Senior Leasing and Strategy Manager

About the Team

At OpenAI, our Real Estate & Workplace (REW) team builds and manages the environments that power our innovation. We create spaces that are efficient, scalable, and aligned with our mission — from strategic leasing decisions to the systems that keep our workplaces running smoothly. Joining this team means helping shape the environments where world-changing technology is built.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Senior Leasing & Strategy Manager, Real Estate & Workplace to lead high-impact projects and shape the strategic direction of OpenAI’s global real estate portfolio. You’ll partner with the Leasing and Transactions team to own the full lifecycle of lease transactions, with a strong emphasis on detailed lease review, financial analysis, and portfolio strategy. You’ll also evaluate new opportunities, manage risks, and ensure all leasing decisions align with OpenAI’s long-term business objectives.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Lead end-to-end execution of lease transactions, from strategy and RFPs through lease negotiation, review, approvals and signing.

• Conduct in-depth review of proposals and leases to ensure they benefit OpenAI.

• Develop portfolio strategies and and translate insights into clear, executive-level presentations and briefing materials.

• Build robust financial models and scenario plans.

• Track lease expirations, critical dates, and portfolio exposure to enable proactive decision-making.

• Collaborate cross-functionally (Strategic Finance, Legal, Design & Construction, Occupancy Planning, Accounting, and other teams) to align lease terms with strategic and operational needs.

• Partner on budgeting, variance reporting, and monthly financial reviews with Strategic Finance and Accounting teams.

• Maintain accurate reporting and portfolio analytics to inform future strategy and investments.

• Assist with Letter of Credits, Security Deposit and Certificates of Insurance and work with internal and external stakeholders on updates to LOC and Security Deposits.

• Team with Lease Administration to ensure a high level of accuracy on reporting.

• Track lease expirations and assist in coordination of restoration work and move-out obligations.

• Use AI-powered tools to accelerate analysis and scenario-planning and to streamline lease review, financial modeling, and portfolio reporting.

• Support sustainability initiatives by ensuring lease requirements align with OpenAI’s environmental goals.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• 6–8+ years of corporate real estate or leasing transactions experience (in-house experience strongly preferred).

• Advanced expertise in lease interpretation, real estate strategy, financial modeling, and risk assessment.

• A proven ability to create clear deliverables for executive decision-making.

• Strong communication skills with the ability to resolve ambiguity and independently solve complex issues.

• Balanced strategic planning with execution, moving seamlessly from big-picture portfolio strategy to detailed lease review.

• Proficiency in ChatGPT, Google/Microsoft Suites, and Lease Administration systems.

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.

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