Strategic Sourcing Lead

About the Team

OpenAI Finance is responsible for ensuring the organization is set up for success in pursuit of its mission.

The Procurement team advises our business partners to make the best investments, ensures we acquire the resources needed for growth, and enables our mission through efficient procurement practices.

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Strategic Sourcing Lead to drive procurement activities for Go-to-Market (GTM) B2B and B2C channels. You will manage substantial spend and drive sourcing strategies for major marketing, advertising, communications, media, and event suppliers to support large-scale, global initiatives. You’ll also refine and scale our marketing procurement function to deliver cost efficiencies while ensuring alignment with OpenAI's operational goals and rapid growth trajectory.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. 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:

• Develop and execute sourcing strategies for GTM activities—B2B and B2C channels—that align with our mission and business objectives.

• Lead the strategic sourcing, procurement, and relationship management of major marketing, advertising, communications, media planning and buying, event services, and other key global partners.

• Negotiate high-value contracts to optimize costs and support large-scale marketing initiatives on tight timelines.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (e.g., Marketing, Sales, Finance, Legal) to understand business needs and align sourcing strategies accordingly.

• Oversee the entire GTM supplier ecosystem, ensuring seamless integration, rapid deployment, and timely service delivery.

• Identify and implement cost optimization strategies, without compromising on quality or speed.

• Manage procurement for major campaigns and events, ensuring timely delivery and high-quality outcomes that advance B2B and B2C objectives.

• Monitor market trends and industry best practices in marketing procurement to inform sourcing decisions and maintain a competitive advantage.

• Provide strategic insights on spend, supplier performance, and sourcing initiatives to senior leadership and facilitate quick, informed decision-making.

• Ensure compliance with internal policies and external regulations, including audits and reporting.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• 10+ years of progressive procurement experience.

• 5+ years of experience in strategic sourcing for marketing, advertising, communications, media, demand generation, sponsorships, and events functions within major consumer or business brands.

• Deep knowledge of both B2B and B2C marketing channels and supplier landscapes.

• Proven expertise managing large marketing budgets and executing high-impact campaigns, sponsors, and events rapidly and effectively.

• Handled the full spectrum of the GTM supplier landscape, including identifying, evaluating, and managing relationships with key suppliers in demand generation, programmatic media, and sponsorships.

• Strong negotiation and cross-functional stakeholder management skills, with a track record of securing high-value, favorable agreements.

• Excellent analytical abilities to yield strategic insights from spend data, market trends, supplier performance, and the effectiveness of demand generation and sponsorship initiatives.

• Superior organizational and project management skills, with the ability to handle multiple, complex priorities in a dynamic environment.

• A proactive approach to problem-solving and appetite for continuous process improvement in marketing procurement.

• A passion for technology and enthusiasm for supporting the launch of cutting-edge AI products through strategic procurement excellence.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.