Program Officer, High-Burden Diseases , San Francisco

OpenAI Foundation; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 220,000 - 330,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI Foundation is expanding its life sciences program to accelerate progress on curing diseases and improving human health. The Program Officer, High-Burden Diseases, will help build this work from the ground up, sourcing opportunities, evaluating opportunities, and engaging with external partners.

The role requires flexibility across scientific and strategic topics, a broad field-building mindset, and strong judgment to translate mission into actionable recommendations.

Qualifications

• 7-10+ years experience in biology, chemistry, translational medicine, drug development, global health, Biotechnology, or grant investing.
• Ability to engage credibly across scientific and strategic topics, even when not deepest domain expert.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate opportunities and make strong recommendations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with ability to synthesize complex information clearly.
• Strong judgment, follow-through, and comfort operating with autonomy.
• Ability to work effectively in a highly ambiguous, evolving environment.
• Deep motivation to help accelerate progress in life sciences and contribute to the Foundation’s mission.

Responsibilities

• Source, evaluate, and recommend grants across High-Burden Diseases program domains.
• Research new disease or technology areas and help strategize investments.
• Diligence on organizations, projects, and leaders including scientific value and potential impact.
• Design and manage a growing grants portfolio with clear prioritization and follow-through.
• Shape strategy with the Head of High-Burden Diseases and refine the Foundation’s approach.
• Engage deeply with researchers, nonprofits, academic centers, and other stakeholders.
• Build relationships with leaders across biology, medicine, data infrastructure, and open science.
• Identify ecosystem gaps and propose new initiatives or partnerships.
• Contribute to zero-to-one initiatives by shaping concepts and convening stakeholders.
• Write internal recommendations and strategy memos to support decision-making.
• Represent the Foundation in external conversations to source opportunities and build credibility.

Skills

Life sciences

Grantmaking

Strategic thinking

External engagement

Communication

Autonomy

Ambiguity tolerance

Job description

About OpenAI Foundation

AI is already changing how people work, learn, and access care. It has the potential to unlock extraordinary benefits—faster medical breakthroughs, accelerated scientific discovery, more personalized services in healthcare and education, new tools for creativity and invention, higher productivity and economic growth, improved public services like transportation systems, and so much more.

But building powerful systems to benefit humanity is only a part of the work of our mission. Advanced AI models will also present new challenges that are already surfacing, and we need to be prepared to identify these challenges and develop solutions to address them.

These are the two dimensions of what we’re building the Foundation to do. We aim to enable the use of AI to find solutions to humanity’s hardest problems, transform what people are capable of, and deliver real benefits in people’s lives—while working hard with partners to be ready for new challenges, and to help make society resilient, as AI advances.

This work is just beginning. Over the next year, as we quickly ramp up, the Foundation expects to invest at least $1 billion across life sciences and curing diseases, jobs and economic impact, AI resilience, and community programs. This includes early investments toward our previously announced $25 billion commitment to curing diseases and AI resilience.

About the role

The OpenAI Foundation is building out its life sciences program to help accelerate progress on curing diseases and improving human health. The program’s initial focus areas include AI for Alzheimer’s, Public Data for Health, and High-Burden Diseases.

We are looking for a Program Officer, High-Burden Diseases to help build this work from the ground up. We define High-Burden Diseases as those that lead to over 500,000 deaths and/or 25 million DALYs annually and also face market failures that result in underinvestment in R&D. These may include diseases like tuberculosis, newborn mortality, stroke, and Hepatitis B. We invest in the application of AI and data to accelerate and unlock R&D progress to prevent and treat these diseases in a global context. This is a founding role within the Foundation’s Life Sciences and Curing Diseases program. This is a generalist role and you will work across multiple focus areas, helping to source and evaluate opportunities, engage with external organizations, support strategy development and support the deployment of significant resources over time. This role is designed for someone with the flexibility and judgment to operate across a broad range of scientific, strategic, and grantmaking questions.

This role requires someone who is highly flexible, thoughtful, strategic, and action-oriented—comfortable moving between topics and projects, engaging deeply with external experts and organizations, and translating a broad mission into strong recommendations and concrete action.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA (strongly preferred). We currently use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. Some travel to conferences around the U.S. and sometimes other countries is also required.

In this role, you will

• Help source, evaluate, and recommend grants and other funding opportunities across multiple domains within the High-Burden Diseases program

• Support research of new disease or technology areas and determine where the Foundation should focus and develop investment theses under which we will source and develop grants and funding opportunities

• Conduct diligence on organizations, projects, and leaders, including assessing scientific value, execution capability, data quality, and potential for real-world impact

• Help design and manage a growing portfolio of grants, ensuring strong judgment, clear prioritization, and high-quality follow-through

• Work closely with the Head of High-Burden Diseases to shape strategy, prioritize opportunities, and refine the Foundation’s approach over time

• Engage deeply with the external ecosystem, including researchers, nonprofits, academic centers, public-interest organizations, data platforms, funders, and other potential grantee organizations

• Build and maintain strong relationships with leaders across biology, medicine, public health, data infrastructure, open science, and AI-enabled research

• Identify gaps in the current ecosystem and develop ideas for how the Foundation can support new efforts, partnerships, or field-building initiatives

• Support the creation of new initiatives from zero-to-one, including helping shape concepts, convene stakeholders, and stand up new efforts where needed

• Write clear internal recommendations and strategy memos to support decision-making

• Represent the Foundation in external conversations, helping to build credibility, source opportunities, and strengthen the broader field

You might thrive in this role if you

• Are excited to help build a new focus area from the ground up

• Are highly flexible and comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment where priorities may evolve over time

• Can take a broad, ambiguous problem and turn it into a clear strategy, strong relationships, and concrete action

• Have strong judgment about people, organizations, and scientific opportunities

• Are energized by meeting with external partners, asking sharp questions, and forming an independent view

• Have a global mindset and understanding of lower and middle income country (LMIC) contexts and realities

• Are curious and excited to explore the uses of AI in R&D and health interventions to accelerate and open up new intervention space in disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment

• Can balance strategic thinking with practical execution and detail-oriented follow-through

• Are comfortable making recommendations in areas where there is uncertainty and incomplete information

• Have the maturity and adaptability to work closely with leadership while also operating with substantial autonomy

• Would be excited to work as a cross-cutting generalist

• Care deeply about the Foundation’s mission and the opportunity to build public goods that support long-term progress in health and science

Requirements

• 7-10+ years experience strongly preferred, although earlier-career candidates with a track record of truly exceptional ability and accomplishment will be considered

• Relevant experience in areas such as biology, chemistry, translational medicine, drug development, clinical practice, global health, biotechnology, venture or grant investing in life sciences, or related fields

• Ability to engage credibly across a range of scientific and strategic topics, even when not operating as the deepest domain specialist in each one

• Demonstrated ability to evaluate scientific, technical, or organizational opportunities and make strong recommendations

• Experience engaging credibly with external experts, institutions, and other stakeholders

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex information clearly and persuasively

• Strong judgment, follow-through, and comfort operating with meaningful autonomy

• Ability to work effectively in a highly ambiguous, evolving environment

• High degree of ownership, discretion, and accountability

• Deep motivation to help accelerate progress in life sciences and contribute to the Foundation’s mission

Compensation

The annual base salary range for this role is $220,000 to $330,000 USD.

This range reflects our good-faith estimate of the base salary we reasonably expect to pay for this position upon hire. Actual base salary will be determined based on job-related factors, including the candidate’s relevant experience, skills, expertise, the scope of the role, and work location, as applicable.

This salary range does not include benefits or any other compensation for which the role may be eligible.

Equal Opportunity

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.