Description
Compensation
$216K – $240K • Offers Equity
The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. If the role is non-exempt, overtime pay will be provided consistent with applicable laws. In addition to the salary range listed above, total compensation also includes generous equity, performance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees, 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 mission is to build safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity. Achieving this requires bringing the world’s most exceptional talent under one roof to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
About the Role
We are looking for a highly strategic recruiter to work closely with the Head of Research Recruiting on a small set of unusually important, high-touch searches and candidate relationships. This role will focus on exceptional talent who does not move through a standard recruiting process: highly visible researchers, technical leaders, operators, and other special-interest candidates where timing, discretion, market intelligence, and tailored engagement matter as much as process execution.
In this role, you will:
- Partner directly with the Head of Research Recruiting and research leadership team to define priority talent targets and shape bespoke engagement strategies.
- Build and maintain deep market intelligence across frontier AI, research, engineering, and adjacent talent ecosystems, including competitor movement, candidate motivations, and relationship context.
- Proactively identify, map, and cultivate exceptional high-profile talent before there is a formal or standard hiring process attached.
- Translate weak signals and network intelligence into concrete recruiting actions, outreach plans, and leadership recommendations.
- Manage highly tailored candidate journeys that may involve confidential outreach, senior stakeholder alignment, custom evaluation paths, and complex closing strategy.
- Coordinate with executive search firms, sourcers, recruiting coordinators, and internal networks to move priority searches forward with speed and discretion.
- Serve as a trusted advisor on candidate positioning, timing, risk, compensation, and closing strategy for especially sensitive or high-impact hires.
You might thrive in this role if you have:
- Significant experience recruiting for highly technical, senior, executive, or otherwise specialized talent.
- Strong judgment and discretion in handling sensitive candidate conversations and confidential searches.
- A real instinct for talent intelligence: you know how to gather market context, read between the lines, and turn incomplete information into useful action.
- Track record of building relationships with hard-to-reach candidates who are not actively looking or who require a highly personalized process.
- Experience partnering closely with senior leaders and influencing recruiting strategy in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
- Comfort operating outside the standard process when needed, while still bringing structure, follow-through, and sound judgment.
- Deep interest in AI research, technical talent markets, and the broader ecosystem of labs, companies, and people shaping the frontier.
Workplace & Location
This role is based in our San Francisco Research office and we aren’t considering remote applications at this time. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office with optional work from home on Thursdays and Fridays. We also offer relocation assistance to new employees.
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.