Economic Development Lead - Stargate

About the Team

OpenAI, in close collaboration with our capital partners, is building the world’s most advanced AI infrastructure ecosystem. The Stargate team sets the strategy and executes across site selection, design, and delivery of self-build data centers. We operate at the intersection of commercial, technical, and government interests, working closely with executives inside and outside OpenAI.

About the Role

The Economic Development Lead will serve as OpenAI’s primary interface with state and local governments, economic development authorities, and community stakeholders. This role is critical for negotiating incentive packages that materially improve project economics, while ensuring compliance and building durable, trust-based community relationships. You will manage the full lifecycle of incentive strategy—from negotiation through compliance and reporting—and will directly oversee community engagement, guiding the Community Affairs function to align public narrative, community benefits, and project delivery.

In addition to incentive negotiations, you will represent OpenAI in rezoning hearings, public forums, and legislative discussions, ensuring that our projects are positioned favorably with decision-makers and community leaders. This is both a commercial and reputational leadership role, blending policy acumen, negotiation skill, and public presence.

Responsibilities

• Negotiate incentive packages (tax abatements, PILOT agreements, workforce grants, utility incentives) with state and local governments.
  Lead compliance, reporting, and auditing to ensure ongoing adherence to incentive agreements.

• Manage and mentor the Community Affairs Lead to ensure proactive engagement with local stakeholders.

• Represent OpenAI at rezoning hearings, community meetings, and other public forums.

• Partner with the Utility Lead to align economic incentives with infrastructure agreements.

• Monitor and analyze policy developments that may affect data center projects; position OpenAI accordingly.

• Develop and scale a playbook for incentive compliance and community engagement across multiple jurisdictions.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in economic development, government relations, or incentive negotiation.

• Proven success negotiating and securing incentive packages for large-scale infrastructure or technology projects.

• Strong understanding of incentive compliance and reporting requirements.

• Experience engaging with community stakeholders and managing public perception.

• Excellent public speaking, negotiation, and relationship-building skills.

• Ability to balance political, reputational, and financial considerations in high-stakes negotiations.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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