Founding Head of Talent, Frontier AI

OpenAI Foundation; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 258,000 - 355,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI Foundation is seeking its founding Head of Talent in San Francisco to own the hiring function from the ground up. You will run key searches end to end, partner with senior leaders, and build the recruiting function as the organization scales.

This in-office role requires a proven talent leader who can operate hands-on while designing scalable processes across technical, research, program, and operating positions. You will report to the Director of Operations.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in talent, including leading recruiting — as a head of recruiting, director, or founding recruiter — at a frontier AI lab, research organization, or another high-bar environment.
• Experience scaling recruiting in a fast-growing mission-driven org.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end recruiting across programs, scoping, sourcing, offers, and closure.
• Partner with founders and senior leaders to define role definitions, bars, and interview loops.
• Build top-of-funnel from scratch: sourcing, talent maps, and pipelines for technical, research, grantmaking, policy, and operations.
• Design and run the interview process with scorecards and calibration to raise quality as the team grows.
• Close exceptional, mission-aligned candidates by being persuasive and transparent about trade-offs.
• Stand up recruiting infrastructure: ATS, tooling, reporting, employer branding, candidate experience.
• Hire and lead recruiters as the Foundation grows, establishing leveling and promotion frameworks.
• Advise on org design and compensation as we scale.

Skills

Full-cycle recruiting

People leadership

Talent strategy

Hiring senior researchers

Hiring executives

Job description

OpenAI Foundation is seeking its founding Head of Talent in San Francisco to own the hiring function from the ground up. You will run key searches end to end, partner with senior leaders, and build the recruiting function as the organization scales.

This in-office role requires a proven talent leader who can operate hands-on while designing scalable processes across technical, research, program, and operating positions. You will report to the Director of Operations.