Program Manager - M&a Recruiting, People

About the Team

The Strategic Initiatives team sits within OpenAI’s Recruiting org and focuses on some of the most dynamic, people-driven areas of the company. We lead efforts across Executive Recruiting, Mergers & Acquisitions, Talent Intelligence, High Impact Talent, and Special Projects.

About the Role
As a Mergers & Acquisitions Program Manager within Recruiting, you’ll be a key partner in leading the people-side workstream on M&A deals, from diligence through employee onboarding. This role demands sound judgment, speed, and discretion. You’ll operate at the center of some of OpenAI’s most impactful decisions - shaping the future of the company by bringing in extraordinary, mission-aligned talent.

We’re looking for someone who thrives in ambiguity, moves seamlessly between strategic thinking and execution, and is energized by complexity, challenge, and pace.

This role is based in San Francisco and requires flexibility to come into the office on short notice. Deal timelines can shift quickly, and the team coordinates coverage and checks in regularly on workload.

In this role, you will:

• Co-design, lead, and scale the M&A People XFN workstream program, driving end-to-end management of timeline, candidate experience, and key touchpoints that enable smooth deal execution and set the stage for positive onboarding and integration.

• Build and uplevel playbooks, processes, and communications to support increasing deal volume and complexity, creatively solving for new challenges while ensuring clarity, alignment, and efficiency across cross-functional stakeholders (ex: Recruiting Operations, Comms, Events, etc.)

• Deliver a high-impact candidate and acquired team experience, including producing events such as Town Halls, onboarding customizations, and cultural moments that reflect OpenAI’s mission.

• Partner closely with senior leaders, founders, and acquired teams, demonstrating executive presence and the ability to navigate sensitive situations and competing priorities.

• Lead post-mortem retrospectives for People XFN both at a deal and program level to build repeatable playbooks/process improvement for future deals.

• Liaise with Recruiting Operations and cross-functional partners to build and scale efficient M&A recruiting processes and tools. This may include initiatives related to headcount tracking and allocation, offer creation and issuance, confidentiality workflows, etc.

• Own and improve an AI-enabled workflow that makes deal execution more effective across the team.

• Flex into other high-priority areas of Strategic Initiatives as needed.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• 6+ years of relevant experience, including at least 4 years leading complex cross-functional programs. Prior M&A experience is strongly preferred. We also welcome candidates who bring exceptional program management experience in technical environments and can demonstrate practical AI fluency.

• Strong project management skills, including leading initiatives from project scoping to execution phases and the ability to drive alignment across stakeholders, timelines, and tools.

• Strong analytical mindset, leveraging data to evaluate program health, identify risks early, and guide clear, informed decision-making.

• High ownership mindset with intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for technology; thrives in complex, continuously challenging contexts.

• Proven success operating with discretion and high judgment on sensitive or high-profile hires.

• The ability to zoom out strategically and operate at high altitude, while maintaining precision in execution and attention to detail.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor messaging across diverse stakeholders.

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with technical hiring, especially in research or AI domains.

• Background in recruiting, education program design, or talent development.

• Experience supporting or building community-based programs.

• Project Management certification (e.g., PMP or equivalent).

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.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. 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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