Program Manager, Strategic Futures

Program Manager, Strategic Futures | OpenAI

Careers

Global Affairs - San Francisco

About the Team

The Strategic Futures team is a small, research- and writing-focused group exploring how advanced AI could reshape public policy, institutions, and society over the long term.

We operate like an internal think tank: developing clear views of desirable long-range outcomes, examining the choices that could make those outcomes more likely, and producing ideas that help OpenAI and the broader public navigate profound technological change.

The team is intentionally lean and highly collaborative. Our work draws from public policy, law, economics, political science, history, institutional design, technology, and other relevant disciplines. We partner closely with experts across OpenAI to connect long-range thinking with evolving AI capabilities, organizational priorities, and real-world policy questions.

About the Role

We are looking for a highly organized and strategic operator to serve as Chief of Staff and Program Manager for the Strategic Futures team.

Working closely with the team’s leader, you will translate broad priorities into coordinated execution, establish the systems and operating rhythms that keep a small team performing at a high level, and ensure important work moves forward with clarity and consistency.

This is a hands‑on role combining chief-of-staff partnership, program management, strategic planning, cross‑functional coordination, and communications. You will make it easier for the team to focus on high‑quality research and writing by ensuring priorities are clear, decisions are documented, dependencies are visible, collaborators are engaged, and follow‑through is reliable.

You will also serve as a central connector between Strategic Futures and teams across OpenAI, helping the group build trusted relationships, navigate organizational complexity, and contribute effectively to broader company priorities. As such, this role is based in San Francisco.

In this role, you will:

• Partner closely with the leader of Strategic Futures to translate the team’s strategic direction into clear priorities, operating plans, and concrete deliverables.
• Own team-wide planning and execution across research projects, publications, cross‑functional collaborations, public-facing work, and special initiatives.
• Convert open-ended goals into structured workplans with clear outcomes, owners, milestones, timelines, dependencies, and decision points.
• Develop and maintain lightweight operating systems, including team roadmaps, project trackers, meeting cadences, decision logs, risk registers, and publication or launch plans.
• Establish operating rhythms that give the team appropriate visibility and accountability without creating unnecessary process.
• Coordinate work across Global Affairs, Legal, Research, product policy, safety, preparedness, Communications, and other relevant teams.
• Build productive relationships with internal partners and help ensure Strategic Futures has a clear and consistent presence across the organization.
• Prepare executive‑ready briefings, strategic updates, presentations, agendas, decision documents, talking points, and other written materials.
• Plan and run effective team and cross‑functional meetings, ensuring participants are prepared, decisions are captured, and action items are completed.
• Anticipate potential bottlenecks, gaps, and competing priorities, and proactively develop solutions that keep work moving.
• Maintain visibility across the team’s portfolio and help the team leader make informed prioritization and resource‑allocation decisions.
• Coordinate internal review and approval processes for research, publications, presentations, and other public-facing work.
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