Head of Competitive Intelligence

About the Role

The Head of Competitive Intelligence will own the design and execution of a best in class competitive intelligence function that converts raw market signals into clear strategic advantage for OpenAI. This is a highly cross functional role that operates at the intersection of Product, GTM, Research, and Leadership, requiring equal parts strategist and operator. You will define the systems, cadence, and analytical standards that keep the company informed about where we win, where we are exposed, and how the market is evolving. The role demands comfort with ambiguity and the ability to turn unstructured information into repeatable insight. You will not be conducting isolated research in isolation; you will own the framework that makes every team smarter. Success will be measured by how strongly your insights influence product strategy, roadmap choices, and executive decisions. You will build the playbook for how the company understands competition at scale.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Build and own the company wide competitive intelligence strategy and operating model, defining scope, standards, and governance.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive competitive assessments, including Harvey Ball analyses, feature matrices, product comparisons, pricing analyses, and market landscape reviews.
• Create executive ready competitive insights that directly influence product strategy, roadmap prioritization, pricing, and investment decisions.
• Build best in class objection handling and competitive messaging for Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Partnerships teams.
• Monitor competitor product launches, model releases, acquisitions, partnerships, pricing changes, funding, and GTM motions, then synthesize complex information into clear strategic recommendations.
• Establish repeatable processes and tooling for collecting, validating, and distributing competitive intelligence across the organization.
• Partner closely with Product Management to inform roadmap decisions and identify sustainable areas of strategic differentiation.
• Collaborate with Marketing to sharpen positioning and messaging based on evolving competitive dynamics.
• Support executive leadership with board ready competitive analyses and market briefings that frame risk and opportunity.
• Build dashboards and reporting that track competitive movements and emerging industry trends in a visually intuitive format.
• Develop frameworks that evaluate competitors across capabilities, enterprise readiness, developer experience, ecosystem, security, and customer value, not merely feature parity.

Requirements

• Bring 15 plus years of experience in competitive intelligence, strategy consulting, product strategy, corporate strategy, or a closely related analytical role.
• Have direct experience building a competitive intelligence function from the ground up, including defining processes and hiring early team members.
• Demonstrate exceptional analytical and structured thinking skills, with a proven ability to distill complex markets into clear frameworks and narratives.
• Show a strong understanding of enterprise software, AI platforms, SaaS, or cloud technologies, including business model nuances and customer dynamics.
• Have a track record of producing executive facing strategic analyses and recommendations that influenced high impact decisions.
• Exhibit outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders without direct authority.
• Master the synthesis of quantitative data, qualitative research, customer feedback, and market intelligence into actionable insights.
• Have substantial experience partnering across Product, Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Executive teams in fast growth technology companies.
• Operate comfortably in a fast moving, ambiguous environment where competitive landscapes evolve rapidly and inputs are incomplete.

Nice to have

• Experience in AI, machine learning, foundation models, or developer platforms, and an understanding of model evaluation approaches.
• Familiarity with benchmarking methodologies, win loss programs, and competitive positioning frameworks used in enterprise settings.
• Experience supporting enterprise sales organizations with battlecards, competitive playbooks, and competitive enablement materials.
• A background in management consulting or strategic planning, with exposure to structured hypothesis driven problem solving.

Practical notes

This role is full time based in San Francisco. The position requires travel to meet with product teams, sales customers, and partners as needed to gather primary market intelligence. The successful candidate must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship for this role.