Senior Manager, Procurement Operations - Hardware

About the Team OpenAI is building Procurement of the future: one that uses AI-enabled systems, clean data, and scalable processes to help the business absorb increasing complexity, speed, volume, and throughput — while enabling teams across OpenAI to operate more strategically and at greater scale. The Hardware Procurement Operations team supports the operational flow of goods and hardware purchasing across OpenAI's hardware business units. We help teams turn business needs into controlled, accurate, and executable procurement activity, from request intake through purchase orders, supplier coordination, change management, receiving readiness, and downstream invoice support. As OpenAI scales, we are building procurement operations that can support changing hardware needs, new business unit priorities, and increasing operational complexity. That means creating practical standards where they help, preserving flexibility where the business requires it, and continuously improving how requests, suppliers, POs, data, and controls move through our systems. About the Role As a Senior Manager of Procurement Operations focused on Hardware, you will own procurement operations for one or more assigned hardware business units. You will be the day-to-day DRI for hardware and goods procurement activity, leading work from intake through purchase requests, POs, supplier needs, changes, receiving readiness, and operational escalations. This is a hands-on operator-builder role for someone who understands the practical complexity of hardware and goods procurement and can both run the work and redesign how the work gets done. You will keep work moving while improving the operating model through better systems, workflows, automation, AI-enabled processes, controls, metrics, and operating leverage. You will evaluate how people, process, policy, systems, data, fiscal controls, and accounting practices come together, and you will work closely with other Central Procurement and BU Procurement subject area owners as a team to define and drive standardization where it is practical and applicable. We work closely with hardware business teams, Strategic Sourcing, Finance, Legal, Security, Financial Risk Management, Accounting, and Accounts Payable. Our goal is to make it easier for hardware teams to move quickly while ensuring procurement activity is complete, policy-aligned, and reliable for the teams that depend on it. This role requires strong judgment, ownership, and financial fluency. Hardware teams need speed, flexibility, and clear answers; Procurement Operations also needs clean data, fiscal controls, accounting alignment, auditability, commitment visibility, accrual readiness, and reliable downstream handoffs. You will balance those needs in a changing environment, understand how upstream procurement choices affect downstream financial outcomes, and drive measurable improvements in request-to-PO cycle time, PO quality, exception rates, receiving readiness, invoice match performance, commitment visibility, and close readiness. 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 procurement operations outcomes for assigned hardware business unit teams and serve as their primary Procurement Operations DRI. - Redesign workflows, intake paths, routing logic, and operating rhythms so hardware procurement operations can scale without linear headcount growth. - Lead hardware and goods procurement operations from request intake through PO creation, PO maintenance, supplier coordination, receiving readiness, and invoice-readiness handoffs. - Drive alignment with hardware stakeholders to clarify requirements, resolve blockers, and keep procurement activity moving with the right level of control. - Ensure requests and POs are complete, policy-aligned, audit-ready, and supported by clean operational data. - Identify and resolve issues related to supplier setup, supplier requirements, PO structure, receiving, documentation, approvals, and downstream invoice matching. - Balance urgent business needs with procurement controls, approval requirements, exception paths, and auditability. - Work closely with Procurement subject area owners as a team to standardize workflows, intake requirements, operating rhythms, and metrics where practical. - Identify repeatable work patterns, define system and process requirements, and help build scalable workflows, automations, controls, and reporting for assigned hardware business units. - Build operating leverage through practical documentation, SOPs, playbooks, dashboards, templates, self-service guidance, intake logic, and AI-enabled workflow improvements that reduce repeated manual follow-up and recurring exceptions. - Serve as the primary operational escalation point for assigned hardware business units, escalating risks early and driving issues through to clear resolut