Program Manager, Critical Harm Operations at OpenAI · LumiJobs

Responsibilities

We are looking for an exceptional Program Manager to help build durable operating systems and run some of OpenAI’s most complex safety operations. The core need is a high-agency operator who can take an ambiguous problem, create the right structure, align cross-functional partners, and drive the work through execution.
This role will move across Critical Harm priorities as needs evolve. You may step into operationalizing national security or violent-activities workflows, support wellbeing and Frontier Risk initiatives, or help scale programs such as Trusted Access. Deep domain expertise is helpful but not required; the strongest candidates will learn quickly, exercise excellent judgment, and make complex programs move.
This Toronto-based role is currently remote and is expected to transition to an in-office arrangement by end of year.
Lead strategic operational builds across priority workflows from problem statement to implemented operating model, including scope, owners, milestones, risks, success measures, and execution cadence.
Translate policy, safety, technical, legal, and operational constraints into workflows, requirements, playbooks, escalation paths, and decision-making structures that teams can execute.
Coordinate with User Ops leadership, Product Policy, Integrity, Safety Systems, i2, Legal, Product, Engineering, Support, vendors, and other partners to resolve dependencies and keep critical work moving.
Move in and out of workflows as priorities shift—standing up new programs, stabilizing operations, improving handoffs, and transitioning durable ownership to the right team.
Use operational data and frontline signals to identify bottlenecks, quality gaps, capacity needs, ownership failures, and the highest-leverage interventions.
Drive high-priority escalations and cross-functional decisions to closure, ensuring the right context, accountable owners, clear next steps, and durable follow-up.
Create the mechanisms that make programs run well: roadmaps, decision logs, status updates, risk registers, operating reviews, and crisp executive communication.
Identify where AI tools, automation, lightweight systems, or simpler workflows can improve speed, consistency, and scale while preserving appropriate human judgment.
You might thrive in this role if you:

Qualification

Experience in cybersecurityDeep expertise with national securityWe are an equal opportunity employerFor additional information

Required

8+ years of experience in program management, strategy and operations, product operations, technical program management, trust and safety, support operations, risk operations, implementation, or related field
Experience in cybersecurity

Preferred

Experience in customer support or other high-stakes scaled operations.
Deep expertise with national security, violence or other severe-harm domains.
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.
Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. 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.
To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.
We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

Program Manager, Critical Harm Operations

Responsibilities

Qualification

Required

Preferred

Company

OpenAI

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