Project Manager, Design and Construction - R&D/Lab Buildouts

OpenAI, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Hybrid work model (3 days in office)

Job summary

OpenAI, Inc. is seeking an Industrial Builds Project Manager to lead multi‑site infrastructure buildouts from concept through construction, including labs and compute facilities.

You will own budgets, coordinate external partners, and drive alignment with internal teams and executives in a fast-paced, hybrid work environment in San Francisco. The role requires strong leadership, financial acumen, and proven ability to manage complex programs with diverse stakeholders across geographies.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience delivering infrastructure projects in a fast-paced, hyper-scaling environment.
• Experience collaborating with engineering disciplines (MEP, structural, building systems).
• Deep expertise in construction budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis.
• Ability to communicate cost drivers to non-technical stakeholders.
• Excel at building relationships with external vendors, consultants, GCs, and internal teams.
• Demonstrated leadership, ownership, and collaboration across diverse teams.
• Lead vendor management and contract administration, including sourcing and negotiating.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, including presentations to senior executives.

Responsibilities

• Lead full lifecycle execution of infrastructure and facilities build-out projects (labs, compute facilities, production spaces).
• Own detailed project estimating, budgeting, and financial analysis, including securing capital funding.
• Engage, contract, and manage external partners (architects, contractors, CM/GCs) to meet timelines.
• Collaborate with Real Estate, Operations, Corporate Security, IT/AV, EH&S, Finance and other stakeholders.
• Partner with Leasing on site selection, due diligence, and cost forecasting for site acquisitions.
• Own relationships with internal clients and executives, driving engagement and decision-making.
• Develop and oversee technical due diligence, AHJ coordination, and utility requirements.
• Review and contribute to design drawings, mechanical/electrical layouts, and specs.
• Develop and review concept designs aligned with stakeholder needs and guide design development.
• Lead and manage multiple projects across geographies, delivering on time and within budget.

Skills

Project management

Infrastructure delivery

Leadership

Cross-functional work

Budgeting

Forecasting

Vendor management

Stakeholder mgmt

Communication

Job description

About the Role

As an Industrial Builds Project Manager on the Design & Construction team, you will support OpenAI’s research, scaling and manufacturing activities by providing project management and leadership on mission critical construction projects with complex engineering design and extensive interfaces. This role owns technical coordination across MEP, civil/structural, and architectural scopes, and is accountable for on-time, on-budget delivery of complex build-outs.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA, but you will be expected to travel to project sites regularly, aligned with project requirements. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Lead full lifecycle execution of a range of infrastructure and facilities build-out projects simultaneously, including advanced compute facilities, labs, testing environments, and production spaces.
• Own detailed project estimating, budgeting, and financial analysis to ensure fiscal responsibility and efficiency. This includes securing capital funding
• Engage, contract and drive external partners (architects, contractors, construction managers and other consultants) to deliver mission-critical projects on accelerated timelines
• Collaborate closely on projects with internal teams like Real Estate, Operations, Corporate Security, IT/AV, EH&S, stakeholder team and Finance
• Partner closely with Leasing on site selection, providing due diligence and cost forecasting to support site acquisition
• Own the relationship with internal clients and executives, driving engagement, alignment, and decision-making.
• Develop and oversee technical due diligence efforts for each project, which may include technical assessments, AHJ coordination, utility requirements and feasibility studies.
• Develop and review concept designs, which will define programming that is aligned with all stakeholders and guide design development.
• Review and contribute to design drawings, mechanical and electrical layouts, utility diagrams, specifications, and technical documentation.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have 8+ years of experience delivering infrastructure projects in a fast-paced, hyper-scaling environment
• Bring a background in architecture, interior design, construction project management and Experience collaborating with engineering disciplines (MEP, structural, building systems)
• Possess deep expertise in construction budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis, with the ability to communicate cost drivers to non-technical stakeholders.
• Excel at building and leveraging relationships with external vendors, consultants, GCs, and internal teams, and can drive accountability across disciplines.
• Demonstrate strong leadership, ownership, and collaboration skills, with the ability to align diverse teams toward a unified project vision.
• Bring a collaborative and motivating approach to finding solutions rapidly.
• Lead vendor management and contract administration, including sourcing, negotiating, and managing agreements to ensure compliance, cost-effectiveness, and alignment with project goals
• Are an exceptional communicator—clear, concise, and confident in written, verbal, and large-group presentation settings, including with senior executives and high-level stakeholders.
• Have led multiple concurrent projects across geographies, with a track record of delivering on time, within budget, and to a high design standard.
• Thrive in a high-performance, fast-paced culture where time, energy, and attention to detail are in constant demand across multiple priorities and projects.

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, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Aff… Policy Statement.

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 reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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