Applied Risk Standards Specialist

Details

About the Team

OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. The Global Affairs team builds collaborative relationships with public officials and the broader AI policymaking community to inform and support work in these domains and to help shape policy that aligns with OpenAI’s mission.

About the Role

OpenAI is looking for an Applied Risk Standards Specialist to lead standards work for applied risk in applications, including mental health, youth safety, age assurance, functional efficacy, reliability, and privacy-related risks. The role will help turn internal research, safety policies, and evaluation methods into technically sound, measurable, and adaptable standards that build public trust and support responsible deployment.

This role sits within the AI standards and global assurance function in Global Affairs. Working closely with Safety Systems, Research, Product, Model Policy, Legal, and third-party evaluators, the specialist will author proposals, negotiate requirements, and represent OpenAI in priority standards bodies. The role includes drafting and external engagement, allowing technical experts to focus on underlying methods and evidence, while bringing emerging requirements into internal planning.

The specialist will also support the AI Standards and Global Assurance Lead on frontier AI assurance, contributing to risk-management standards, evaluation and benchmarking requirements, and approaches to independent assessment.

The role connects technical practice with external standards. It does not replace the teams responsible for evaluation methods, safety decisions, controls, internal compliance, or implementation. The specialist will own standards drafting, review coordination, negotiation, and assessment-design contributions within an agreed mandate.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of applied AI risk standards for mental health, youth safety, age assurance, efficacy, reliability, and privacy-related risks, with a particular focus on evaluations and assessments.
• Work with technical owners to turn research, internal policies, and evaluation methods into credible test methods, assessment criteria, and standards grounded in real system behavior.
• Bring emerging requirements into internal planning and work with responsible teams to clarify implications for product evaluations, controls, and assurance.
• Work with technical and governance, risk, and compliance partners on assessor competence, independence, conflicts of interest, evidence access, reporting, and the distinction between management-system audits and technical evaluations.
• Contribute drafting, representation, and coordination on frontier risk-management and independent-assessment standards.
• Lead assigned standards-body workstreams, negotiate proposals, and coordinate internal input, reducing the external engagement burden on technical experts.
• Contribute to relevant ISO/IEC, INCITS, NIST consortium, and cross-industry work.
• Maintain clear approvals, negotiating positions, contribution records, and implementation handoffs so that external commitments remain connected to technical owners and available capacity.

Requirements

• Technical depth in evaluation science, AI evaluations and red teaming, AI safety, or trust and safety, combined with the ability to translate that expertise into credible standards or assessment methods.
• Experience authoring or materially shaping standards, evaluation criteria, control frameworks, or normative technical contributions, rather than only coordinating participation.
• Ability to translate broad safety objectives into clear requirements and explain what evidence would demonstrate that they have been met.
• Understanding of the differences among organizational risk-management processes, model and system evaluations, mitigation testing, and broader assurance claims.
• Ability to evaluate sensitive, context-dependent outcomes, including uncertainty and variation across users and use cases, without overstating what a benchmark or assessment can establish.
• Understanding of how assessor competence, independence, incentives, and access affect assessment credibility.
• Ability to build consensus without sacrificing technical rigor, including knowing when to compromise, challenge a proposal, or escalate a decision.
• Ability to earn trust with technical teams while communicating clearly with lawyers, executives, policymakers, and external standards participants.
• Precise writing, discretion, and the ability to independently move a defined workstream from initial proposal through review, negotiation, and handoff.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI pushes the boundaries of AI system capabilities and seeks to safely deploy them through its products.

OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and does 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.

Background checks will be administered in accordance with applicable law. OpenAI is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.

Benefits

• Equity, performance-related bonuses for eligible employees, and base compensation of $171,000–$280,000 per year.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax accounts for health, dependent care, and commuter expenses.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental, medical, and caregiver leave.
• Paid time off, company holidays, office closures, and paid sick or safe time as required by applicable law.
• Mental health and wellness support.
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage.
• Annual learning and development stipend.
• Daily meals in offices and eligible meal delivery credits.
• Relocation support for eligible employees.
• Additional benefits may include charitable donation matching and wellness stipends.