Senior Manager, Revenue Recognition - Strategic Deals
San Francisco • FullTime
Posted 1mo ago
About the job
OpenAI Finance is seeking a Senior Manager of Revenue Recognition to lead revenue strategy and technical accounting for the company's strategic commercial deals. This role will serve as the primary revenue advisor for large, bespoke, and non-standard deals outside of standard product and service offerings, including collaborations, cloud marketplaces, platform and distribution deals, and licensing models. The successful candidate will engage early in the deal lifecycle to shape commercially viable, accounting-compliant, and operationally scalable outcomes, establishing accounting postures, defining reporting and control requirements, and ensuring alignment of deal economics, billing, and revenue recognition as the business evolves. This position requires strong technical accounting judgment, commercial fluency, and executive communication skills to navigate complex and ambiguous transactions.
Responsibilities
- Own technical revenue accounting for strategic commercial deals, including large, bespoke, and non-standard transactions.
- Serve as the primary revenue advisor for strategic collaborations, cloud marketplaces, platform and distribution deals, licensing, and revenue-share models.
- Partner with Strategic Partnerships, Product, GTM, Strategic Finance, Legal, Deal Desk, and Tax to influence deal economics, pricing, contract terms, and operational design.
- Evaluate complex transactions under ASC 606, including principal-versus-agent, gross-versus-net, performance obligations, variable consideration, and contract combinations.
- Translate technical accounting conclusions into practical commercial guardrails and establish clear intake, escalation, and decision-making frameworks.
- Define data, reporting, billing, settlement, reconciliation, and control requirements for new commercial models.
- Draft audit-ready technical accounting memos and policies, and lead discussions with external auditors.
- Manage and develop team members and external resources, prioritize high-value deals, and strengthen the team's ability to influence commercial decisions.
Requirements
- 10+ years of technical revenue accounting or related advisory experience.
- Deep ASC 606 expertise and experience leading complex workstreams or teams.
- Significant experience supporting large, bespoke commercial deals, strategic collaborations, cloud marketplaces, platform distribution, licensing, revenue-share models, or other multi-party transactions.
- Track record of influencing commercial strategy, pricing, product design, and contract terms.
- Experience navigating emerging monetization models (e.g., advertising revenue, marketplaces, multi-sided ecosystems) is a strong plus.
- Strong command of principal-versus-agent analysis, gross-versus-net presentation, variable consideration, consideration payable to a customer, contract combinations, and complex performance-obligation assessments.
- Experience translating evolving commercial models into scalable billing, accounting, reconciliation, reporting, systems, and control requirements.
- Strong commercial judgment and executive communication skills.
- Demonstrated success establishing ownership, governance, and repeatable processes in ambiguous, rapidly changing environments.
- CPA strongly preferred; a mix of Big 4 (or accounting advisory) and tech industry experience in high-growth environments is highly valued.
Benefits
- Hybrid work model (3 days in office per week)
- Relocation assistance for new employees