Program Manager, Alignment | OpenAI Careers ## Program Manager, Alignment Research Program Management - San Francisco Apply now(opens in a new window) # **Research Program Manager, Alignment** ## **About the Team** OpenAI’s Alignment team works to ensure that increasingly capable AI systems reliably follow human intent, avoid catastrophic behavior, and remain controllable, auditable, and safe as capabilities scale. The team is fast-moving: priorities change as evidence, risks, and organizational needs change. We need people who can help execute important alignment and safety priorities that don’t otherwise have an owner. ## **About the Role** We are looking for a Research Program Manager for the Alignment team. You should expect to move between big, ambiguous questions and very concrete execution: writing a crisp project plan, tracking owners, chasing a decision, running a process, organizing a meeting, helping unblock a researcher, or picking up the operational work nobody else has time to do. OpenAI is a continuously evolving place, and this role will evolve with it. Some projects will be highly visible and strategic; others will be small, practical, or unglamorous. The common thread is doing whatever needs to be done in service of alignment/safety at OpenAI. If you want a role where no work is below you but where scope can expand quickly, and where good judgment and follow-through matter as much as title or function, this may be a strong fit. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. **In this role, you will:** * Own 2-4 ambiguous alignment special projects at a time, from problem definition through execution and follow-through. * Turn fuzzy goals into clear plans, milestones, owners, decision points, and operating rhythms. * Drive practical execution across research, engineering, policy, product, legal, communications, recruiting, and external collaborators as needed. * Create and maintain lightweight systems that help alignment work scale, such as project trackers, decision memos, operating processes, review loops, and recurring coordination forums. * Synthesize technical and organizational context into clear written artifacts that help leaders and researchers make decisions quickly. * Map the alignment and AI safety community: understand who is working on what, what people care about, where OpenAI can help, and which collaborations are worth pursuing. * Run internal or external programs when they matter for alignment, including events, fellowships, publishing workflows, community programs, research collaborations, and governance processes. * Do the small work that makes the big work possible: schedule the meeting, write the first draft, clean up the tracker, follow up on the loose end, and make sure the thing actually ships. **You might thrive in this role if you:** * Have 4+ years of experience in research program management, technical program management, operations, chief-of-staff work, partnerships, recruiting, or related roles in fast-moving environments. * Can take a loosely scoped problem, figure out what matters, decide what needs to happen next, and drive it without waiting for detailed instructions. * Are low-ego and execution-oriented: you are equally willing to shape a strategy, write the memo, run the meeting, and handle the logistics. * Write clearly and concisely, especially when translating messy technical or organizational context into decision-ready documents. * Can build trust with researchers and technical teams while also keeping work moving across operational and cross-functional partners. * Are comfortable with ambiguity, confidentiality, changing priorities, and holding several workstreams in your head at once. * Have familiarity with the AI safety or alignment ecosystem, or can get up to speed quickly enough to know who to talk to an

Program Manager, Alignment

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