Principal, Export Controls

OpenAI; California (MO); On-site; USD 170,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is hiring a Senior Manager, Export Controls to lead the company’s export controls strategy and operating model. You will refine classification, licensing, and governance across advanced computing, semiconductors, software, hardware, and partnerships.

You’ll partner with Research, Infrastructure, Security, and Legal to scale compliant workflows and enable researchers while maintaining control boundaries. Strong leadership and policy-writing skills are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in engineering, computer science, physics, international trade, law, public policy, or a related field.
• Significant experience leading export controls, trade compliance, or a closely related function in advanced computing, semiconductors, electronics, or other high-technology domains.
• Deep expertise in export controls, including classification, licensing, deemed exports, end-use and end-user restrictions, and controls on technical data and software.
• Direct experience working on advanced computing and advanced semiconductor controls.
• Strong leadership judgment and a track record of building and scaling programs in fast-moving technology companies and complex multinational environments.
• Experience translating policy into workflows, systems requirements, service levels, operating guidance, and measurable business outcomes.
• The ability to work credibly with researchers, infrastructure engineers, hardware engineers, chip-design teams, Security, and Legal.
• Experience managing service providers, and cross-functional programs that require speed, discretion, and strong execution.
• Strong writing and communication skills, with the ability to turn complex requirements into clear process documentation and guidance for technical and business audiences.
• Experience building AI-enabled workflows, internal tools, knowledge systems, or agentic processes for policy-heavy or operational work.

Responsibilities

• Refine the export controls strategy and operating model across multiple high-tech domains.
• Own export classification and licensing strategy for controlled data, software, hardware, and research environments.
• Lead the design and operation of compliant controlled environments and governance processes.
• Partner with Research and Infrastructure to support researcher access while maintaining control boundaries.
• Collaborate with technical teams to develop durable classification and control models.
• Translate policy into documented controls, logging, evidence, access boundaries, and exception handling.
• Lead supplier-facing compliance processes including onboarding, certifications, and contractual controls.
• Build and administer Technology Control Plan processes with briefs, materials, tracking, and escalation.
• Develop service levels, metrics, and reporting to improve access velocity and onboarding.
• Build internal tooling and an AI- and agent-enabled operating model.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Policy translation

Cross-functional collaboration

Writing

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent in engineering/CS/physics/international trade/law/public policy

Tools

Internal tooling

AI-enabled workflows

Job description

About the Team

Tax and Trade at OpenAI shapes business strategy by embedding critical tax, export control, customs, and cross-border considerations into how the company builds, sources, scales, and operates in support of the mission. We combine deep expertise with practical systems thinking to look around corners, identify emerging risks and opportunities early, and help teams make smarter decisions at the point where strategy becomes execution. Across procurement, hardware operations, manufacturing, logistics, finance, legal, supplier onboarding, and operator workflows, we build robust, scalable support services leveraging cutting-edge technology- including governed AI and automation to make complex regulated work more durable, more efficient, and easier to scale.

About the Role

We're hiring a Senior Manager, Export Controls to lead OpenAI's export controls strategy and operating model. This is a senior role with broad scope across advanced computing, semiconductors, software, hardware, manufacturing, and high technology partnerships.

You will refine how OpenAI classifies controlled technology, software, and hardware, structures access-controlled environments, manages licensing and supplier commitments, and scales export-control operations in a way that supports the company’s pace of innovation. You will also shape how OpenAI applies AI and agentic workflows to policy-heavy operational work, building systems that make complex rules easier to navigate and easier to execute.

In this role, you will:

• Refine the strategy and operating model for OpenAI's export controls program across advanced computing, semiconductors, software, hardware, manufacturing, and high technology partnerships.

• Own export classification and licensing strategy for controlled technical data, software, hardware, and research environments.

• Lead the design and operation of compliant controlled environments and related governance processes.

• Partner with Research and Infrastructure to support efficient researcher access while maintaining clear control boundaries.

• Partner with technical teams to develop durable classification and control models.

• Partner cross-functionally to translate policy into documented technical controls, logging, evidence, access boundaries, and exception handling.

• Lead supplier-facing compliance processes, including onboarding requirements, certifications, and relevant contractual controls.

• Build and administer Technology Control Plan processes, including briefings, acknowledgements, operating materials, completion tracking, and escalation paths.

• Develop service levels, metrics, and reporting that improve access velocity, supplier onboarding, and decision quality.

• Build internal tooling and an AI- and agent-enabled operating model.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• A Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in engineering, computer science, physics, international trade, law, public policy, or a related field. Advanced technical, legal, or policy training is valuable.

• Significant experience leading export controls, trade compliance, or a closely related function in advanced computing, semiconductors, electronics, or other high-technology domains.

• Deep expertise in export controls, including classification, licensing, deemed exports, end-use and end-user restrictions, and controls on technical data and software.

• Direct experience working on advanced computing and advanced semiconductor controls.

• Strong leadership judgment and a track record of building and scaling programs in fast-moving technology companies and complex multinational environments.

• Experience translating policy into workflows, systems requirements, service levels, operating guidance, and measurable business outcomes.

• The ability to work credibly with researchers, infrastructure engineers, hardware engineers, chip-design teams, Security, and Legal.

• Experience managing service providers, and cross-functional programs that require speed, discretion, and strong execution.

• Strong writing and communication skills, with the ability to turn complex requirements into clear process documentation and guidance for technical and business audiences.

• Experience building AI-enabled workflows, internal tools, knowledge systems, or agentic processes for policy-heavy or operational work.

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, and other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI's Aff

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 rationally