OpenAI

IT Lead

OpenAI$150K — $180K *
Information Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of experience in IT, systems engineering, or related fields.
  • Proven track record in building or significantly restructuring IT infrastructure in high-growth or ambiguous environments.
  • Hands-on expertise with identity platforms, endpoint management, and SaaS administration.
  • Experience with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, networking, and cloud administration.
  • Strong scripting abilities and knowledge of workflow automation.
  • Deep understanding of security principles and controls for IT environments.
  • Excellent communication skills for both technical and non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

  • Build the IT function from the ground up, including strategic roadmap and service model.
  • Administer core systems related to identity, endpoint management, and collaboration.
  • Design and implement secure employee lifecycle workflows for various access needs.
  • Leverage AI to automate support, provisioning, and compliance processes.
  • Collaborate with Security to enforce security measures and controls.
  • Partner closely with engineering teams to optimize systems for speed and reliability.
  • Manage vendor relationships and IT budgets with a focus on efficiency and simplicity.
  • Lead and mentor a small IT team while maintaining a hands-on approach.

Benefits

  • Opportunities for professional growth and development.
  • Collaborative work culture with a focus on innovation.
  • Flexible working arrangements.
  • Comprehensive employee support systems.
  • Engagement with cutting-edge AI technologies.
Full Job Description
About the Role

We are seeking a Head of IT to help set up DeployCo as the category-defining AI deployment platform globally. In this role, you will be responsible for designing, building, and operating the company's first internal technology foundation across identity, devices, SaaS administration, support workflows, automation, vendor operations, and IT team-building. This role will report to DeployCo leadership and partner closely with Security, Engineering, People, Finance, Legal, Workplace, and deployment teams.

Your day-to-day will be a mix of hands-on systems buildout, employee support, automation, security partnership, vendor management, and operating-model design. You will choose and administer core systems, write scripts and workflows, build onboarding and offboarding and access processes, create self-service support, manage devices and SaaS, resolve issues for employees, and decide when to hire, buy, build, or automate.

Success in this role will look like a secure, reliable, auditable, AI-native IT foundation that helps a fast-growing deployment company move quickly without brittle exceptions. Within the first year, employees onboard smoothly, access and devices are managed consistently, common support workflows are automated, Security has usable evidence and controls, leadership has visibility into roadmap, risk, and budget, and the first IT hires are operating with high standards.

In this role, you will:
  • Build the IT function from zero, including the roadmap, operating cadence, service model, vendor strategy, documentation, metrics, and hiring plan.
  • Stand up and administer core systems across identity, endpoint management, SaaS, asset management, ticketing, knowledge management, networking, and collaboration.
  • Design secure employee lifecycle workflows for onboarding, offboarding, access requests, group management, device provisioning, app assignment, approvals, and audit trails.
  • Use AI and automation to reduce manual work across support, provisioning, documentation, incident triage, access reviews, policy Q&A, and compliance evidence collection.
  • Partner with Security to implement controls around SSO, MFA/passkeys, SCIM, conditional access, device posture, privileged administration, logging, vendor risk, and data protection.
  • Partner with Engineering and deployment teams to support technical workflows, customer-facing urgency, developer tooling, and systems that let teams move quickly without creating risky exceptions.
  • Manage IT budget, procurement, renewals, hardware logistics, and vendor relationships with a bias toward speed, simplicity, and durable leverage.
  • Hire, coach, and lead a small high-performing IT team while staying close to the work and modeling a hands-on builder culture.

You may thrive in this role if you:
  • Have 8+ years of experience across IT, systems engineering, enterprise technology, infrastructure, security operations, platform operations, or a similar domain.
  • Have built or materially rebuilt IT infrastructure in a startup, high-growth company, new business unit, or similarly ambiguous environment.
  • Are technically credible and hands-on across areas such as identity platforms, endpoint management, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, Slack, SaaS administration, networking basics, cloud administration, scripting, and workflow automation.
  • Are already a serious user of AI tools and have a practical point of view on how models, agents, and automation can change internal operations.
  • Can write or debug scripts, connect APIs, inspect logs, configure admin consoles, and turn repeated manual work into reliable workflows.
  • Have strong security judgment and know how to design controls that are practical, auditable, and usable.
  • Communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders when tradeoffs involve speed, risk, cost, or employee experience.
  • Enjoy being a player-coach: you can set strategy and manage people, but you are also willing to solve the ticket, configure the system, write the doc, and carry the work through.

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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