Manager, Applied AI Engineering (Startups)

OpenAI; United States; Remote; USD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking an Applied AI Engineering Manager for Startups in the United States to lead and scale our Startups Applied AI Engineering motion. This role focuses on accelerating startups from experimentation to production, delivering practical, durable technical partnerships, and driving impact through fast-paced, high-ambiguity environments.

The successful candidate will craft the Team’s strategic vision, mentor a team of high-performing technical ICs across AI-native, developer-led, and

Job description

About the Team

The Applied AI Engineering team partners closely with customers to help them move from experimentation to production with OpenAI’s technologies. We act as trusted technical advisors, working across customer strategy, architecture, deployment, and adoption to help organizations realize meaningful impact from frontier AI. The Startups segment serves fast-moving, high-growth companies that are often building new products, workflows, and businesses directly on top of AI. These customers move quickly, operate with high ambiguity, and expect practical, creative, and technically rigorous partnership.

About the Role

We are looking for an Applied AI Engineering Manager, Startups to lead and scale the Startups Applied AI Engineering motion. This team helps high-growth startups move quickly from experimentation to production, unlock meaningful usage, and build durable technical partnerships with OpenAI. This leader will operate in a high-velocity customer segment where founders, CTOs, and technical teams expect speed, judgment, and hands-on problem-solving. They will balance team leadership, technical depth, customer prioritization, and cross-functional influence across Sales, Product, Engineering, Research, and broader go-to-market teams. In this role, you will define how OpenAI supports startup customers at scale: identifying where deep technical engagement can unlock outsized impact, building repeatable deployment mechanisms, and ensuring the team can serve a broad and dynamic customer base without losing quality or strategic focus. In this role, you will:

• Craft and continuously refine the strategic vision and operating model for the Startups Applied AI Engineering team, aligning it with OpenAI’s broader company objectives and the evolving needs of high-growth startup customers.
• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of high-performing technical ICs supporting startup customers across AI-native, developer-led, and product-led companies.
• Help startups move from early e