Global Infrastructure Sustainability & Operations Lead

OpenAI

United States

Remote

USD 180,000 - 320,000

Full time

6 days ago

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Job summary

OpenAI is seeking an Infrastructure Operations & Sustainability Lead to shape and execute the sustainability strategy for its global infrastructure portfolio. You will translate environmental priorities into operating requirements, guiding site selection, design, construction, procurement, deployment, and ongoing operations to balance environmental impact with reliability and scalability.

You will develop governance, metrics, and cross-functional programs, collaborating with data center

Qualifications

12+ years of experience in sustainability, infrastructure operations, environmental strategy, data center infrastructure, the built environment, or a related field.
Experience leading sustainability or operational-improvement programs across a large, complex, and geographically distributed organization.
Demonstrated ability to translate high-level environmental objectives into practical engineering, procurement, construction, and operational requirements.
Strong understanding of carbon, water, materials, waste, circularity, and lifecycle considerations within physical infrastructure.
Experience building metrics, governance systems, and executive reporting for complex operational programs.

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 that balance environmental impact with infrastructure 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 infrastructure efficiency, resource use, resilience, and operational performance.
Incorporate sustainability considerations into self-build, colocation, cloud, and strategic infrastructure-partner decisions.
Establish measurable goals, operating metrics, dashboards, and governance mechanisms for infrastructure sustainability programs.
Improve the quality, consistency, and auditability of environmental and operational data across internal teams and external partners.
Work with hardware, manufacturing, and supply chain teams to develop supplier requirements and lifecycle strategies for infrastructure equipment.
Evaluate emerging technologies, design approaches, and operating practices and determine which should move from pilot programs into scaled deployment.
Develop business cases that clearly communicate environmental impact, implementation requirements, cost, schedule, and operational tradeoffs.
Partner with Public Policy and Government Affairs on infrastructure-related sustainability positions, regulatory developments, and external engagement.
Represent OpenAI in conversations with infrastructure partners, industry organizations, policymakers, community stakeholders, and other external parties.
Provide executive leadership with clear assessments of progress, material risks, strategic choices, and recommended actions.
Build repeatable playbooks that allow sustainability practices to scale across sites, geographies, infrastructure partners, and technology generations.