Safety Policy Manager, Global Affairs

About the Team

OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We believe that achieving our goal requires effective engagement with public policy stakeholders and the broader community impacted by AI. Accordingly, our Global Affairs team builds authentic, collaborative relationships with public officials and the broader AI policymaking community to inform and support our shared work in these domains. We ensure that insights from policymakers inform our work and - in collaboration with our colleagues and external stakeholders - support the development of regulation, industry standards, and safe and beneficial development of AI tools.

About the Role

OpenAI is seeking a highly organized and skilled Policy Manager with exceptional writing, analytical, program management, and strategic thinking abilities to join our Global Affairs team, in the Policy Development and Operations team. The Policy Development and Operations team is responsible for identifying, tracking, and analyzing emerging legislative and regulatory proposals globally. They lead and coordinate the development of global public policy positions that are informed by legislative trends and OpenAI’s unique technical expertise, coordinate policy campaigns across regions, and integrate regional perspectives in order to represent Global Affairs in company-wide initiatives such as product launches.

Reporting to the Head of Policy Development and Operations, you will play a central role in developing proactive policy positions by working closely with regional teams to analyze legislative and regulatory proposals and provide issue-area expertise. You will synthesize legislative trends and regional insights, apply cross-functional perspectives, and exercise policy judgement to clearly articulate key decisions, trade-offs, and areas of alignment or disagreement. This role will include a broad range of policy issues with a focus on AI Safety as one central part of your portfolio. You will also work closely with our safety systems, product, and product policy teams to understand OpenAI’s safeguards and translate that understanding into policy relevant insights, analysis, and proactive proposals.

In addition, you will also contribute to the Global Affairs team’s broader thinking about what proactive safety policies to advance and advocate for and how to best position those policies to succeed around the globe.

This is a deeply collaborative role that will leverage OpenAI’s existing strengths across the organization, including both policy and technical functions. You will collaborate with the rest of the Global Affairs regional and functional teams, as well as with representatives from legal, product policy, research, and safety systems. In particular, you will be responsible for working closely with our technical teams to ensure that their perspectives are reflected in our policy agenda and advocacy.

OpenAI releases industry-leading research and tools. You will face new challenges as the impact of cutting edge generative AI technologies continues to be explored and as the needs of the organization evolve. The policy team is a fast-paced environment and flexibility is essential. You will be accountable for setting clear priorities and balancing tensions, including the cadence of this work — quicker than academic research, and more deliberate than the most rapid response policy projects — and the need to balance technical rigor with accessibility for a policy audience.

This role may be based in San Francisco, CA, or Washington, D.C. and may require frequent travel to participate in meetings and events with key stakeholders. We offer relocation assistance to new employees.

You should thrive in this role if you:

• Enjoy diving deep into technical details and then making and communicating connections across technology, policy, and politics.

• Thrive in a fast-paced environment that requires you manage a diverse set of issues and complex stakeholders and to scale new organizations, processes, and functions quickly.

• Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams, especially across technical and policy teams, and are comfortable aligning a diverse range of internal and external partners.

• Manage teams, people, and organizational growth effectively and with kindness.

• Enjoy program management and are extremely organized and comfortable tracking a wide range of details and keeping a range of stakeholders on task.

• Are passionate and about the promise of technology and the future of artificial intelligence and thoughtful about its potential risks.

We're looking for a blend of:

• Experience working at the intersection of technology, policy, and politics and translating complex socio-technical issues to diverse audiences, ideally with a focus on AI safety

• Understanding of AI safety issues spanning frontier risks including cyber, CBRN, and alignment issues, as well as consumer safety issues including AI’s use in high risk domains, algorithmic discrimination, and fraud

• Experience working on technology policy either in government or on a private sector policy or legal team.

• Demonstrated ability to analyze and engage on complex regulatory and legislative proposals, including analyzing draft text, developing positions, and supporting negotiations

• Experience driving external policy initiatives such as thought leadership, white papers, and participation in industry coalitions that advance responsible technology development and policy positions.

• Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills, experience briefing senior officials, and an ability to understand and communicate with both technical and policy specialists.

• Ability to execute in fast and flexible environments through rapid cycles of analysis, decision, and action.

• Sound judgment and outstanding personal integrity.

• Genuine care and knowledge about the impact of technology on society.

Compensation Range: $171K - 280K USD

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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