Description
Compensation
The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The salary range for this position is $226K – $285K, with generous equity, performance-related bonuses, and the following benefits:
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
- Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
- 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
- Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)
- Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
- 13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)
- Mental health and wellness support
- Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
- Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth
- Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
- Relocation support for eligible employees
- Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.
About the Team
OpenAI’s Compute Strategy team is responsible for securing and scaling the core resources that power our research and products. We partner across engineering, finance, legal, and operations to identify, negotiate, and execute strategic partnerships that expand OpenAI’s capacity for compute, power, and data center infrastructure.
About the Role
We are hiring several Business Development Lead, Compute Strategy positions focused on compute infrastructure. Each hire will bring deep expertise in one or more focus areas while collaborating across the broader infrastructure stack. In this role, you will source opportunities, structure partnerships, and negotiate high-value agreements across OpenAI’s infrastructure ecosystem. You will work directly with external partners and suppliers while collaborating internally with engineering, legal, finance, and operations to ensure we have the resources needed to support state-of-the-art AI systems.
Responsibilities
- Own partnership opportunities end-to-end,from concept formation and sourcing through evaluation, diligence, internal approval, negotiation, close, and post-close execution,across one or more of the focus areas above.
- Lead negotiations for complex commercial agreements, balancing cost, speed, and long-term scalability.
- Build and manage relationships with senior leaders across utilities, real estate developers, colocation and cloud providers, semiconductor and equipment suppliers, financial institutions, and other capital providers.
- Develop market intelligence to inform OpenAI’s infrastructure roadmap and partnership strategy.
- Coordinate across engineering, legal, finance, Treasury, and operations to structure agreements that align with technical and business objectives.
- Represent OpenAI in external forums, conferences, and industry working groups to strengthen our ecosystem presence.
- Operationalize and establish governance for signed agreements; track delivery, risks, economics, and business impact against commercial and technical objectives.
Requirements
- Have 8+ years of experience in business development, strategic partnerships, private equity, corporate development, project development, or infrastructure finance, with relevant experience in at least one focus area above.
- Have a demonstrated track record of closing complex, high-value commercial agreements.
- Bring deep expertise in at least one of the focus areas above, with the ability to translate technical requirements and constraints into commercial structures and contract terms.
- Possess exceptional negotiation and relationship management skills with the ability to engage C-level stakeholders.
- Have strong analytical skills to assess market opportunities, model deal structures, and evaluate long-term ROI.
- Are comfortable navigating ambiguity in a fast-moving environment.
- Hold a JD, MBA, or equivalent experience is preferred but not required.