OpenAI Hiring Infrastructure Operations & Sustainability Lead in US - Remote

The Sustainability Grid; United States; À distance; USD 140 000 - 200 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

OpenAI is seeking an Infrastructure Operations & Sustainability Lead to develop and execute sustainability strategy for its global compute infrastructure. You will translate environmental priorities into practical operating requirements across site selection, data center design, construction, equipment procurement, deployment, and ongoing operations.

The role partners with infrastructure operations, engineering, construction, power, hardware, supply chain, finance, legal, public policy,

Qualifications

• Experience leading sustainability or operational-improvement programs across a large, complex, and geographically distributed organization.
• 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.

Responsabilités

• 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.

Connaissances

Sustainability leadership

Data center operations

Environmental strategy

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive reporting

Infrastructure optimization

Description du poste

OpenAI Hiring Infrastructure Operations & Sustainability Lead in US - Remote

OpenAI's Industrial Compute organization is building and operating the infrastructure required to support frontier AI at unprecedented scale. The organization works across data center development, power, design and construction, hardware, supply chain, deployment, facilities operations, and external partnerships.

By The Sustainability Grid Desk

Location US - Remote

Type FullTime

Experience 12+ years of experience

Deadline Not specified

About the Company

As this infrastructure footprint grows, OpenAI must ensure that sustainability, operational reliability, and responsible development are incorporated into infrastructure decisions from the beginning rather than addressed as separate downstream initiatives.

The Opportunity

We are seeking an Infrastructure Operations & Sustainability Lead to develop and execute the sustainability strategy for OpenAI's global infrastructure portfolio.

This role will translate environmental priorities and external commitments into practical operating requirements across site selection, data center design, construction, equipment procurement, deployment, and ongoing operations. You will build the frameworks, metrics, governance, and cross-functional programs required to improve environmental performance while preserving the speed, reliability, and scalability demanded by OpenAI's infrastructure roadmap.

The role will partner closely with infrastructure operations, site development, engineering, construction, power, hardware, supply chain, finance, legal, public policy, government affairs, communications, and external infrastructure partners.

What You'll Do

• 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.

Requirements

Core Qualifications

• 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 working with external partners, suppliers, regulators, policymakers, or industry organizations.
• Comfort operating in a fast-moving environment with incomplete information, changing priorities, and significant external scrutiny.
• Experience with embodied-carbon reduction, sustainable construction materials, water-positive programs, equipment circularity, or infrastructure-efficiency initiatives.
• Experience developing external partnerships or industry initiatives that produced measurable operational outcomes.
• About OpenAI

Technical Expertise

• 12+ years of experience in sustainability, infrastructure operations, environmental strategy, data center infrastructure, the built environment, or a related field.
• Experience building metrics, governance systems, and executive reporting for complex operational programs.
• Ability to evaluate technical, financial, environmental, regulatory and reputational tradeoffs together.
• Experience with hyperscale data centers, cloud infrastructure, industrial facilities, or another power- and resource-intensive operating environment.
• Familiarity with data center design, construction, facilities operations, hardware supply chains, and infrastructure-development lifecycles.
• Knowledge of greenhouse-gas accounting, environmental disclosure frameworks, lifecycle assessment, and sustainability-related data systems.
• 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.
• 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...

Professional Strengths

• Strong cross-functional leadership and the ability to influence senior stakeholders without relying on direct authority.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to make complex subjects clear and decision-ready for executives.
• Familiarity with energy procurement and utility policy sufficient to partner effectively with dedicated power and energy teams.
• Experience building or leading multidisciplinary sustainability and infrastructure programs through periods of rapid organizational growth.

Not specified in the original listing.

Why This Role Matters

This role is a direct way to contribute to OpenAI's sustainability work through the responsibilities listed above.