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 and curing diseases 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 Accelerating Progress on High-Mortality and High-Burden Diseases.

We are looking for a Program Manager to partner directly with the Head of Life Sciences and Curing Diseases. This is a high-leverage role at the center of one of the Foundation’s most important programs. You will help translate strategy into execution, ensure the program operates effectively as it scales, and act as a force multiplier across people, projects, and priorities.

This is not a traditional program management role. You will operate as an extension of the program lead—owning critical workstreams, driving clarity in ambiguous situations, and helping build the systems and team needed to deploy significant capital into real-world scientific and health impact.

In this role, you will

• Drive execution across the Life Sciences and Curing Diseases portfolio
• Translate high-level strategy into concrete priorities, roadmaps, and operating plans
• Track progress across multiple focus areas, ensuring work is advancing with urgency and clarity
• Identify bottlenecks and intervene directly to unblock critical initiatives
• Act as a force multiplier for the Head of Life Sciences and Curing Diseases
• Partner closely on decision-making, prioritization, and external engagements
• Prepare materials, synthesize inputs, and ensure high-quality outputs across key initiatives
• Step in to represent the program lead in internal and external settings when needed
• Build and run the operating system for the program
• Establish processes for planning, resource allocation, and execution across a rapidly growing portfolio
• Create visibility across workstreams, ensuring leadership has a clear view of what is happening and what matters
• Implement lightweight but effective systems that scale with the program
• Own critical cross-functional initiatives
• Lead special projects that cut across focus areas, including launching new initiatives, standing up new grantmaking efforts, and building partnerships
• Coordinate with finance, legal, communications, operations, and external partners to move complex efforts forward
• Help design and operationalize new focus areas before dedicated leads are in place
• Support hiring and team buildout
• Help identify talent gaps and drive recruiting for key roles across the life sciences portfolio
• Act as a cultural anchor for a high-performance, mission-driven team
• Onboard new team members and ensure they are set up to succeed quickly

You might thrive in this role if you

• Have 5–12+ years of experience in roles like program management, strategy and operations, strategy consulting, program leadership, or early-stage startups
• Are exceptionally strong at turning ambiguous problems into structured plans and executed outcomes
• Have operated in fast-moving, high-stakes environments with significant ownership and limited guidance
• Can context-switch quickly across domains while maintaining depth where needed, including scientific, operational, and strategic questions
• Are comfortable driving both strategy and execution—no task is too high-level or too in-the-weeds
• Have strong judgment and can be trusted with sensitive information and high-impact decisions
• Are an excellent communicator—able to synthesize complex ideas clearly for different audiences
• Have experience working with technical, scientific, or other highly specialized teams
• Are highly agentic—someone who sees what needs to be done and does it without waiting for direction
• Are comfortable operating in an organization that is still being built, where roles and structures evolve quickly
• Care deeply about the Foundation’s mission and the opportunity to accelerate progress in life sciences and human health

Requirements

• 5+ years of relevant experience required; 8–12+ years preferred
• Relevant experience in areas such as program management, strategy and operations, Chief of Staff work, life sciences, biotechnology, global health, translational medicine, public health, philanthropy, or related fields
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex cross-functional workstreams and drive execution in ambiguous environments
• Strong organizational and operational judgment, with the ability to build processes that improve clarity, speed, and effectiveness
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex information clearly and persuasively
• Experience working with senior leaders and supporting high-stakes decision-making
• Ability to engage credibly with scientific, technical, operational, and external stakeholders
• High degree of ownership, discretion, and accountability
• Strong strategic judgment combined with a bias toward execution
• 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 $244,000 to $336,000 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.