Strategic Sourcing & Partnerships - Software Tools & Licenses

About the Team

OpenAI’s Hardware organization develops silicon and system-level solutions designed for the unique demands of advanced AI workloads. The team is responsible for building the next generation of AI-native silicon while working closely with software and research partners to co-design hardware tightly integrated with AI models. In addition to delivering production-grade silicon for OpenAI’s supercomputing infrastructure, the team also creates custom design tools and methodologies that accelerate innovation and enable hardware optimized specifically for AI.

About the Role
We are seeking an experienced ASIC Strategic Sourcing and EDA/IP Licensing Strategy Partner Manager to lead strategy, sourcing, and vendor partnerships across OpenAI’s chip, system, and emulation ecosystem. This is a highly cross-functional role, driving supplier selection, contract negotiations, and ongoing vendor management for the tools, IP, and systems that underpin OpenAI’s most ambitious hardware programs.

As OpenAI scales silicon, system design, and cross-org research needs, you will be the single-threaded owner for EDA/IP, emulation, and chip supplier engagements. Your work will directly accelerate program execution velocity, secure mission-critical capacity, and strengthen executive-level vendor relationships. You will have an opportunity to drive vendor optimization by providing clarity on needs, reducing duplicate licenses and unnecessary costs, accelerate contract execution to secure critical capacity on time, and build trusted partnerships with key suppliers. You will also help establish clear governance and scalable engagement frameworks that provide visibility into spend, utilization, and risk as OpenAI continues to grow.

Responsibilities

• Drive commercial structures and contracts ASICs including IP blocks, design services, verification, foundry/OSAT engagements, and NPI ramp support—ensuring shortened contract cycles and timely resource and capacity commitments.

• Lead end-to-end supplier and licensing strategy for EDA, IP, and large rack systems supporting OpenAI’s ASIC and infrastructure programs. Rationalize licensing across organizations to maximize efficiency and eliminate duplicate spend, influencing engineering to support strategic consolidation efforts.

• Own supplier/partner selection, evaluation, pricing, contracting, renewals, and performance management across current and future partners.

• Lead emulator negotiations, capacity planning, and usage agreements; develop escalation paths to meet critical engineering needs.

• Build durable executive relationships with suppliers/partners, run QBRs/TRMs, negotiate early-access programs, and align on joint roadmaps to provide visibility into OpenAI’s evolving supplier needs. Translate engineering requirements into sourcing specifications, terms, and license structures; manage vendor escalations and hold suppliers accountable for commitments.

• Partner closely with engineering, legal, and finance to balance trade-offs, serve as the single point of contact for Research/Scaling and other orgs, and ensure engagements are strategic rather than transactional to maximize OpenAI’s long-term leverage.

• Provide clear dashboards and reporting on spend, utilization, capacity, and risk.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in EDA/IP licensing/strategic sourcing, and supplier base strategy roles.

• Experience in ASIC partnerships/strategic sourcing and deep familiarity with vendors in supply chains and ecosystems

• Deep familiarity with vendors in EDA, IP, design services, and emulation.

• Strong commercial negotiation skills with a proven track record of securing favorable terms and managing complex contracts.

• Ability to partner with engineering leaders to translate technical needs into commercial outcomes.

• Executive maturity and presence to represent OpenAI with top vendor leadership.

• Excellent organizational and prioritization skills—able to manage ongoing needs while supporting rapid escalations.

To comply with U.S. export control laws and regulations, candidates for this role may need to meet certain legal status requirements as provided in those laws and regulations.

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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