Lead, Clean Energy & Data Center Infrastructure

Trellis Group; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Clean Energy and New Technology Lead to own infrastructure clean energy strategy and execution, identifying scalable, low-carbon solutions for resilient compute and data center growth. The role partners with regulatory and policy teams to align expansion with OpenAI's environmental objectives and long-term sustainability goals.

This IC role evaluates emerging energy technologies, translates options into practical deployment paths, and works with engineering, finance, legal,

Qualifications

• 15+ years in energy technology, infrastructure sustainability, or related roles.
• Proven ability to balance reliability, cost, schedule, and regulatory constraints.
• Strong written and verbal communication suitable for executive audiences.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate emerging energy solutions and deployment pathways for data-center infrastructure.
• Identify pilot opportunities and scalable deployment plans.
• Translate options into reliability, cost, carbon, and regulatory implications.
• Collaborate with regulatory, policy, procurement, engineering, and site-readiness teams.
• Monitor market, policy, and technology developments.
• Develop repeatable evaluation frameworks and playbooks for sustainability initiatives.

Skills

Energy technology leadership

Power systems expertise

Sustainability & decarbonization

Cross-functional leadership

Analytical & executive communication

Job description

About the Team

OpenAI, in close collaboration with our capital partners, is embarking on a journey to build the world’s most advanced AI infrastructure ecosystem. The Industrial Compute team is central to this mission, setting the core infra strategy and implementing this vision. From site selection to the buildout process, this team sits at the intersection of commercial, technical, strategy, and operations, interacting with teams and executives inside and outside of OpenAI.

About the Role

The Clean Energy and New Technology Lead will own infrastructure clean energy and emerging energy technology strategy and execution, identifying and deploying scalable solutions that enable resilient, low-carbon compute and data center growth. The role will work closely with regulatory and policy teams to align infrastructure expansion with OpenAI’s long-term environmental and operational objectives.

This is an individual contributor lead role and does not have direct reports initially. The role will evaluate where emerging energy technologies can materially improve reliability, cost, carbon, speed, or resilience; translate those options into practical deployment pathways; and help ensure OpenAI’s infrastructure growth remains aligned with sustainability considerations.

Key Responsibilities

• Evaluate emerging energy solutions such as clean firm power, advanced storage, grid flexibility, low-carbon backup power, heat reuse, water-related energy efficiency, and other scalable technologies where relevant.
• Identify pilot opportunities and deployment pathways that can move promising energy technologies from concept to commercially and operationally credible execution.
• Translate technical options into clear reliability, cost, schedule, carbon, regulatory, and operational implications for infrastructure decision-making.
• Partner with energy regulatory, policy, procurement, engineering, deployment, finance, legal, and site-readiness teams to align technology and sustainability choices with project needs.
• Track external market, policy, utility, and technology developments
• Build repeatable evaluation frameworks, partner criteria, and execution playbooks for sustainability and emerging energy technology initiatives.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in energy technology, infrastructure sustainability, clean energy procurement, power markets, data center energy strategy, utility programs, or related roles.
• Strong understanding of power systems, low-carbon energy, grid constraints, infrastructure reliability, and the practical requirements of large-scale deployment.
• Experience evaluating emerging technologies, structuring pilots, or moving early-stage solutions toward commercial implementation.
• Ability to balance sustainability objectives with reliability, cost, schedule, regulatory, and operational constraints.
• Proven cross-functional leadership across technical, commercial, policy, and executive stakeholders.
• Excellent analytical, written communication, and executive-summary skills.

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 Affirmative 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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