OpenAI

Strategy and Operations Lead, Hardware

OpenAI$150K — $180K *
Telecommunications & Hardware
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 12+ years of experience in strategy and operations or a related role
  • Experience with complex product areas or launches
  • Ability to turn ambiguous goals into clear plans and operating rhythms
  • Comfortable leading cross-functional work with senior stakeholders
  • Strong communication skills, particularly in risk and tradeoff scenarios
  • Experience using tools for alignment, not just for process sake
  • Ability to build systems in a fast-moving environment.

Responsibilities

  • Build and operate the core rhythm for Hardware Marketing
  • Translate business priorities into clear workstreams and milestones
  • Create visibility for planned and reactive work efforts
  • Drive the intake and prioritization process for new requests
  • Collaborate with finance and marketing on planning and tradeoff framing
  • Identify role gaps and resource needs across teams
  • Prepare and run key operating forums for reviews and decision-making
  • Build tools and templates to enhance team efficiency
  • Proactively identify and rectify systemic workflow issues.
  • Maintain confidentiality and ensure effective information sharing.

Benefits

  • Hybrid work model with three days in office each week
  • Relocation assistance for new employees.
  • Opportunity to operate at the intersection of strategy and execution in a fast-paced environment.
Full Job Description
About the Role

We're looking for a Strategy & Operations Lead, Hardware Marketing to help build and run the operating system for OpenAI's Hardware Marketing work.

This role will partner closely with Hardware Marketing leadership, Product Marketing, Product, Design, Creative, Production, Communications, Finance, Legal, and external partners to bring structure to a fast-moving, highly cross-functional product area. You will help the team clarify priorities, build plans, manage intake, track decisions, surface risks, frame tradeoffs, and keep critical workstreams moving from planning through operating readiness.

This is a strong fit for someone who can operate independently in ambiguity, build practical systems from scratch, and move fluidly between strategy and execution. Experience with complex product launches or sensitive, cross-functional product areas is preferred.

This role is based in San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of three days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:
  • Build and run the core operating rhythm for Hardware Marketing, including planning cycles, planning reviews, weekly priorities, decision forums, risk tracking, and leadership-ready updates.
  • Partner with Hardware Marketing leadership to translate business and product priorities into clear workstreams, owners, milestones, dependencies, and decisions.
  • Create visibility across planned and reactive work, helping the team understand what is committed, what is net-new, and where tradeoffs or escalation are needed.
  • Drive intake and prioritization processes that help Hardware Marketing evaluate new requests against current priorities, capacity, budget, and operating readiness.
  • Partner with Finance and Marketing leaders on planning inputs, visibility, and tradeoff framing.
  • Partner with Resource Management, Recruiting, Creative, Production, and Program Management to identify role gaps, operating reviews, planning inputs, resourcing needs, and leadership updates.
  • Prepare and run key operating forums, including operating readiness reviews, executive check-ins, cross-functional planning meetings, and decision follow-through.
  • Build lightweight tools, templates, trackers, and playbooks that help the Hardware Marketing team move faster with better shared context.
  • Proactively identify systemic issues across workflows, decision rights, communication paths, and resourcing, then design practical fixes that can scale.
  • Maintain strong judgment around confidentiality, access, and context-sharing so the right people have the right information at the right time.

You might thrive in this role if you:
  • Have 12+ years of experience in strategy and operations, business operations, product operations, marketing operations, program management, or a related operating role.
  • Have supported complex product areas or launches with many stakeholders, unclear paths, and changing priorities.
  • Experience with complex product launches or sensitive, cross-functional product areas is preferred.
  • Can take broad, ambiguous goals and turn them into clear plans, owners, decisions, and operating rhythms.
  • Are comfortable leading cross-functional work across senior stakeholders, creative teams, product teams, finance, legal, communications, and external partners.
  • Know how to use trackers, dashboards, written updates, and decision docs as tools for alignment, not as process for process' sake.
  • Can zoom out to understand business context and zoom in to chase down the details that make work actually move.
  • Communicate clearly, directly, and with good judgment, especially when surfacing risks, tradeoffs, or unresolved decisions.
  • Are energized by building 0-1 systems in a fast-moving environment and improving them as the work changes.
  • Use AI and automation thoughtfully to reduce manual work, improve visibility, and help teams operate with more leverage.

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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