CPU/Storage/PoP-WAN Program Manager

About the Team OpenAI’s Infrastructure organization builds the systems that power frontier AI workloads at global scale. As compute demand accelerates, our ability to rapidly convert infrastructure investments into usable production capacity has become mission critical. The CPU / Storage / PoP / WAN team is responsible for the end-to-end infrastructure layers required to bring compute online: server and cluster activation, storage platforms, Points of Presence (PoPs), backbone connectivity, and global network expansion. We operate across first-party facilities, colocation environments, and strategic cloud partners to ensure OpenAI can scale reliably and quickly. About the Role We are seeking a highly technical Program Manager to lead execution across CPU, Storage, PoP, and WAN infrastructure programs that directly unlock OpenAI’s next generation compute capacity. In this role, you will own complex cross-functional programs spanning compute cluster activation, storage deployment, PoP bring-up, and backbone expansion. You will coordinate hardware readiness, site readiness, network pathing, storage availability, vendor execution, and engineering dependencies required to turn contracted infrastructure into live training and inference capacity. This role requires strong technical fluency across hardware systems, network infrastructure, storage architecture, and deployment execution. You should be comfortable operating from rack-level implementation details through executive-level capacity planning discussions. This role is based in San Francisco, CA, with travel as needed. Key Responsibilities - Lead end-to-end execution of CPU / GPU cluster activation programs across OpenAI’s global infrastructure footprint - Drive readiness to convert contracted compute capacity into schedulable production clusters - Own deployment programs for new PoPs, backbone nodes, WAN expansion, and interconnection initiatives - Build integrated schedules spanning procurement, logistics, installation, storage readiness, network turn-up, testing, and production handoff - Coordinate BOM readiness, server delivery, racks, optics, cabling, storage hardware, and vendor milestones - Partner with engineering teams to align compute, storage, and networking dependencies before cluster activation - Manage deployment of storage systems supporting training and inference workloads, including readiness, validation, performance checks, and scaling plans - Coordinate backbone capacity expansion, cross-connects, inter-region pathing, and cloud interconnect readiness with Azure and third-party providers - Lead physical deployment execution including rack-and-stack, hardware bring-up, L1 validation, and site acceptance criteria - Build repeatable deployment playbooks, dashboards, governance cadences, and operating mechanisms for scale - Identify risks early across supply chain, site readiness, technical constraints, and vendor execution, then drive mitigation plans - Communicate milestones, escalations, and capacity forecasts to senior leadership Qualifications - 8+ years of experience in technical program management, infrastructure deployment, network deployment, or data center operations - Strong experience delivering programs involving compute, storage, networking, or large-scale infrastructure systems - Working knowledge of servers, clusters, storage arrays, routers, switches, optics, and structured cabling - Experience owning cross-functional programs across engineering, operations, supply chain, and external vendors - Strong understanding of deployment lifecycles from planning and procurement through production handoff - Ability to reason across physical infrastructure execution and logical systems architecture dependencies - Proven ability to build integrated schedules and drive accountability across multiple stakeholders - Strong executive communication skills with experience managing critical escalations and leadership updates - Comfortable operating in fast-moving e