcomes.
• Guide the team in working hands-on with customers to identify use cases, design and build AI applications, scale solutions.
• Partner with Sales to prioritize technical engagement across strategic customers and drive adoption and growth.
• Serve as a senior technical partner and escalation point for priority customers.
• Synthesize insights on model performance, developer experience, and product gaps to inform Product and Engineering teams.
• Translate recurring customer needs into repeatable patterns, reference architectures, and playbooks for scale.
• Coach engineers on technical quality, customer judgment, and cross-functional partnership.
• Help customers apply OpenAI’s capabilities to build differentiated products.

Skills

Applied AI engineering

Customer-facing

Team leadership

Generative AI

Python/JavaScript

APIs & ML

Cloud infrastructure

Job description

OpenAI is seeking a Manager, Applied AI Engineering (Digital Natives) to lead a high-impact team delivering production AI applications for strategic technology customers in the Americas. You will guide hands-on customer work, shape the operating model, and collaborate with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Research to drive adoption of frontier models.

You will mentor engineers, establish repeatable patterns, and ensure safe, reliable deployment of OpenAI technology while growing customer value