Site Selection & Enablement Leader

Company: OpenAI
Location: San Francisco
Posted on: March 29, 2025

Job Description:

OpenAI, in close collaboration with our capital partners, is embarking on a journey to build the world's most advanced AI infrastructure ecosystem. The Stargate team is central to this mission, setting the core infra strategy and implementing this vision. From site selection to the buildout process, this team sits at the intersection of commercial, technical, strategy, and operations, interacting with teams and executives inside and outside of OpenAI.About the Role:OpenAI is seeking someone who is excited by massive global challenges spanning thousands of stakeholders; someone motivated by driving critical decisions that shape the infrastructure, compute, and suppliers landscapes both for OpenAI and the entire industry. Specifically, the Infrastructure Strategy & Delivery team supporting Stargate is seeking an experienced and ambitious leader to spearhead our Site Selection & Enablement team.This role will focus on upstream site readiness, touching on the commercial, regulatory, and technical requirements necessary to build the world's most advanced supercomputer. With a scope covering a cross-section of land, power, engineering, and community engagements, this role is ideal for experienced professionals in the data center site readiness domain who are looking to step into the driver's seat.From setting and driving critical evaluation metrics, to interacting with state- and municipal stakeholders, to driving executive decisions at Stargate and OpenAI, this role is critical for both the near- and long-term success of OpenAI's infrastructure destiny.In this role you will:

• Evaluate, initiate, negotiate, and manage site proposals from individuals.
• Identify and de-risk critical site readiness features including commercial terms, permitting and regulatory requirements, and workforce readiness.
• Negotiate land and power commercial terms; ability to negotiate with multiple types of stakeholders including private and institutional parties.
• Collaborate with local and governmental agencies, consulting firms, and contractors to ensure engagement, compliance, and project success.
• Work closely with internal teams (commercial, engineering, operations, legal, and finance) to align selection strategies with overall project objectives.
• Build a robust site readiness pipeline to enable OpenAI and Stargate's infrastructure ambitions.
• Regularly communicate site readiness updates, risks, and milestones to executive stakeholders.You might thrive in this role if:
• 10+ years of experience in site selection for data centers.
• Proven track record of managing relationships across a variety of stakeholders, from individual landowners to utilities, to government and regulatory agencies.
• A strong understanding of data center and infrastructure strategy.
• A strong understanding of data center civil, structural, and environmental requirements and permitting.
• An ability to learn and speak to data center technical innovation including updates to power and cooling systems.
• Experience working with diverse external partners, including government agencies, consulting firms, and engineering design firms.
• Familiarity with industry best practices and standards for data center site selection including commercial benchmarks, selection criteria, and process management.
• An ability to work as a multi-faceted member in a dynamic young team, including an ability to collaborate and work directly with land and power specialists.
• An excitement to jump all-in and build Stargate with us.About OpenAIOpenAI 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 do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.For US Based Candidates: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.
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Keywords: OpenAI, San Francisco , Site Selection & Enablement Leader, Other , San Francisco, California