About OpenAI Foundation

AI is already changing how people work, learn, and access care. It has the potential to unlock extraordinary benefits—faster medical breakthroughs, accelerated scientific discovery, more personalized services in healthcare and education, new tools for creativity and invention, higher productivity and economic growth, improved public services like transportation systems, and so much more.

But building powerful systems to benefit humanity is only a part of the work of our mission. Advanced AI models will also present new challenges that are already surfacing, and we need to be prepared to identify these challenges and develop solutions to address them. 

These are the two dimensions of what we’re building the Foundation to do. We aim to enable the use of AI to find solutions to humanity’s hardest problems, transform what people are capable of, and deliver real benefits in people’s lives—while working hard with partners to be ready for new challenges, and to help make society resilient, as AI advances.    

This work is just beginning. Over the next year, as we quickly ramp up, the Foundation expects to invest at least $1 billion across life sciences and curing diseases, jobs and economic impact, AI resilience, and community programs. This includes early investments toward our previously announced $25 billion commitment to curing diseases and AI resilience.

About the role

The OpenAI Foundation is building out its life sciences program to help accelerate progress on curing diseases and improving human health. The program’s initial focus areas include AI for Alzheimer’s, Public Data for Health, and High-Burden Diseases.

We are looking for a Program Director, High-Burden Diseases to help build this work from the ground up. We define High-Burden Diseases as those that lead to over 500,000 deaths and/or 25 million DALYs annually and also face market failures that result in underinvestment in R&D. These may include diseases like tuberculosis, newborn mortality, stroke, and Hepatitis B. We invest in the application of AI and data to accelerate and unlock R&D progress to prevent and treat these diseases in a global context. This is a founding role within the Foundation’s Life Sciences and Curing Diseases program. This is a generalist role and you will work across multiple focus areas, helping shape strategy, source and evaluate opportunities, engage with external organizations, and support the deployment of significant resources over time. This role is designed for someone with the flexibility and judgment to operate across a broad range of scientific, strategic, and grantmaking questions.

Over time, you may continue to operate as a cross-cutting generalist across the High-Burden Diseases portfolio, or may grow to focus more on a particular area within the portfolio as it expands.

This role requires someone who is highly flexible, thoughtful, strategic, and action-oriented—comfortable moving between topics and projects, engaging deeply with external experts and organizations, and translating a broad mission into strong recommendations and concrete action.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA (strongly preferred). We currently use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. Some travel to conferences around the U.S. and sometimes other countries is also required.

In this role, you will

• Work closely with the Head of High-Burden Diseases and other team members to support strategy, grantmaking execution, and ongoing management across the portfolio
• Help source, evaluate, and recommend grants and other funding opportunities across multiple domains within the High-Burden Diseases program
• Help research new disease or technology areas and determine where the Foundation should focus and develop investment theses under which we will source and develop grants and funding opportunities
• Engage deeply with the external ecosystem, including researchers, nonprofits, startups, academic centers, funders, and other potential grantee organizations around the world
• Build and maintain relationships with leaders across a wide range of scientific and health-related fields relevant to the Foundation’s work
• Conduct diligence on organizations, projects, and leaders, including assessing scientific merit, execution capability, and potential for real-world impact
• Write clear internal recommendations, briefs, and strategy memos to support decision-making
• Identify gaps in the current ecosystem and develop ideas for how the Foundation can support new efforts, partnerships, or field-building initiatives
• Support the creation of new initiatives from zero-to-one, including helping shape concepts, convene stakeholders, and stand up new efforts where needed
• Over time, potentially take on broader ownership of a growing body of work
• Represent the Foundation in external conversations, helping to build credibility, source opportunities, and strengthen the broader field

You might thrive in this role if you

• Are excited to help build a new program from the ground up
• Are highly flexible and comfortable operating across multiple scientific and technical domains in a fast-moving environment where priorities may evolve over time
• Can take broad, ambiguous problems and turn them into clear recommendations, strong relationships, and concrete action
• Have strong judgment about people, organizations, and scientific opportunities across different areas of life sciences and health
• Are energized by learning quickly, context-switching across topics, and developing an independent view
• Have a global mindset and understanding of lower and middle income country (LMIC) contexts and realities
• Are curious and excited to explore the uses of AI in R&D and health interventions to accelerate and open up new intervention space in disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment
• Can balance strategic thinking with practical execution and detail-oriented follow-through
• Are comfortable making recommendations in areas where there is uncertainty and incomplete information
• Have the maturity and adaptability to work closely with leadership while also operating with substantial autonomy
• Would be excited both to work as a cross-cutting generalist and to potentially grow into ownership of a new focus area over time
• Care deeply about the Foundation’s mission and the opportunity to accelerate progress against major health challenges

Requirements

• 10-15+ years of relevant experience preferred
• Relevant experience in areas such as biology, chemistry, translational medicine, drug development, clinical practice, global health, biotechnology, venture or grant investing in life sciences, or related fields
• Ability to engage credibly across a range of scientific and strategic topics, even when not operating as the deepest domain specialist in each one
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate scientific, technical, or organizational opportunities and make strong recommendations
• Experience engaging credibly with external experts, institutions, and senior stakeholders
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex information clearly and persuasively
• Strong strategic judgment combined with a bias toward execution and ability to move quickly
• Ability to work effectively in a highly ambiguous, evolving environment
• High degree of ownership, discretion, and accountability
• Deep motivation to help accelerate progress in life sciences and contribute to the Foundation’s mission

Compensation

The annual base salary range for this role is $300,000 to $370,000 USD.

This range reflects our good-faith estimate of the base salary we reasonably expect to pay for this position upon hire. Actual base salary will be determined based on job-related factors, including the candidate’s relevant experience, skills, expertise, the scope of the role, and work location, as applicable.

This salary range does not include benefits or any other compensation for which the role may be eligible.

Equal Opportunity

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.