Strategic Sourcing Lead, Professional Services

📋 Description

• • As a Strategic Sourcing Lead for Professional Services at OpenAI, you will be instrumental in shaping the future of how our organization engages with external expertise. This pivotal role sits within the Finance organization, specifically within the Strategic Sourcing & Procurement function, which is dedicated to ensuring OpenAI's long-term success and responsible scaling. Our team operates at the critical intersection of groundbreaking innovation and meticulous execution, partnering across all major departments – including Research, Engineering, Product, Marketing, Legal, Security, and Workforce teams – to translate dynamic business needs into robust, compliant, and economically sound external partnerships.
• • The Professional Services category represents one of OpenAI's most significant and rapidly expanding spend areas. It encompasses a vast and diverse ecosystem of hundreds of vendors providing essential services such as consulting, advisory, specialized engineering, cutting-edge research support, legal counsel, compliance expertise, and a myriad of other bespoke professional engagements. Your primary responsibility will be to bring cohesion, strategic discipline, and forward-thinking category design to this complex and often fragmented supplier landscape.
• • You will be the architect of OpenAI's end-to-end strategy for professional services partnerships, developing and implementing a comprehensive roadmap that addresses supplier segmentation, optimal engagement models, and long-term strategic planning. This includes defining and standardizing the frameworks for how professional services are sourced, contracted, and governed across the entire organization, ensuring a consistent and effective approach.
• • A key aspect of this role involves establishing clear category guardrails. These guardrails will be crucial in striking the right balance between enabling rapid innovation and flexibility, maintaining cost efficiency, and ensuring strict adherence to compliance and governance standards. You will be responsible for developing policies and processes that empower business units while safeguarding the company's interests.
• • You will cultivate and manage strategic relationships with OpenAI's most critical professional services partners. This involves fostering strong, collaborative partnerships that drive mutual value and support OpenAI's ambitious goals. Simultaneously, you will undertake the vital task of rationalizing our supplier base. This will involve identifying opportunities for consolidation, implementing a tiered supplier model, and establishing preferred-partner programs to optimize our engagements and leverage our spend more effectively.
• • Collaboration with the Finance team will be paramount. You will work closely to enhance cost transparency, refine rate structures, maximize volume leverage, and improve forecasting accuracy across the entire professional services category. This data-driven approach will ensure that our spending is both strategic and efficient.
• • Partnering with Legal and Extended Workforce teams is essential to proactively mitigate risks associated with co-employment and regulatory compliance. You will ensure that all professional services engagements are structured and operated in strict accordance with internal policies and external legal and compliance requirements, safeguarding OpenAI from potential liabilities.
• • Introducing and enforcing clearer governance mechanisms for critical aspects of service engagements, including scope control, contract renewals, expansion approvals, and offboarding processes, will be a core responsibility. This will bring greater predictability and control to our external partnerships.
• • You will serve as the primary strategic interface between the Procurement function and senior stakeholders across Research, Engineering, General & Administrative functions, and Operations. Your ability to understand their unique needs and translate them into actionable sourcing strategies will be key to your success.
• • Influencing decision-making at the executive level will be a critical component of this role. You will achieve this through clear, concise, and compelling executive-level communication, leveraging data-driven insights, and presenting well-structured, actionable recommendations that align with OpenAI's strategic objectives.
• • This role is based in our San Francisco, CA office, operating under a hybrid work model requiring 3 days per week in the office. Relocation assistance is available for new employees.