Program Manager, Alignment
RESEARCH PROGRAM MANAGER, ALIGNMENT
ABOUT THE TEAM
OpenAI’s Alignment team works to ensure that increasingly capable AI systems reliably follow human intent, avoid catastrophic behavior, and remain controllable, auditable, and safe as capabilities scale. The team is fast-moving: priorities change as evidence, risks, and organizational needs change. We need people who can help execute important alignment and safety priorities that don’t otherwise have an owner.
ABOUT THE ROLE
We are looking for a Research Program Manager for the Alignment team. You should expect to move between big, ambiguous questions and very concrete execution: writing a crisp project plan, tracking owners, chasing a decision, running a process, organizing a meeting, helping unblock a researcher, or picking up the operational work nobody else has time to do.
OpenAI is a continuously evolving place, and this role will evolve with it. Some projects will be highly visible and strategic; others will be small, practical, or unglamorous. The common thread is doing whatever needs to be done in service of alignment/safety at OpenAI. If you want a role where no work is below you but where scope can expand quickly, and where good judgment and follow-through matter as much as title or function, this may be a strong fit.
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:
- Own 2-4 ambiguous alignment special projects at a time, from problem definition through execution and follow-through.
- Turn fuzzy goals into clear plans, milestones, owners, decision points, and operating rhythms.
- Drive practical execution across research, engineering, policy, product, legal, communications, recruiting, and external collaborators as needed.
- Create and maintain lightweight systems that help alignment work scale, such as project trackers, decision memos, operating processes, revi...