Program Manager, Procurement Center of Excellence

Details

The Procurement organization enables OpenAI's mission by ensuring every dollar is spent responsibly, compliantly, and efficiently. Within Procurement, the Center of Excellence (COE) team designs and scales the processes, systems, governance, and operating models that enable Procurement to grow effectively alongside the business.

This role partners closely with Procurement and cross-functional teams to simplify how work gets requested, routed, approved, and managed across the spend lifecycle. By combining program leadership, process design, and change enablement, the COE helps Procurement scale while maintaining strong controls and delivering an exceptional experience for employees and business partners.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA and uses a hybrid work model (3 days in the office per week). OpenAI offers relocation assistance to new employees.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-functional procurement transformation programs spanning Strategic Sourcing, Procure-to-Pay (P2P), Extended Workforce, Travel & Expense (T&E), Corporate Card, Risk, and Procurement Systems.
• Develop and maintain the Procurement transformation roadmap: identify opportunities, prioritize initiatives, map dependencies, sequence work, and align investments to strategic objectives.
• Translate business needs into scalable requirements, partnering with Procurement SMEs and Enterprise Platform Technology (EPT) to design processes, workflows, controls, reporting, and user experiences.
• Drive quarterly planning and execution; maintain visibility into milestones, risks, dependencies, resource needs, and delivery timelines across concurrent initiatives.
• Contribute directly to project delivery, including requirements gathering, process design, testing coordination, documentation, rollout planning, training, and change enablement.
• Partner with Procurement verticals to define problems, structure workstreams, develop solutions, and move projects from idea to implementation.
• Lead governance and operating rhythms: project reviews, leadership updates, status reporting, issue escalation, and decision tracking.
• Coordinate cross-functional implementations involving Procurement, Legal, Finance, Security, Privacy, Risk, and Enterprise Platform Technology teams.
• Develop executive-ready communications and reporting, translating complex programs into clear updates, recommendations, risks, and outcomes.
• Define success metrics and measure outcomes using data and insights to evaluate adoption, operational performance, process effectiveness, and business impact.
• Support continuous improvement efforts to streamline processes, improve user experiences, strengthen controls, and scale operations through automation, analytics, and AI.

Requirements

• 7–10+ years of experience in project/program management, business operations, procurement operations or strategic sourcing, process transformation, consulting, or related fields.
• Demonstrated success leading complex cross-functional initiatives with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
• Experience translating business requirements into scalable operational processes, system enhancements, or technology solutions.
• Strong understanding of procurement, purchasing, sourcing, finance, risk, legal, or operational workflows.
• Experience partnering with technology teams to design, implement, and scale business processes and systems.
• Proven ability to drive execution in high-growth, rapidly changing, and ambiguous environments.
• Strong project management, communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience with procurement and enterprise platforms such as Zip, Oracle, OneTrust, Navan, Brex, VNDLY, Salesforce, or similar systems.
• Experience supporting change management, enablement, training, and organizational adoption efforts.
• Enthusiasm for leveraging AI, automation, and technology to improve experiences, increase efficiency, and enable Procurement to scale.

What success looks like

You help Procurement move faster by creating alignment across teams, translating business needs into scalable solutions, and driving critical initiatives from idea to execution. You are effective facilitating executive decision-making, coordinating complex programs, and contributing directly to the work needed to make projects successful.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. The company emphasizes safety, diverse perspectives, and inclusive hiring. Background checks and applicable local fair chance ordinances are noted for US-based candidates. OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
• Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses
• 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
• Flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
• 13+ paid company holidays and additional coordinated office closures
• Mental health and wellness support
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
• Annual learning and development stipend
• Daily meals in offices and meal delivery credits as eligible
• Relocation support for eligible employees
• Additional taxable fringe benefits (charitable donation matching, wellness stipends, etc.)