Research Program Manager – Adversarial Model Research

OpenAI; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Hybrid work model (3 days in office)

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Research Program Manager to lead initiatives that test safety and robustness of our models through creative experimentation and structured evaluation. You will coordinate across research and engineering teams to translate ambiguous risks into concrete research programs and influence future model development and deployment.

The role is based in San Francisco, CA with a hybrid model of 3 days in the office per week and relocation assistance for new employees.

Qualifications

• Experience in technical program management with strong organizational and communication skills.
• Familiarity with large language models, prompt engineering, or model evaluation techniques.
• Ability to manage fast-paced, high-uncertainty projects and shape them from the ground up.

Responsibilities

• Lead programs that test model safety, robustness, and identify failure modes.
• Translate risk signals into clear priorities and actionable research plans.
• Design and run evaluations, experiments, and red-teaming campaigns.
• Coordinate with research, product, and deployment teams to integrate findings into training and deployment cycles.
• Develop repeatable systems to track model performance and emerging behavior patterns.

Skills

Technical program management

Prompt engineering

Model evaluation

Job description

About the Team

The Human Data team at OpenAI is responsible for identifying and mitigating risks in advanced AI systems by designing evaluations, surfacing vulnerabilities, and collaborating closely with researchers to strengthen model reliability and public trust.

About the Role

As a Research Program Manager, you will lead initiatives that test the safety and robustness of OpenAI’s models through creative experimentation and structured evaluation. You’ll coordinate efforts across research and engineering teams to transform ambiguous risks into concrete research programs and influence future model development and deployment.

We’re looking for people who are technically savvy, comfortable with ambiguity, and excited about shaping the future of safe AI.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. 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 programs that explore unexpected model behaviors and identify failure modes.

• Translate vague or emergent risk signals into clear priorities and actionable research plans.

• Design and run creative evaluations, experiments, and red-teaming campaigns.

• Collaborate with research, product, and deployment teams to integrate findings into model training and deployment cycles.

• Develop repeatable systems for tracking model performance and understanding emerging behavior patterns.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have strong experience in technical program management, with excellent organizational and communication skills.

• Are familiar with large language models, prompt engineering, or model evaluation techniques.

• Are comfortable managing fast-paced, high-uncertainty projects and shaping them from the ground up.

• Are creative and resourceful in devising new methods for testing model behavior and performance.

• Can effectively coordinate across technical and non-technical stakeholders to drive alignment and execution.

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.

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