Head of U.S. State Policy and Partnerships

About the Team

OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. Achieving this goal requires more than cutting-edge research—it demands deep, ongoing engagement with the policymakers, communities, and institutions shaping the future of AI.

The Global Affairs team leads this engagement. We cultivate authentic, collaborative relationships with public officials, regulators, community stakeholders, and the broader AI policymaking community to ensure that diverse perspectives inform our work. By bringing external insights into OpenAI and sharing our own learnings transparently, we help advance thoughtful regulation, responsible industry standards, and governance frameworks that promote the safe and beneficial development of AI technologies.

In close partnership with our research, product, and policy colleagues, the U.S. Policy and Partnerships team leads our Global Affairs engagement in the U.S. at the federal, state, and local levels, working across regions to anticipate emerging issues, craft forward-looking strategies, and champion policies that align technological progress with human values. Our mission is to help shape the global conversation on AI and ensure that the benefits of this transformative technology reach people everywhere.

About the Role

OpenAI is seeking a visionary, strategic, and highly accomplished leader to serve as our Head of U.S. State Policy and Partnerships. In this role, you will lead a team of public policy professionals to drive OpenAI’s policy engagements across the various states, territories, and municipalities in the United States. You will shape state and local campaigns, partnerships, and high-level government engagement to advance OpenAI’s mission while navigating complex regulatory environments. Reporting to the Head of US and Canada Policy and Partnerships, you will lead a team of seasoned advocates who are engaging with all levels of state and local government and shaping AI policy debates and outcomes.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA or Washington, DC. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

- Strategy & leadership: Set and execute the State and Local strategy, ensuring alignment with OpenAI’s priorities and leveraging all available campaign tools to drive good policy – while serving as part of senior leadership of U.S. and Canada Policy and Partnerships team.

- Team management: Lead and develop a high-performing team of senior policy professionals across multiple states, fostering inclusivity, growth, and integrity.

- Policy & political engagement: Cultivate direct relationships with governors, state legislators, mayors, and local leaders; anticipate and shape legislative, regulatory, and political trends; advise executives on political risk and policy positioning.

- Partnerships & campaigns: Design and execute state and regional campaigns and partnerships with governments, universities, industry, and third party groups; support key campaigns like Stargate/infrastructure.

- Cross-functional collaboration: Work closely with research, engineering, product, legal, communications, finance, and industrial compute teams to align policy strategies with technical roadmaps and business objectives.

- Representation: Represent OpenAI external events such as conferences, summits, and government meetings.

You’ll thrive in this role if you:

- Are a seasoned leader at the intersection of technology and public policy, comfortable working in dynamic, fast-paced, and rapidly evolving environments.

- Inspire and develop diverse teams, empowering colleagues to excel while maintaining accountability and high ethical standards.

- Are willing to roll up your sleeves – with humility and good nature – and do the work with teammates in a high-energy, start-up, campaign environment.

- Enjoy building coalitions and thrive both independently and as part of a high-performing, peer-led team.

- Are a strong communicator and public advocate who can translate complex technical and policy concepts into compelling narratives for diverse audiences.

- Embrace cross-functional collaboration and can unify technical, legal, commercial, and operational stakeholders around a shared mission.

We’re looking for a blend of:

- 15+ years of experience in state government, technology policy, or a related field, including senior leadership roles.

- Established credibility and relationships with state and local leaders, including governors, mayors, and state legislators.

- Proven ability to lead high-stakes policy campaigns, shape legislation or regulation, and build partnerships across multiple states.

- Demonstrated success managing and developing high performing teams.

- Deep knowledge of state political and regulatory ecosystems, with a strong grasp of AI-related issues such as safety, privacy, competition, and infrastructure.

- Exceptional judgment, integrity, and political instincts with a proven ability to build consensus across diverse stakeholders, advance bold ideas, and deliver results in fast-moving, dynamic environments.

- Outstanding communication, negotiation, and interpersonal skills with a track record of influencing senior stakeholders.

- Experience working across functions (e.g., legal, research, communications, commercial) to develop coordinated strategies and deliver results.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.