Global Infrastructure Sustainability Leader

Trellis Group; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking an Infrastructure Operations & Sustainability Lead to develop and execute the sustainability strategy for OpenAI’s global infrastructure portfolio. This senior role translates environmental priorities into practical operating requirements across site selection, data center design, equipment procurement, deployment, and ongoing operations.

You will build the frameworks, metrics, governance, and cross-functional programs to improve environmental performance while preserving

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in sustainability, infrastructure operations, or related fields.
• Experience leading sustainability programs across large, distributed organizations.
• Ability to translate environmental objectives into practical requirements.
• Strong understanding of carbon, water, materials, waste, circularity, lifecycle considerations.
• Experience building metrics, governance, and executive reporting.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive sustainability strategy for OpenAI’s global compute infrastructure.
• Translate sustainability objectives into actionable requirements for site selection, design, construction, procurement, commissioning, and operations.
• Establish decision frameworks balancing environmental impact with reliability, deployment speed, cost, and scalability.
• Develop strategies addressing operational and embodied carbon, water stewardship, materials, construction impacts, waste, circularity, and equipment lifecycle management.
• Partner with data center engineering and operations teams to identify practical improvements in efficiency and performance.
• Incorporate sustainability considerations into self-build, colocation, cloud, and partner decisions.
• Establish measurable goals, operating metrics, dashboards, and governance for sustainability programs.
• Improve data quality, consistency, and auditability across internal teams and external partners.
• Work with hardware, manufacturing, and supply chain to develop supplier requirements and lifecycle strategies.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and operating practices for scaling from pilots to deployment.
• Develop business cases communicating environmental impact, cost, and operational tradeoffs.
• Collaborate with Public Policy on sustainability positions and external engagement.
• Represent OpenAI with infrastructure partners, policymakers, and external stakeholders.

Skills

Sustainability leadership

Cross-functional leadership

Executive reporting

Environmental strategy

Data-driven decision making

Stakeholder influence

Project management

Job description

OpenAI is seeking an Infrastructure Operations & Sustainability Lead to develop and execute the sustainability strategy for OpenAI’s global infrastructure portfolio. This senior role translates environmental priorities into practical operating requirements across site selection, data center design, equipment procurement, deployment, and ongoing operations.

You will build the frameworks, metrics, governance, and cross-functional programs to improve environmental performance while preserving