Description
OpenAI's Hardware organisation is building the infrastructure foundation for frontier AI systems. The Supply Chain organisation enables scalable, resilient, and efficient supply chains across custom silicon, systems, networking, memory, storage, and rack-scale infrastructure.
We are seeking a Product Cost Management Lead to own the official costed bill of materials (BOM), system and cluster cost and price baseline, and platform-to-platform total cost of ownership (TCO) for our 1P AI infrastructure. You will turn component, system, POD, manufacturing, deployment, DC, service, and lifecycle inputs into a trusted view of product economics that informs technical and business decisions.
Responsibilities:
- Own the official costed BOM and system/pod roll-up by platform, generation, configuration, build phase, volume, and mix.
- Publish and maintain the system/pod cost and price baseline, reconciling component pricing and manufacturing-partner inputs with approved configurations and planning assumptions.
- Build platform-to-platform TCO comparisons covering component content, non-recurring engineering, tooling, manufacturing labor and overhead, yield, scrap, test, logistics, deployment, housing and site costs, power and cooling, networking, spares, service, warranty, and lifecycle costs.
- Partner with housing and site teams to integrate their cost inputs into product economics.
- Quantify the cost impact of engineering change orders and notices (ECOs/ECNs), architecture, specification, configuration, and qualification changes before approval.
- Develop a prioritized cost-reduction, value-engineering, and second-source opportunity funnel with Engineering, Strategic Sourcing, and manufacturing-partner management.
- Analyze actual, forecast, quoted, committed, and purchase-price costs against the baseline.
- Build sensitivity and scenario analyses for supplier and manufacturing-partner options, capacity, volume and mix, yield, configuration, site, deployment timing, and lifecycle tradeoffs.
- Validate savings and cost avoidance with Finance and accountable source owners.
- Establish cost-data definitions, BOM hierarchy, allocation methods, currency and volume assumptions, refresh expectations, and change-control processes.
- Lead recurring product-cost and TCO reviews.
- Build scalable models, reporting, and data workflows that improve baseline completeness, refresh speed, analysis turnaround, and decision quality as the hardware portfolio grows.
Requirements:
- Significant experience in hardware product costing, cost engineering, supply chain finance, manufacturing cost analysis, or a related role supporting complex technology products.
- Experience building and maintaining multi-level costed BOMs, system cost roll-ups, and lifecycle or TCO models across product development, production ramp, and sustaining operations.
- Strong understanding of hardware cost drivers, including component pricing, manufacturing labor and overhead, NRE, tooling, yield, scrap, test, logistics, and service costs.
- Demonstrated ability to evaluate engineering changes, second-source options, and cost-reduction opportunities using comparable scenarios and transparent assumptions.
- Advanced spreadsheet and quantitative modeling skills, with disciplined data reconciliation, version control, and source traceability.
- Ability to turn incomplete or changing technical and commercial inputs into defensible analysis, identify uncertainty, and drive input gaps to closure.
- Strong cross-functional influence and communication skills, including concise leadership recommendations and detailed working sessions with engineering, sourcing, manufacturing, and finance teams.
- High ownership and sound judgment in a fast-moving environment with evolving requirements and competing priorities.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with AI infrastructure, hyperscale data centers, custom silicon, servers, networking, storage, or rack-scale systems.
- Experience analyzing JDM, CM, or ODM cost structures and open-book manufacturing models.
- Familiarity with DC and site economics, power and cooling, deployment timing, spares, and service costs in infrastructure TCO.
- Experience with ERP, MRP, and PLM systems, BOM change control, and business intelligence or automation/AI tools.
- A background in engineering, finance, supply chain, manufacturing, or a related analytical discipline.