Principal Recruiter, Strategic AI Talent

About the Team OpenAI’s mission is to build safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity. Achieving this requires bringing the world’s most exceptional talent under one roof to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Our Research Recruiting team plays a critical role in this effort. We are an embedded part of the research organization—working side by side with our research staff to deeply understand evolving priorities, build trust, and strategically shape the future of OpenAI’s talent. About the Role We are looking for a highly strategic recruiter to work closely with the Head of Research Recruiting on a small set of unusually important, high-touch searches and candidate relationships. This role will focus on exceptional talent who does not move through a standard recruiting process: highly visible researchers, technical leaders, operators, and other special-interest candidates where timing, discretion, market intelligence, and tailored engagement matter as much as process execution. This is not a conventional req-based recruiting role. You will help identify where the market is moving, develop intelligence on top talent and competitor activity, translate that intelligence into action, and orchestrate bespoke recruiting strategies for candidates who require a more nuanced path into OpenAI. You should be able to translate these signals and states into clear, actionable advice for leaders and then make it happen. In this role, you will: - Partner directly with the Head of Research Recruiting and research leadership team to define priority talent targets and shape bespoke engagement strategies. - Build and maintain deep market intelligence across frontier AI, research, engineering, and adjacent talent ecosystems, including competitor movement, candidate motivations, and relationship context. - Proactively identify, map, and cultivate exceptional high-profile talent before there is a formal or standard hiring process attached. - Translate weak signals and network intelligence into concrete recruiting actions, outreach plans, and leadership recommendations. - Manage highly tailored candidate journeys that may involve confidential outreach, senior stakeholder alignment, custom evaluation paths, and complex closing strategy. - Coordinate with executive search firms, sourcers, recruiting coordinators, and internal networks to move priority searches forward with speed and discretion. - Serve as a trusted advisor on candidate positioning, timing, risk, compensation, and closing strategy for especially sensitive or high-impact hires. You might thrive in this role if you have: - Significant experience recruiting for highly technical, senior, executive, or otherwise specialized talent. - Strong judgment and discretion in handling sensitive candidate conversations and confidential searches. - A real instinct for talent intelligence: you know how to gather market context, read between the lines, and turn incomplete information into useful action. - Track record of building relationships with hard-to-reach candidates who are not actively looking or who require a highly personalized process. - Experience partnering closely with senior leaders and influencing recruiting strategy in ambiguous, fast-moving environments. - Comfort operating outside the standard process when needed, while still bringing structure, follow-through, and sound judgment. - Deep interest in AI research, technical talent markets, and the broader ecosystem of labs, companies, and people shaping the frontier. Workplace & Location This role is based in our San Francisco Research office and we aren’t considering remote applications at this time. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office with optional work from home on Thursdays and Fridays. We also offer relocation assistance to new employees. Our open-plan offices have height-adjustable desks, conference rooms, phone booths, well-stocked kitchens full of snacks and drinks, three in-house