OpenAI

Infrastructure Sourcing Operations Lead

OpenAI$125K — $150K *
Telecommunications & Hardware
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years in sourcing operations, procurement, or infrastructure program management.
  • Proven ownership of complex procurement workflows from contracting to delivery tracking.
  • Familiarity with OFCI, networking, and interconnect infrastructure scheduling and integration.
  • Strong critical-path and risk-management skills under tight deadlines.
  • Experience building scalable operating mechanisms and KPIs across systems.
  • Sound commercial judgment for timely decision-making on contract and invoice issues.
  • Influential communication skills with ability to impact diverse teams and leadership.

Responsibilities

  • Own the intake and prioritization of sourcing operations across various infrastructure sectors.
  • Drive vendor readiness and stakeholder commitments before executing purchases.
  • Manage contract coordination, resolve business issues, and guide decisions with Legal and stakeholders.
  • Oversee purchase order strategies and urgent escalation processes.
  • Review invoice discrepancies and recommend resolutions for payment issues.
  • Maintain visibility of the procurement portfolio from design to installation and closure.
  • Establish source-of-record requirements for governance and reporting quality.
  • Design and enhance operational mechanisms and workflows for improved efficiency.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to lead procurement operations in a dynamic infrastructure environment.
  • Engagement with diverse stakeholders including vendors and legal teams.
  • Chance to develop scalable processes and KPIs that enhance operational rigor.
  • Potential involvement in impactful projects related to advanced infrastructure technology.
  • Exposure to high-stakes decision-making in a fast-paced setting.
Full Job Description
About the Role

We are seeking an Infrastructure Sourcing Operations Lead to own procurement operations across pre-construction, design, construction, and sourcing through purchase order issuance, while maintaining visibility through invoice resolution, production, logistics, delivery, installation, and readiness. The portfolio includes electrical and mechanical OFCI, networking equipment, rack systems and integration, fiber, cabling, optical interconnects, and other infrastructure required to bring capacity online.

In this role, you will set priorities, make or escalate decisions that affect cost, supplier relationships, contractual position, and delivery schedules, and define the standards used by execution support for queue management, documentation, tracker maintenance, and recurring reporting. Success requires sound commercial and program judgment, operational rigor, systems thinking, and the ability to turn incomplete information across vendors, tools, and project teams into clear decisions, accountable actions, and credible leadership reporting.

Key Responsibilities
  • Own sourcing-operations intake and prioritization, translating requirements and need-by dates across electrical and mechanical OFCI, networking, rack systems, fiber, cabling, optical interconnects, and related infrastructure into actionable procurement workstreams aligned to project schedules.
  • Drive vendor readiness and onboarding; own exceptions, stakeholder commitments, escalations, and readiness decisions before purchase execution.
  • Lead contract coordination for NDAs, service agreements, master agreements, statements of work, and related workflows; resolve nonstandard business issues and drive Legal and stakeholder decisions.
  • Own purchase-order strategy, package quality, approval sequencing, urgent escalations, and exceptions through PO issuance.
  • Review invoice exceptions involving quantity, pricing, tax, delivery evidence, payment terms, or other commercial discrepancies and determine the recommended resolution.
  • Maintain portfolio visibility across electrical and mechanical OFCI, networking equipment, rack systems and integration, fiber, cabling, optical interconnects, and related infrastructure from design and configuration readiness through production, shipment, delivery, installation, testing, and exception closure; assess critical-path and capacity impact and lead supplier escalation.
  • Own source-of-record requirements, including data definitions, status logic, milestones, permissions, restricted cost visibility, governance, and reporting quality.
  • Design and continuously improve operating mechanisms, SOPs, intake processes, templates, escalation paths, and tool workflows across Procurement, Legal, Finance, vendors, and Infrastructure teams.
  • Produce concise leadership reporting that distinguishes facts from assumptions, surfaces aging decisions and material risks, quantifies schedule or commercial impact, and recommends action.

Qualifications
  • 8+ years of experience in sourcing operations, procurement, infrastructure program management, construction operations, supply chain, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
  • Demonstrated ownership of complex procurement or capital-project workflows spanning vendor readiness, contracting, PO execution, invoice management, and delivery tracking.
  • Experience integrating supplier commitments and long-lead requirements across OFCI, networking, rack systems, fiber, cabling, or interconnect infrastructure with design, construction, commissioning, deployment, and operational need-by dates.
  • Strong critical-path, risk-management, and recovery-planning capability, with evidence of driving issues through closure under schedule pressure.
  • Experience building scalable operating mechanisms, dashboards, KPIs, trackers, SOPs, and governance for data distributed across multiple systems and stakeholders.
  • Sound commercial judgment and the ability to frame nonstandard contract, pricing, invoice, or supplier issues for timely decisions.
  • Proven ability to influence Procurement, Legal, Finance, Engineering, Construction, suppliers, and senior leaders without direct authority.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including concise executive updates and clear separation of facts, assumptions, risks, and recommendations.
  • Ability to manage multiple concurrent, high-priority workstreams in a fast-paced and ambiguous environment.

Preferred Skills
  • Experience with hyperscale data centers, AI infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, mission-critical facilities, advanced manufacturing, or other large capital programs.
  • Working knowledge of critical electrical and mechanical OFCI, data center networking, rack architecture and integration, fiber and structured cabling, optical interconnects, controls, and commissioning equipment, including the dependencies from design and configuration readiness through delivery, testing, installation, and startup.
  • Experience with procurement, contract-lifecycle, workflow, and reporting platforms.
  • Experience launching tools, participating in user acceptance testing, training users, and driving adoption of standardized processes.
  • Bachelor's degree in engineering, construction management, supply chain, business, operations, finance, or equivalent practical experience; relevant professional certification is a plus.


About OpenAI

OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory consisting of the for-profit corporation OpenAI LP and its parent company, the non-profit OpenAI Inc. The company was founded in 2015 by a group of technology leaders, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and John Schulman. OpenAI's mission is to develop and promote friendly AI for the betterment of humanity. The company has developed a number of cutting-edge AI technologies, including GPT-3, a language processing system that can generate human-like text. OpenAI has received funding from a number of high-profile investors, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
Learn more about OpenAI
Size
100 employees
Industry
Founded
2015

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