Research Program Manager, Alignment

RESEARCH PROGRAM MANAGER, ALIGNMENT ABOUT THE TEAM OpenAI’s Alignment team works to ensure that increasingly capable AI systems reliably follow human intent, avoid catastrophic behavior, and remain controllable, auditable, and safe as capabilities scale. The team is fast-moving: priorities change as evidence, risks, and organizational needs change. We need people who can help execute important alignment and safety priorities that don’t otherwise have an owner. ABOUT THE ROLE We are looking for a Research Program Manager for the Alignment team. You should expect to move between big, ambiguous questions and very concrete execution: writing a crisp project plan, tracking owners, chasing a decision, running a process, organizing a meeting, helping unblock a researcher, or picking up the operational work nobody else has time to do. OpenAI is a continuously evolving place, and this role will evolve with it. Some projects will be highly visible and strategic; others will be small, practical, or unglamorous. The common thread is doing whatever needs to be done in service of alignment/safety at OpenAI. If you want a role where no work is below you but where scope can expand quickly, and where good judgment and follow-through matter as much as title or function, this may be a strong fit. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. 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: - Own 2-4 ambiguous alignment special projects at a time, from problem definition through execution and follow-through. - Turn fuzzy goals into clear plans, milestones, owners, decision points, and operating rhythms. - Drive practical execution across research, engineering, policy, product, legal, communications, recruiting, and external collaborators as needed. - Create and maintain lightweight systems that help alignment work scale, such as project trackers, decision memos, operating processes, review loops, and recurring coordination forums. - Synthesize technical and organizational context into clear written artifacts that help leaders and researchers make decisions quickly. - Map the alignment and AI safety community: understand who is working on what, what people care about, where OpenAI can help, and which collaborations are worth pursuing. - Run internal or external programs when they matter for alignment, including events, fellowships, publishing workflows, community programs, research collaborations, and governance processes. - Do the small work that makes the big work possible: schedule the meeting, write the first draft, clean up the tracker, follow up on the loose end, and make sure the thing actually ships. You might thrive in this role if you: - Have 4+ years of experience in research program management, technical program management, operations, chief-of-staff work, partnerships, recruiting, or related roles in fast-moving environments. - Can take a loosely scoped problem, figure out what matters, decide what needs to happen next, and drive it without waiting for detailed instructions. - Are low-ego and execution-oriented: you are equally willing to shape a strategy, write the memo, run the meeting, and handle the logistics. - Write clearly and concisely, especially when translating messy technical or organizational context into decision-ready documents. - Can build trust with researchers and technical teams while also keeping work moving across operational and cross-functional partners. - Are comfortable with ambiguity, confidentiality, changing priorities, and holding several workstreams in your head at once. - Have familiarity with the AI safety or alignment ecosystem, or can get up to speed quickly enough to know who to talk to and what the community cares about. Strong candidates may also have: - Experience working directly with AI safety, machine learning, or research teams. - Experience building a new program, process, community effort, or function from scratc