IT Lead

The OpenAI Deployment Company; San Francisco, New York (CA, NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

The OpenAI Deployment Company, deployed in San Francisco, is seeking a Head of IT to design, build, and run the firm’s first internal technology foundation. You will own identity, devices, SaaS administration, support workflows, automation, vendor operations, and IT team-building.

You will lead a hands-on, security-conscious program that delivers scalable IT across the company, enabling rapid deployment with auditable controls and strong governance. This role reports to DeployCo leadership.

Qualifications

• Have 8+ years of experience across IT, systems engineering, enterprise technology, infrastructure, security operations, platform operations, or a similar domain.
• Have built or materially rebuilt IT infrastructure in a startup, high-growth company, new business unit, or similarly ambiguous environment.
• Are technically credible and hands-on across areas such as identity platforms, endpoint management, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, Slack, SaaS administration, networking basics, cloud administration, scripting, and workflow automation.
• Are already a serious user of AI tools and have a practical point of view on how models, agents, and automation can change internal operations.
• Can write or debug scripts, connect APIs, inspect logs, configure admin consoles, and turn repeated manual work into reliable workflows.
• Have strong security judgment and know how to design controls that are practical, auditable, and usable.
• Communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders when tradeoffs involve speed, risk, cost, or employee experience.
• Enjoy being a player-coach: you can set strategy and manage people, but you are also willing to solve the ticket, configure the system, write the doc, and carry the work through.

Responsibilities

• Build the IT function from zero, including the roadmap, operating cadence, service model, vendor strategy, documentation, metrics, and hiring plan.
• Stand up and administer core systems across identity, endpoint management, SaaS, asset management, ticketing, knowledge management, networking, and collaboration.
• Design secure employee lifecycle workflows for onboarding, offboarding, access requests, group management, device provisioning, app assignment, approvals, and audit trails.
• Use AI and automation to reduce manual work across support, provisioning, documentation, incident triage, access reviews, policy Q&A, and compliance evidence collection.
• Partner with Security to implement controls around SSO, MFA/passkeys, SCIM, conditional access, device posture, privileged administration, logging, vendor risk, and data protection.
• Partner with Engineering and deployment teams to support technical workflows, customer-facing urgency, developer tooling, and systems that let teams move quickly without creating risky exceptions.
• Manage IT budget, procurement, renewals, hardware logistics, and vendor relationships with a bias toward speed, simplicity, and durable leverage.
• Hire, coach, and lead a small high-performing IT team while staying close to the work and modeling a hands-on builder culture.

Skills

IT leadership

SRE & security operations

Automation & scripting

Identity platforms

Google Workspace / Microsoft 365

SaaS administration

Vendor management

Tools

Slack

SCIM

SSO

Audit logging

Job description

About the Company

The OpenAI Deployment Company ("DeployCo") is the deployment arm of OpenAI, purpose-built to deliver enterprise AI transformation at scale. As model capabilities accelerate, deployment has become the primary constraint to realizing AI value creation within large enterprises. DeployCo bridges that gap.

Our ambition is to build the company that defines AI deployment. We operate at the intersection of cutting-edge AI, enterprise transformation, and scaled services delivery. We partner with enterprise customers to identify where AI can transform their businesses and build solutions leveraging OpenAI’s models and products. We work with many of the world\'s largest and most influential companies to solve their most complex business challenges using the latest advances in AI.

People who thrive at DeployCo get excited about ambitious and complex work. We are deep believers in the future with AI. We execute quickly, value intellectual honesty, and obsess over the solutions we build for our customers.

DeployCo is being built from the ground up as a subsidiary of OpenAI and funded with a partnership of outside investors.

About the Role

We are seeking a Head of IT to help set up DeployCo as the category-defining AI deployment platform globally. In this role, you will be responsible for designing, building, and operating the company\'s first internal technology foundation across identity, devices, SaaS administration, support workflows, automation, vendor operations, and IT team-building. This role will report to DeployCo leadership and partner closely with Security, Engineering, People, Finance, Legal, Workplace, and deployment teams.

Your day-to-day will be a mix of hands-on systems buildout, employee support, automation, security partnership, vendor management, and operating-model design. You will choose and administer core systems, write scripts and workflows, build onboarding and offboarding and access processes, create self-service support, manage devices and SaaS, resolve issues for employees, and decide when to hire, buy, build, or automate.

Success in this role will look like a secure, reliable, auditable, AI-native IT foundation that helps a fast-growing deployment company move quickly without brittle exceptions. Within the first year, employees onboard smoothly, access and devices are managed consistently, common support workflows are automated, Security has usable evidence and controls, leadership has visibility into roadmap, risk, and budget, and the first IT hires are operating with high standards.

In this role, you will:

• Build the IT function from zero, including the roadmap, operating cadence, service model, vendor strategy, documentation, metrics, and hiring plan.
• Stand up and administer core systems across identity, endpoint management, SaaS, asset management, ticketing, knowledge management, networking, and collaboration.
• Design secure employee lifecycle workflows for onboarding, offboarding, access requests, group management, device provisioning, app assignment, approvals, and audit trails.
• Use AI and automation to reduce manual work across support, provisioning, documentation, incident triage, access reviews, policy Q&A, and compliance evidence collection.
• Partner with Security to implement controls around SSO, MFA/passkeys, SCIM, conditional access, device posture, privileged administration, logging, vendor risk, and data protection.
• Partner with Engineering and deployment teams to support technical workflows, customer-facing urgency, developer tooling, and systems that let teams move quickly without creating risky exceptions.
• Manage IT budget, procurement, renewals, hardware logistics, and vendor relationships with a bias toward speed, simplicity, and durable leverage.
• Hire, coach, and lead a small high-performing IT team while staying close to the work and modeling a hands-on builder culture.

You may thrive in this role if you:

• Have 8+ years of experience across IT, systems engineering, enterprise technology, infrastructure, security operations, platform operations, or a similar domain.
• Have built or materially rebuilt IT infrastructure in a startup, high-growth company, new business unit, or similarly ambiguous environment.
• Are technically credible and hands-on across areas such as identity platforms, endpoint management, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, Slack, SaaS administration, networking basics, cloud administration, scripting, and workflow automation.
• Are already a serious user of AI tools and have a practical point of view on how models, agents, and automation can change internal operations.
• Can write or debug scripts, connect APIs, inspect logs, configure admin consoles, and turn repeated manual work into reliable workflows.
• Have strong security judgment and know how to design controls that are practical, auditable, and usable.
• Communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders when tradeoffs involve speed, risk, cost, or employee experience.
• Enjoy being a player-coach: you can set strategy and manage people, but you are also willing to solve the ticket, configure the system, write the doc, and carry the work through.

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