Senior Product Policy Lead, Regulation

Details

The Product Policy team develops and implements policies that shape how OpenAI's technology is built and used. The team works across the company to turn complex questions about AI's benefits and risks into practical guidance for responsible research, product development, and deployment.

The role involves mapping external regulatory and legislative trends and synthesizing them into concrete research, product, and policy requirements. It connects expertise in regulation and public policy with an understanding of AI and strong product judgment. The remit includes frontier AI, youth, wellbeing, use in high-stakes domains, deceptive use, and other emerging issues.

The role works closely with Legal and Global Affairs to help Product, Engineering, Research, and Safety teams understand the implications of external developments, identify necessary decisions and evidence, and determine how to act. The position can be based in San Francisco or remotely. OpenAI uses a hybrid work model of three days in the office per week.

Responsibilities

• Map and prioritize regulatory and legislative developments across jurisdictions and AI issue areas.
• Distinguish enacted requirements, proposals, guidance, and emerging expectations, and assess their relevance, uncertainty, timing, and implications for models and products.
• Translate external developments into actionable research questions, evaluation needs, product requirements, and policy recommendations.
• Identify evidence gaps, define intended outcomes and acceptance criteria, and clarify tradeoffs and open questions.
• Advise Product, Engineering, Research, and Safety teams throughout design, launch, and iteration.
• Partner with Legal on legal interpretation and applicability, and with Global Affairs on legislative context and external engagement.
• Develop feasible implementation options and establish clear ownership.
• Maintain traceability from external signals to internal decisions, requirements, and implementation.
• Track material changes, surface dependencies and emerging risks, and use research, product evidence, and expert input to refine recommendations and inform external policy discussions.

Requirements

• Substantial experience in AI or technology regulation, public policy, product policy, or a related field.
• Experience interpreting complex regulatory and legislative developments across jurisdictions and translating them into action.
• In-depth understanding of AI, including model capabilities and limitations, training and deployment, evaluations, and safety mitigations.
• Ability to reason about how requirements differ at the model, product, and deployment levels and identify areas requiring further research.
• Strong record of product advising and close partnership with product managers, engineers, and researchers.
• Ability to turn ambiguous concerns into specifications, implementation options, acceptance criteria, and product-improving decisions.
• Sound judgment under uncertainty, with the ability to prioritize across a broad portfolio and manage work from an emerging external signal through implementation and iteration.
• Clear and precise communication with technical teams, legal and policy experts, and executives.
• Ability to explain regulatory complexity, distinguish evidence from assumptions, and resolve disagreements constructively.
• Breadth across AI policy issues, including frontier risks, youth, wellbeing, high-stakes uses, and deceptive use.
• Ability to build subject-matter depth quickly using experts, research, data, and user insights.

Benefits

• Base salary of $302,000–$335,000 per year, plus equity.
• 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, paid company holidays, office closures, and sick or safe time.
• Mental health and wellness support.
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage.
• Annual learning and development stipend.
• Daily office meals and eligible meal delivery credits.
• Relocation support for eligible employees.
• Additional benefits may include charitable donation matching and wellness stipends.