Senior Program Manager, Consumer Device Safety Operations

About the role

This role is centered on establishing the operational backbone for OpenAI's new category of consumer devices, focusing on safety, risk, and real-world misuse management. You will own the end-to-end operating model that allows the business to scale safely from pilot to broad launch. The position requires a high-agency operator who can structure ambiguity, align cross-functional stakeholders, and drive execution through every stage of product lifecycle. You will translate complex technical, policy, and user needs into practical workflows, decision rights, and durable ownership. The role demands resilience when working with sensitive material and the discretion to handle critical escalations appropriately.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define the strategic operational plan for device safety, translating ambiguous problem statements into clear scope, owners, milestones, risks, success metrics, and cadence.

Design intake and triage processes, including severity criteria, evidence requirements, decision rights, escalation paths, response standards, closure criteria, and post-incident learning loops.

Convert product, engineering, legal, privacy, policy, and support constraints into executable workflows, playbooks, and controls that diverse teams can follow consistently.

Build and own launch-readiness plans, including training, quality controls, monitoring dashboards, early-life response mechanisms, and communication protocols.

Coordinate dependencies across Product, Hardware and Software Engineering, Product Quality, Legal, Privacy, Product Policy, Support, Logistics, vendors, and USRO to keep critical initiatives moving.

Analyze operational data, customer signals, product telemetry, case outcomes, and qualitative evidence to uncover patterns, assess emerging risk, and recommend actions when evidence is incomplete.

Drive critical escalations and cross-functional decisions to closure by providing clear context, assigning accountable owners, documenting decisions, and ensuring follow-through.

Create the mechanisms that enable complex programs to run smoothly, such as roadmaps, decision logs, risk registers, operating reviews, status updates, and executive communication packages.

Identify opportunities where AI tools, automation, lightweight systems, or simpler workflows can improve investigation speed, consistency, and quality without compromising necessary human judgment.

Stand up priority workflows, manage them through launch and stabilization, and transition mature capabilities into durable operational homes across USRO and partner teams.

Requirements

Bring 8+ years of experience in program management, strategy and operations, product operations, technical program management, trust and safety, risk operations, incident operations, support operations, implementation, or a closely related field.

Be technically and analytically fluent enough to understand data flows, telemetry, logs, dashboards, access controls, case systems, automation, and failure modes, even without writing production code.

Demonstrate a track record of taking complex, ambiguous, and unstructured work from initial problem framing through successful launch and scaled operation.

Create clarity across many moving pieces while retaining focus on the few decisions, risks, and dependencies that truly matter.

Exercise sound judgment in high-severity or sensitive situations, making practical, risk-based decisions when information is incomplete.

Build trust and drive alignment across teams without direct authority, maintaining clear ownership, accountability, and escalation paths.

Communicate clearly and directly with technical and non-technical audiences, translating user needs, product goals, and policy constraints into operational reality.

Commit to acting with strong discretion and resilience when handling sensitive, concerning, or privacy-sensitive material.

Nice to have

Direct consumer-hardware experience that provides familiarity with device lifecycle, logistics, and user-support realities.

Experience working with AI systems, tooling, or workflows that influence safety, risk, or user trust outcomes.

Background in environments where incident response, forensic analysis, or evidence handling is part of the daily routine.

Practical notes

Location based in San Francisco with a hybrid work model requiring 3 days per week in the office.

This role may involve exposure to sensitive or concerning material, requiring strong discretion, judgment, and resilience.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is hiring for Senior Program Manager, Consumer Device Safety Operations. The listing location is San Francisco.

This Senior Program Manager, Consumer Device Safety Operations opening is posted for San Francisco.