Strategic Delivery Lead

About the Team

OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team turns research breakthroughs into production-grade systems. We embed deeply with customers to solve high-leverage problems and act as the delivery engine for our most complex large-scale engagements. We move quickly from prototype to production and surface reusable patterns that shape our platform. We operate at the intersection of deployment and development – working closely with OpenAI Research, Product and Partnerships.

About the Role

As a Strategic Delivery Lead (SDL), you will define how OpenAI orchestrates complex, multi‑workstream customer programs end‑to‑end. Expect urgency to be high and ambiguity to be the default. You will own the plan, governance, and value realization - translating executive‑level business outcomes into a delivery roadmap, running day‑to‑day execution across FDEs, Researchers, Product, Partnerships, and customer teams, and ensuring adoption lands in production. You will map problems, structure delivery, and keep teams moving—holding the bar on both quality and pace.

You will be accountable for the success of the overall program - sequencing work, aligning stakeholders, managing risk/change control, and making the trade‑offs that protect the critical path. You’ll engage pre‑close to shape scope, milestones, resourcing, and acceptance criteria, then lead post‑close execution to measurable value. You’ll also ensure field insights are captured and fed back to Product and Research so patterns harden into platform capabilities.

You’ll coordinate and leverage a cross‑functional bench that includes FDEs, Technical Deployment Leads (TDLs), Researchers, and Partnerships - effectively influencing without formal authority.

Success will be measured first and foremost by impact - time‑to‑first value, production adoption against clear acceptance criteria, and executive‑level outcomes realized.

This is a high‑trust, high‑autonomy role. Success requires deep transformation program leadership, executive presence, and an ability to bring structure to ambiguity while keeping pace high.

This role is based in San Francisco. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week. We offer relocation assistance. This role requires 25-50% travel.

In this role, you will:

- Own strategic delivery for complex, multi‑track programs. Act as the single accountable DRI overseeing program success. Translate business objectives into a roadmap with milestones, dependencies, acceptance criteria, and value KPIs.

- Run day‑to‑day program execution. Sequence and unblock work across FDE, Research, Product, Partnerships, and customer teams. Operate robust program management processes.

- Protect the critical path. Identify delivery risks early and work cross-functionally to mitigate blockers and maintain program velocity.

- Own executive communication and alignment. Set the narrative, run SteerCos and decision-ready readouts, surface risks early, and have the hard conversat