Program Manager, Critical Harm Operations
Remote • San Francisco • FullTime
Posted 1mo ago
Remote Work Policy
Fully remote
Employment Type
FullTime
Categories
Applied AI Engineer
About the job
OpenAI is seeking an exceptional Program Manager to join the Critical Harm Operations team. This role is crucial for building durable operating systems and managing some of OpenAI's most complex safety operations. The ideal candidate is a high-agency operator capable of tackling ambiguous problems, establishing structure, aligning cross-functional partners, and driving execution. This position offers the opportunity to work across evolving Critical Harm priorities, potentially involving national security, violent activities, wellbeing initiatives, or scaling programs like Trusted Access. While deep domain expertise is helpful, the strongest candidates will demonstrate rapid learning, excellent judgment, and the ability to advance complex programs.
Responsibilities
- Lead strategic operational builds for priority workflows from problem statement to implemented operating model, defining scope, owners, milestones, risks, success measures, and execution cadence.
- Translate policy, safety, technical, legal, and operational constraints into actionable workflows, requirements, playbooks, escalation paths, and decision-making structures.
- Coordinate with various leadership teams, including User Ops, Product Policy, Integrity, Safety Systems, Legal, Product, Engineering, and Support, to resolve dependencies and ensure progress.
- Adapt to shifting priorities by standing up new programs, stabilizing operations, improving handoffs, and transitioning ownership to appropriate teams.
- Utilize operational data and frontline signals to identify bottlenecks, quality gaps, capacity needs, ownership failures, and high-leverage intervention points.
- Drive high-priority escalations and cross-functional decisions to closure, ensuring clear context, accountability, next steps, and durable follow-up.
- Create and maintain program management mechanisms such as roadmaps, decision logs, status updates, risk registers, operating reviews, and executive communications.
- Identify opportunities to leverage AI tools, automation, or simplified workflows to enhance speed, consistency, and scale while preserving human judgment.
Requirements
- 8+ years of experience in program management, strategy and operations, product operations, technical program management, trust and safety, support operations, risk operations, implementation, or a related field.
- Proven track record of taking complex, ambiguous work from problem framing through launch and scaled operation.
- Highly organized, sharp, and execution-focused with the ability to manage multiple moving parts effectively.
- Skilled in building trust and driving alignment across teams without direct authority, while maintaining clear ownership and accountability.
- Technically and analytically fluent to reason about data flows, dashboards, tooling gaps, automation, and failure modes.
- Clear communication skills for technical, operational, policy, and executive audiences, especially regarding sensitive tradeoffs or incomplete evidence.
- Ability to operate calmly and flexibly in a fast-moving environment, learn new domains quickly, and handle high-severity or sensitive work.
- Experience with vendor operations, QA programs, launch readiness, workflow automation, or AI-assisted operations is a plus.