Business Lead, Special Situations

About the Team OpenAI’s Business organization works with customers and partners on some of our most complex and consequential opportunities. These efforts require rigorous strategy, strong operating leadership, and coordinated execution across commercial, product, technical, deployment, and go-to-market teams. About the Role We are hiring a Business Lead to serve as the operating leader for a strategically important initiative anchored in a major partnership. This person will turn an ambitious, cross-functional mandate into a clear strategy, operating plan, decision structure, and set of measurable outcomes. This role combines strategy and operations, product judgment, commercial skills, and the ability to get things done. You will identify the most promising product and customer opportunities, develop a point of view on how our products should work together, shape the commercial approach, and personally drive execution across both organizations. This is a hands-on role for someone who wants to own outcomes, not just coordinate work. You will structure ambiguous problems, establish priorities, build trusted relationships with internal and external stakeholders, and work across product, engineering, deployment, and go-to-market teams to remove blockers and deliver results. Success means establishing a durable operating model for the initiative, improving decision velocity, translating strategy into coordinated execution, launching a joint go-to-market motion, landing an initial cohort of customers, and delivering a high-quality enterprise deployment. In this role, you will: - Own the initiative’s integrated strategy and operating plan, including priorities, desired outcomes, metrics, owners, dependencies, and decision points - Structure complex and ambiguous business problems, develop fact-based recommendations, and translate them into clear choices and executable plans - Define success measures and build operating reviews that surface progress, risks, tradeoffs, and required decisions - Personally drive the highest-priority initiatives from problem definition through decision, implementation, and measurable outcome - Translate strategic priorities into well-formed commercial, product, technical, deployment, and go-to-market workstreams - Prepare concise executive decision materials and establish clear governance for strategy, resource, economic, and execution decisions - Identify cross-functional dependencies, resolve blockers, and recommend resource or priority tradeoffs when execution is at risk - Build and run a rigorous internal and external operating cadence that creates accountability, decision velocity, and early visibility into risk - Develop trusted, high-accountability relationships across executive, commercial, product, technical, legal, finance, deployment, and partner teams - Stand up a joint go-to-market motion and drive the first cohort of customers from targeting and value proposition through execution - Develop commercial positions and support negotiations across economics, packaging, delivery commitments, and long-term strategic value - Build an informed perspective on how our products should integrate with, complement, or remain distinct from the partner’s products, and translate that perspective into recommendations for Product, Engineering, and deployment teams You might thrive in this role if you have: - Substantial experience in strategy and operations, business operations, general management, strategic initiatives, or another role centered on solving complex business problems and driving execution - A track record as the accountable operator for consequential outcomes—not only as an advisor, planner, or coordinator - Exceptional structured problem-solving skills, including the ability to move from ambiguous questions to clear analysis, recommendations, and action - Strong analytical and business judgment, with experience defining metrics, evaluating tradeoffs, and using data to improve decisions and performance - Excellent program and operating leadership, with a bias toward simple mechanisms that create clarity, accountability, and execution velocity - Clear, concise executive communication and the ability to produce high-quality written plans, recommendations, and decision materials - Strong product judgment and sufficient technical fluency to understand complex product ecosystems, challenge assumptions, and collaborate credibly with technical counterparts - Commercial judgment and experience contributing to negotiations involving economics, packaging, delivery commitments, or long-term strategic value - Exceptional internal and external relationship leadership, including candid communication, conflict resolution, and expectation management - Experience working across company boundaries with partners or customers; a formal business development or partnerships background is not required - High agency, low ego, sound judgment, and a willingness to do the deta

Substantial experience leading high-stakes business operations, strategic partnerships, product operations, or complex cross-functional programs. A track record as the accountable operator for consequential outcomes, not only as an advisor or coordinator. Excellent program leadership and organizational skills, with a bias toward simple mechanisms that improve decisions and execution. Exceptional internal and external relationship leadership, including candid communication, conflict resolution, and expectation management. Strong product judgment and sufficient technical fluency to become deeply familiar with both product stacks, form a defensible integration thesis, challenge assumptions, and collaborate credibly with technical counterparts. Commercial judgment and negotiation experience across economics, packaging, delivery commitments, and long-term strategic value. High agency, low ego, sound judgment, and a willingness to do the detailed work required to move outcomes forward. Clear, concise executive communication and exceptional follow-through in fast-moving environments with incomplete information.

Own the integrated partnership strategy and operating plan, with clear priorities, outcomes, owners, dependencies, and decision points. Personally drive the highest-priority initiatives from problem definition through decision, implementation, and measurable outcome. Build and run a rigorous internal and external operating cadence that creates decision velocity, accountability, and early visibility into risk. Develop trusted, high-accountability relationships across executive, commercial, product, technical, legal, finance, and deployment stakeholders. Translate partnership priorities into well-formed commercial, product, technical, deployment, and go-to-market workstreams. Stand up a joint go-to-market motion and drive the first cohort of joint customers from targeting and value proposition through execution. Develop an opinionated view, grounded in customer value and technical feasibility, of how our products should integrate with, complement, or remain distinct from the partner's products; translate it with Product, Engineering, and deployment teams into roadmap choices, requirements, and implementation patterns. Prepare executive decisions and escalate only material strategy, economic, contractual, or external commitments that require sponsor approval. Step into the work required to deliver the outcome, including analysis, writing, negotiation preparation, operating reviews, escalation, and follow-through.