Technical Program Manager, AI Safety & Safeguards
San Francisco • FullTime
Posted 27d ago
About the job
OpenAI is seeking Technical Program Managers to drive complex product, platform, and safety initiatives across various deployment environments. These roles are crucial for translating safety and product priorities into actionable plans, influencing architectural decisions, and delivering durable capabilities. You will work at the intersection of technical strategy and execution, partnering deeply with engineers, researchers, and product managers. Responsibilities may include enabling sensitive model deployments, integrating safeguards into platforms, preventing misuse, improving detection systems, and establishing new programs as risks evolve. The ideal candidate brings technical fluency, product judgment, and a strong execution record, comfortable navigating ambiguity and balancing safety with model usefulness.
Responsibilities
- Shape technical roadmaps, platform direction, and safeguards priorities across various environments.
- Translate product and safety objectives into execution plans balancing delivery, platform evolution, and responsible deployment.
- Lead cross-functional programs end-to-end, from problem definition to launch and iteration.
- Own milestones, dependencies, risk mitigation, and accountability across multiple teams.
- Partner with engineers on system architecture, APIs, cloud deployment patterns, and technical tradeoffs.
- Drive the development and integration of safeguards like model evaluations, classifiers, and monitoring systems.
- Coordinate readiness for sensitive deployments, ensuring safety coverage and operational controls.
- Identify emerging misuse risks and define response mechanisms across prevention, detection, and enforcement.
- Establish metrics for program delivery, safety effectiveness, and operational quality.
- Represent customer and developer needs in technical and leadership decisions.
- Communicate program health, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to stakeholders.
- Improve delivery and safety outcomes through operating mechanisms and tooling.
Requirements
- Strong track record of delivering high-impact technical programs across product, platform, API, infrastructure, ML, or safety domains.
- Strong technical judgment across distributed systems, cloud deployments, APIs, developer platforms, production ML, or scalable product architecture.
- Ability to engage credibly with engineers on system design, implementation tradeoffs, reliability, and operational risks.
- Experience delivering platforms or developer-facing capabilities and understanding their impact on customer and developer experience.
- Understanding of safety, integrity, or abuse-prevention systems.
- Strong program management discipline, ability to coordinate workstreams, and resolve dependencies.
- Product judgment to balance user needs with model usefulness, safety risk, and business priorities.
- Clear and empathetic communication skills with diverse stakeholders.
- Comfort owning high-stakes programs requiring executive presence and cross-organizational influence.
- Relevant experience with sensitive deployments, major cloud providers, or serious-harm domains.
Benefits
- Hybrid work model (3 days in office per week)
- Relocation assistance for new employees