Director, People Operations

OpenAI; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 265,000 - 295,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Relocation assistance

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Director of People Operations in San Francisco to own the operational backbone of the People function, ensuring data integrity, controls, and audit readiness across a global workforce. Lead end-to-end lifecycle, recruiting ops, onboarding, and offboarding with a focus on scalable processes and compliance.

Work in a fast-paced environment with senior leaders and cross‑functional partners, driving hiring velocity and responsible workforce scale while maintaining high trust and

Qualifications

• Extensive experience leading global People Operations teams.
• Proven ability to design scalable People processes in high-growth environments.
• Strong understanding of HR controls and SOX-related requirements.
• Experience partnering with Finance, Legal, IT and Security.

Responsibilities

• Own and improve People Operations across the full workforce lifecycle globally.
• Lead and develop a high-performing operations team for People and Recruiting Ops.
• Ensure integrity of workforce data end-to-end and identify gaps or risks.
• Design and rigorously test core People and hiring processes and controls.
• Partner with Finance, Legal, IT, Security and People leadership on initiatives.
• Oversee People systems and vendors supporting hiring and employee lifecycle.
• Lead readiness for growth events—headcount expansion, new entities/geographies.
• Establish operating rhythms, metrics, and early risk surface reporting.
• Provide steady leadership during change and operational stress.

Skills

12+ years of experience in People Ops

Scalable People processes

Recruiting ops collaboration

HR controls & SOX awareness

Cross-functional partnership

Team building & leadership

Strong judgment under ambiguity

Job description

About The Team

OpenAI’s People team is committed to hiring, engaging, and supporting world-class talent to help safely build and deploy universally beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

About The Team

OpenAI’s People team is committed to hiring, engaging, and supporting world-class talent to help safely build and deploy universally beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
The People Operations team is responsible for the systems, data, and operational rigor that underpin every stage of the employee lifecycle. Our work sits at the intersection of employee experience, regulatory compliance, and business velocity — ensuring that as OpenAI scales rapidly and globally, our foundations remain accurate, auditable, and human-centered.
This is a high-trust, high-impact function. We partner closely with Finance, Legal, IT, Security, and the broader People team to support growth in a dynamic environment with significant internal and external scrutiny. Operational excellence here is not about process for process’s sake — it is about building durable infrastructure that enables fairness, transparency, and responsible scale.

About The Role

As Director of People Operations, you will own the core operational infrastructure that enables OpenAI to scale responsibly. This role serves as the operational backbone of the People function, with accountability for data integrity, operational controls, and audit readiness across the systems that support a complex, global workforce, including the operational foundations of recruiting and hiring at scale.
You will lead a team responsible for the end-to-end workforce lifecycle, from candidate and hiring operations through onboarding and offboarding, ensuring our people systems, processes, and data are accurate, resilient, and built to scale. In close partnership with Employment Legal and the People Compliance team, you will translate policy and regulatory requirements into scalable, well‑controlled operational processes. This role operates with high visibility and close partnership with senior leaders across Finance, Legal, IT, and People, including ownership of SOX-relevant controls and workforce data relied upon by executive leadership, auditors, and the Board.
Success in this role requires exceptional judgment, comfort operating in ambiguity, and the ability to balance rigor with empathy at scale. This is not a steady‑state operations role — it is a build-and-scale role in a fast‑moving, high‑stakes environment.
This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In This Role, You Will

• Own and continuously improve People Operations across the full workforce lifecycle, from candidate and hiring operations through onboarding and offboarding, ensuring scalable, compliant, and people-centered processes globally.
• Lead and develop a high-performing operations team across people and recruiting operations, setting clear standards, driving accountability, and building strong operational judgment.
• Own the integrity of workforce data end-to-end, from candidate and hiring data through employee lifecycle data, proactively identifying gaps, risks, and failure points before they impact compliance, reporting, or trust.
• Design, document, and rigorously test critical People and hiring processes and internal controls, with a strong focus on auditability, SOX-relevant controls where applicable, and long-term scalability.
• Serve as a senior operational partner to Finance, Legal, IT, Security, and People leadership, translating business needs into durable infrastructure that supports both hiring velocity and responsible workforce scale.
• Oversee People systems and vendors that support hiring and the employee lifecycle (e.g., ATS, HRIS, onboarding, payroll, benefits administration), ensuring reliability, clean handoffs, and strong user experience.
• Lead operational readiness for growth events such as headcount expansion, new entities, new geographies, workforce changes, and evolving regulatory requirements, ensuring hiring and people processes stay aligned and well-controlled.
• Establish clear operating rhythms, metrics, and reporting to surface risks, trends, and opportunities across hiring and workforce operations early.
• Act as a steady, trusted leader during moments of operational stress, change, or ambiguity, balancing rigor with empathy and speed.

You Might Thrive In This Role If You

• Have 12+ years of experience in People Operations or related functions, including leadership of complex, global teams.
• Deep experience designing and operating scalable People processes and systems in high-growth environments.
• Experience partnering closely with Recruiting or owning Recruiting Operations in a high-growth environment is a strong plus.
• Strong understanding of HR operational controls, audit readiness, and compliance‑adjacent requirements, with demonstrated experience partnering closely with People Compliance and Legal; SOX experience strongly preferred.
• Proven ability to partner cross‑functionally with Finance, Legal, IT, and Security on high‑stakes initiatives.
• Track record of building teams, setting high standards, and developing strong operators.
• Excellent judgment, attention to detail, and ability to manage competing priorities without losing sight of the bigger picture.

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.
For additional information, please see OpenAI’s affirmatively 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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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.
Compensation Range: $265K - $295K