Director of Catalytic Deployments — AI for Social Good

OpenAI Foundation; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 270,000 - 330,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI Foundation in San Francisco, CA seeks a Program Director to lead catalytic deployments. You will own strategy, drive major philanthropic investments, and manage grants with a global scope. The role emphasizes autonomy, judgment, and collaboration with a small, fast-moving team.

Ideal candidates bring 10+ years in nonprofits or philanthropy, demonstrated scale of social initiatives, and strong AI-for-good insight. The position is based in San Francisco with a hybrid 3-day office model.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of leadership experience in nonprofits, philanthropy, or government.
• Credible experience building and scaling large social-sector initiatives.
• Experience in sourcing, assessing, and structuring grants.
• Subject matter expertise in at least one social sector domain (public health, education, poverty alleviation, economic mobility).
• Ability to reason about AI capabilities, implementation constraints, and risks of deploying AI in civil society contexts.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate opportunities and make strong recommendations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong strategic judgment with bias toward execution.
• High degree of ownership, discretion, and accountability.
• Deep motivation to accelerate AI’s impact in civil society.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to strategy and prioritization for Catalytic Deployments; own specific areas over time.
• Sourcing, evaluating, and recommending grants and funding opportunities; due diligence on orgs and projects.
• Design and manage a growing portfolio of grants with clear prioritization and follow-through.
• Manage other members of the Catalytic Deployments team as the organization grows.
• Engage with external ecosystem—researchers, nonprofits, academic centers, funders, potential grantees.
• Identify gaps in the ecosystem and develop ideas for partnerships or field-building initiatives.
• Develop and launch new initiatives from zero-to-one; convene stakeholders and stand up new efforts.
• Represent the Foundation in external conversations to build credibility and opportunities.
• Write clear internal recommendations and strategy memos; support decision-making.
• Use frontier AI to support work across activities.

Skills

Leadership

Grant sourcing

Strategic thinking

External partnerships

Communication

AI for good

Program management

Nonprofit governance

Job description

OpenAI Foundation in San Francisco, CA seeks a Program Director to lead catalytic deployments. You will own strategy, drive major philanthropic investments, and manage grants with a global scope. The role emphasizes autonomy, judgment, and collaboration with a small, fast-moving team.

Ideal candidates bring 10+ years in nonprofits or philanthropy, demonstrated scale of social initiatives, and strong AI-for-good insight. The position is based in San Francisco with a hybrid 3-day office model.