Strategic Sourcing Lead, Real Estate and Workplace Services

About the Team

OpenAI's mission is to build safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity. This long-term undertaking combines the expertise of the world’s top scientists, engineers, and business professionals within one forward-thinking organization.

OpenAI Finance is responsible for ensuring the organization is set up for success in pursuit of its mission. Our Procurement team partners closely with internal stakeholders and vendors to develop optimal cost-efficient strategies that enhance operational effectiveness and enable broader organizational goals.

About the Role

As a Strategic Sourcing Lead for Real Estate and Workplace Services, you will elevate OpenAI’s sourcing strategy across Workplace Experience & Operations, Design & Construction, Leasing & Transactions, and Corporate Security. You’ll drive category strategy, lead complex RFPs, and oversee high-impact investments that advance operational excellence and growth.

In this role, you’ll manage strategic vendor relationships, conduct in-depth spend and market analyses, and identify optimization opportunities to deliver measurable cost savings and value. You will navigate high-volume, high-stakes sourcing initiatives by leveraging AI-driven market insights, fostering strong partnerships with stakeholders and suppliers, and executing best-in-class sourcing practices.

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:

• Develop strategic partnerships with business stakeholders (e.g. Workplace Experience & Operations, Design & Construction, Leasing & Transactions, and Corporate Security) to understand and support key initiatives.

• Execute strategic sourcing activities end-to-end (i.e. prepare and issue RFPs, lead negotiations, renew contracts, etc.) to secure favorable business and commercial terms.

• Analyze spend and supplier performance to ensure vendors deliver maximum value from our investments.

• Collaborate with Strategic Finance to align on budget and spending metrics to maximize cost-efficiency.

• Influence strategic sourcing decisions through detailed cost scenario analysis and researching market dynamics through supplier channels, resource groups, and networks.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• 10+ years of strategic sourcing experience, excelling in complex RFPs and contract negotiations.

• Proven success in dynamic, high-growth tech or startup environments.

• A strong ability to leverage AI-driven market insights to inform strategic decisions.

• Extensive category management experience, especially in Real Estate, Workplace, Corporate Security, and Events.

• Exceptional analytical skills to guide strategic decisions and influence business outcomes.

• Excellent project management capabilities, adept at managing multiple high-impact deals concurrently.

• Demonstrated success in developing strong relationships with internal stakeholders and external vendors.

• Proficiency with sourcing and intake management platforms (Zip, Coupa, SAP, iProcurement) and collaborative productivity tools (Google Suite, Slack, Notion, Airtable).

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.