Strategic Delivery Lead, Department of Energy & Science

Details

The OpenAI for Government team brings frontier AI to public institutions to help them achieve their missions. The Energy & Science pod supports the Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. national laboratories, NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the broader federal science community through hands-on delivery, tailored enablement, and collaboration between researchers.

Responsibilities

• Shape and deliver high-impact AI engagements across DOE headquarters and the U.S. national laboratory ecosystem.
• Turn customer priorities into practical deployments and sustained use for scientific research, scientific computing, knowledge discovery, and operational workflows.
• Define scope, milestones, acceptance criteria, dependencies, and success measures; surface risks, resolve blockers, and communicate progress to researchers, lab directors, and DOE leadership.
• Own delivery commitments and customer acceptance while coordinating Research, Product, Engineering, Policy, Security, Enablement, Applied AI Architects, specialist engineers, and customer technical teams.
• Build trusted relationships with DOE leadership, laboratory directors, research leaders, and technical and mission teams.
• Translate research and mission needs into actionable requirements and decisions for engineers, researchers, and senior leaders.
• Connect national laboratory researchers with OpenAI Research, Product, and Engineering teams to assess scientific applications and move feasible opportunities into scoped, supported projects.
• Coordinate architecture, data access, evaluation, integration, and deployment requirements.
• Build sustained adoption through enablement, user feedback, workflow support, and repeatable playbooks.
• Lead executive reviews and workshops in Washington and at customer sites.
• Identify and resolve security, data, infrastructure, contractual, and resourcing risks.
• Prioritize across a small, matrixed team and maintain momentum as customer needs and model capabilities evolve.
• Coordinate with the Account Director, policy colleagues, and partners while keeping delivery commitments aligned with available resources and approved capabilities.

The role is an individual contributor position reporting to the leader of Federal Civilian and State & Local Government. The Account Director owns commercial strategy, contracts, and quota; this role owns delivery coordination, adoption, and customer outcomes without an individual sales quota. Engineering and Product teams remain responsible for the technical implementation and operation of the systems they own.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience leading complex technical programs, customer delivery, or transformation initiatives, including substantial work with DOE, U.S. national laboratories, or comparable federal science institutions.
• Ability to meet customer-specific access requirements. An active DOE Q and/or U.S. Government TS/SCI clearance is preferred for engagements involving national security missions.
• Willingness to travel domestically for customer engagements, workshops, and delivery milestones.
• Understanding of DOE headquarters, the national laboratory ecosystem, and how government sponsors, laboratory management, researchers, and technical teams make decisions and deliver work.
• Experience leading complex AI/ML, enterprise software, API, cloud, scientific computing, or digital transformation engagements through implementation and sustained adoption.
• Executive presence and a record of influencing senior government and laboratory leaders while remaining accountable for follow-through with working teams.
• Ability to translate scientific and mission goals into execution plans, acceptance criteria, and measures such as workflow adoption, researcher productivity, output quality, and time to a validated result.
• Technical fluency in AI use cases, data integration, model evaluation, and deployment trade-offs.
• Interest in frontier AI and willingness to experiment with the technology to understand its capabilities, limitations, and scientific applications.
• Ability to build partnerships across scientists, engineers, security teams, program owners, and executives; thrive in ambiguity; and take initiative in a fast-moving environment.
• Commitment to responsible AI use, including appropriate data protection, human review, provenance, reproducibility, and scientific validation.
• Existing relationships across DOE and the national laboratories, NNSA experience, and familiarity with NASA or NSF are valuable.

Benefits

• Base salary range of $266,000–$370,000 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, company holidays, and office closures.
• 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.

OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.