Technical Program Manager, AI Safety & Safeguards

at OpenAI
USD 257,000-445,000 per year
MIDDLE
✅ Hybrid
✅ Relocation

Tech Stack

AI @ 3 API @ 6 ChatGPT Communication @ 3 Distributed Systems @ 3 Machine Learning @ 6 System Architecture

Details

OpenAI is seeking Technical Program Managers to lead complex product, platform, and safety initiatives across ChatGPT, API, enterprise, and related deployment environments. The role operates at the intersection of technical strategy and execution, translating safety and product priorities into actionable plans and delivering capabilities across model, infrastructure, application, and platform layers.

Responsibilities

  • Partner with product, engineering, research, and design teams to shape technical roadmaps, platform direction, and safeguards priorities across ChatGPT, API, enterprise, and cloud environments.
  • Translate product and safety objectives into execution plans that balance delivery, platform evolution, customer needs, and responsible deployment.
  • Lead cross-functional programs from problem definition and technical design through implementation, launch, iteration, and operational follow-through.
  • Own milestones, dependencies, risk mitigation, decision-making, and accountability across engineering, infrastructure, integrity, trust and safety, legal, policy, operations, and go-to-market teams.
  • Partner with engineers on system architecture, public and internal APIs, cloud deployment patterns, platform integrations, operational failure modes, and technical tradeoffs.
  • Drive the development, integration, or rollout of safeguards including model evaluations, post-training mitigations, classifiers, abuse detection, monitoring, enforcement workflows, human review, and agent-assisted review.
  • Coordinate readiness for sensitive or high-impact deployments, including safety coverage, escalation paths, operational controls, and alignment with external cloud or enterprise partners.
  • Identify emerging misuse and severe-harm risks and define ownership and response mechanisms across prevention, detection, investigation, enforcement, and continuous improvement.
  • Establish metrics for program delivery, deployment readiness, safety effectiveness, operational quality, and user or developer experience.
  • Represent customer and developer needs in technical and leadership decisions while balancing risk reduction, model usefulness, implementation complexity, speed, and scale.
  • Communicate program health, risks, recommendations, and consequential tradeoffs to engineering teams, cross-functional partners, and executives.
  • Improve delivery and safety outcomes through practical operating mechanisms, scalable tooling, and data- or AI-assisted workflows.

Requirements

  • A strong track record of delivering high-impact technical programs across product, platform, API, infrastructure, machine learning, or safety domains.
  • Technical judgment across distributed systems, cloud deployments, public or internal APIs, developer platforms, production machine learning, or scalable product architecture.
  • Ability to engage credibly with engineers on system design, implementation tradeoffs, reliability, deployment constraints, and operational risks.
  • Experience delivering platforms or developer-facing capabilities and understanding how technical decisions affect customer experience, developer experience, and product usefulness.
  • Understanding of safety, integrity, or abuse-prevention systems, including evaluations, model guardrails, classifiers, monitoring, enforcement, investigations, and incident response.
  • Strong program management discipline, including coordinating multiple workstreams, resolving complex dependencies, and turning ambiguity into accountable execution.
  • Product judgment and the ability to balance user and customer needs with model usefulness, safety risk, technical complexity, and business priorities.
  • Clear and empathetic communication with engineering teams, executives, policy and legal partners, and external stakeholders.
  • Comfort owning high-stakes programs requiring executive presence, cross-organizational influence, and sound decisions under uncertainty.
  • Relevant experience with sensitive deployments, major cloud providers, or serious-harm domains such as violent misuse, child safety, cybersecurity, or other emerging threats.
  • A hands-on, curious approach and motivation to help ensure increasingly capable AI systems are deployed responsibly.

Benefits

  • Base salary of $257,000–$445,000 per year, plus equity and performance-related bonuses for eligible employees.
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
  • Pre-tax Flexible Spending Accounts and commuter benefits.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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