Physical Engineering Business Lead (Special Situations)

We Love AI Jobs; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 333,000 - 370,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI in San Francisco is hiring a Physical Engineering Business Lead for Special Situations. This hands-on, customer-facing role requires leadership in discovery, project delivery, and translating customer insights into actionable product feedback.

You will collaborate with customer engineers, forward-deployed teams, and account managers to frame high-value design and simulation problems and guide projects to measurable outcomes.

Qualifications

• Hands-on design or build experience with CAD, simulation, or related engineering tools.
• Ability to lead customer discovery and workshops with engineering teams.
• Experience turning customer insights into reusable methods and product feedback.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery and workshops with customer engineering teams and senior leaders to identify high-value design and simulation use cases.
• Develop use cases into significant projects with FDEs and account teams, clarifying value, feasibility, and adoption.
• Explain how AI can improve physical-product engineering, grounded in CAD, simulation, and engineering workflows.
• Build customer confidence through clear technical storytelling and credible engineering judgment.
• Maintain a clear operating cadence across priority projects with explicit owners, risks, decisions, and success measures.

Skills

CAD

Simulation

Physical product engineering

Engineering workflows

Customer discovery

Technical storytelling

Project delivery

Tools

CAD tools

Simulation tools

Job description

# Physical Engineering Business Lead (Special Situations)OpenAISan Francisco (Hybrid)Full-time$333,000 – $370,000 / yearUpload your resume once and Scout applies for youApply with ScoutShare this job:LinkedInXSave imageThis customer-facing role applies hands-on physical product engineering experience to identify and develop valuable design and simulation projects. You’ll work with customer engineering teams, forward-deployed engineers, and account teams, while sharing customer learnings to inform product and go-to-market direction.* Permanent* Hybrid### Skills and expertiseCADSimulationPhysical product engineeringEngineering workflowsCustomer discoveryTechnical storytellingProject delivery### Key responsibilities* Lead customer discovery and workshops to identify valuable design and simulation use cases.* Develop use cases into projects with forward-deployed engineers and account teams, clarifying value, feasibility, and adoption.* Support project delivery, surface engineering risks, and turn customer insights into reusable methods and product feedback.## How this job comparesPay: This job pays $333K to $370K a year.AI in this role: Medium. The role uses AI tools and works with AI systems as a regular part of the job. The role works with customers and forward-deployed engineers on how AI can improve physical-product engineering. Prior AI experience is not required, and the main work is engineering discovery and project delivery rather than model development.## Full descriptionAbout the TeamOpenAI’s Physical Engineering work explores how frontier AI can help people design, simulate, and build better physical products. We work directly with customers to identify high-value engineering applications that shorten development cycles, improve product performance, and create measurable business value.About the RoleWe are hiring a Physical Engineering Business Lead to bring firsthand product engineering experience into our customer work. You’ll combine deep familiarity with CAD, simulation, or related engineering tools with the ability to lead customer discovery, explain complex ideas clearly, and turn promising use cases into high-impact projects.This is a hands-on, customer-facing role. You’ll work closely with customer engineering teams, senior leaders, forward-deployed engineers (FDEs), and account teams from early discovery through delivery. You’ll help frame valuable design and simulation problems, guide projects with practical engineering judgment, and support adoption and measurable outcomes.You’ll also turn what we learn from customers into product feedback, reusable delivery methods, and recommendations for our go-to-market and partnership strategies. As the work grows, this role may evolve into broader practice leadership.Key Responsibilities• Lead discovery and workshops with customer engineering teams and senior leaders to identify high-value design and simulation use cases• Develop promising use cases into significant projects with FDE and account teams, forming clear hypotheses about value, feasibility, engineering constraints, and adoption• Work alongside FDEs and customer teams through delivery, bringing practical engineering context, surfacing risks early, and helping projects achieve measurable outcomes• Explain how AI can improve physical-product engineering, grounded in real experience with CAD, simulation, engineering workflows, and design tradeoffs• Build customer confidence through clear technical storytelling, compelling use cases, and credible engineering judgment• Maintain a clear operating cadence across priority projects, with explicit owners, risks, decisions, and success measures• Turn customer insights into reusable discovery methods, FDE guidance, product feedback, and recommendations for our product, go-to-market, and partnership strategies• Build relationships across physical-product engineering teams and the broader design and simulation ecosystem• Move fluidly between executive conversations, technical working sessions, analysis, writing, and delivery follow-throughQualifications• Firsthand experience designing or building physical products, including substantial hands-on work with CAD, simulation, or related engineering tools• Deep understanding of engineering workflows and tradeoffs, with clear examples of your personal contributions and their impact on products or projects• Strong discovery and problem-framing skills, including the ability to connect engineering details to customer needs and business value• The ability to work directly with FDEs and customer technical teams, contribute practical engineering judgment, and stay engaged through implementation• Strong customer presence and the ability to explain complex technical ideas clearly to senior leaders• Technical curiosity and the ability to learn quickly in a fast-moving environment; prior AI experience is not required• High agency, low ego, sound judgment, and a willingness to do the detailed work needed to move outcomes forward• Clear communication and reliable follow-through across technical, commercial, and executive teamsPreferred Qualifications• A background in mechanical engineering or a closely related discipline• Consulting, founder, partnership, or other customer-facing experience that complements direct engineering work• Experience working in high-bar, technology-forward physical-product engineering environments