Technical Program Manager, Robotics

OpenAI, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 207,000 - 285,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Parental leave

Paid time off

Relocation assistance

Meals in office

Learning stipend

Job summary

OpenAI is seeking a Technical Program Manager for Robotics Facilities in San Francisco to coordinate design and construction of Robotics sites. You will consolidate requirements across robotics disciplines and route inputs to partners managing design and construction workstreams.

You will clarify requirements, manage dependencies, and drive decisions through planning, design, construction, commissioning, and handover with clear ownership. In-person presence 4 days/week in SF.

Qualifications

• Experience leading hardware programs, especially in robotics or labs.
• Ability to balance research, engineering, and operations priorities.
• Strong capability to read technical drawings and specs.

Responsibilities

• Consolidate requirements across robotics teams and provide clear needs to Real-Estate Workplace as coordination point.
• Translate workflows into documented floor layouts, utilities, and environmental criteria.
• Coordinate design reviews and ensure acceptance criteria are met in documents.
• Track milestones, surface risks early, and drive timely dependencies and decisions.
• Collaborate with Legal, Finance, Security, IT, and EH&S to resolve issues.
• Prepare robotics readiness for equipment installation, moves, and turnover.
• Identify facility constraints and feed back for better handover practices.

Skills

Hardware program management

Cross-functional leadership

Reading drawings

Requirements coordination

Job description

Technical Program Manager, Robotics | OpenAI

Careers

Technical Program Manager, Robotics

Robotics - San Francisco

About the Team
Our Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and pushing towards AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world settings. Working across the entire model stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the physical constraints of physical systems.

About the Role

As a Technical Program Manager, Robotics Facilities, you will serve as the Robotics point-of-contact for cross-functional partners supporting the design and construction of Robotics sites. You will consolidate requirements, priorities, and decisions across Robotics disciplines and route those inputs through your counterpart, who manages design and construction partners and coordinates their workstreams.

You will clarify requirements, coordinate technical and operational inputs, manage dependencies and changes, and drive timely decisions through planning, design, construction, commissioning, and handover. This role calls for sound program judgment as research and operational needs evolve.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA and requires in-person presence 4 days a week.

In this role, you will:

• Consolidate requirements, priorities, and decisions across Robotics research, engineering, and operations teams, providing the Real-Estate Workplace counterpart with a clear and coordinated view of Robotics needs.

• Translate Robotics workflows and equipment needs into documented requirements for floor layouts, utilities, network connectivity, environmental conditions, material flow, physical access, and operational support, working with technical owners to define acceptance criteria.

• Coordinate Robotics design reviews, ensuring technical owners assess proposals, resolve open questions, and confirm that agreed requirements are reflected in project documents.

• Track Robotics deliverables and dependencies against project milestones, surface risks and changes early, and secure decisions needed to keep work moving.

• Coordinate with Legal, Finance, Security, IT, Environmental Health & Safety, and other specialists to resolve issues affecting Robotics requirements and readiness.

• Coordinate Robotics readiness for equipment installation, moves, commissioning, and operational handover, with clear ownership and follow-through.

• Identify facility constraints that slow experimentation or operations, and use feedback from Robotics teams to improve requirements and handover practices for future projects.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have experience leading technical programs involving hardware and physical infrastructure, ideally in robotics, laboratories, advanced manufacturing, or similarly complex environments.

• Can reconcile competing priorities across technical and operational teams and translate evolving needs into clear requirements and acceptance criteria.

• Can read drawings and technical documentation, ask useful questions about building systems and equipment interfaces, and involve specialists at the right time.

• Bring disciplined program management across requirements, schedules, dependencies, risks, decisions, and change management.

• Build strong working relationships across research, engineering, operations, and facilities partners, and communicate technical tradeoffs clearly to secure alignment.

• Are comfortable moving between technical detail and broader program priorities across multiple concurrent efforts, focusing teams on decisions and dependencies that affect progress.

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 affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity 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.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form . No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link .

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Compensation

$207K – $285K + Offers Equity

The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. If the role is non-exempt, overtime pay will be provided consistent with applicable laws. In addition to the salary range listed above, total compensation also includes generous equity, performance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees, and the following benefits.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts

• Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)

• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match

• Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)

• Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees

• 13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)

• Mental health and wellness support

• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage

• Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth

• Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible

• Relocation support for eligible employees

• Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.

More details about our benefits are available to candidates during the hiring process.

This role is at-will and OpenAI reserves the right to modify base pay and other compensation components at any time based on individual performance, team or company results, or market conditions.