Senior Manager, Procurement Operations

Compensation

The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The salary range for this position is $216K – $240K, with generous equity, performance-related bonuses, and the following benefits:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts
• Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match
• Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)
• Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
• 13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time
• Mental health and wellness support
• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage
• Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth
• Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
• Relocation support for eligible employees
• Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends

About the Team

The Procurement Operations team supports the operational flow of purchasing across OpenAI, helping teams turn business needs into complete, policy-aligned, and executable procurement activity. As OpenAI scales, we are building procurement operations that can absorb increasing complexity without adding unnecessary friction.

About the Role

We are hiring two Senior Managers, Procurement Operations to manage the operational backbone of how OpenAI turns requests into committed, controlled, and payable spend. One role will focus on Technology categories, and the other will focus on Corporate Services categories.

You will be expected to review requests in the system, make or guide request and PO updates, resolve operational issues, and use that firsthand view to identify what needs to change. You will help improve procurement outcomes across intake, purchase requests, PO quality, supplier coordination, approval workflows, documentation, service delivery, and downstream financial handoffs.

What we’re looking for:

• 7+ years of procurement operations, P2P, sourcing operations, finance operations, supply chain operations, business operations, or related experience in a fast-moving environment.
• High AI fluency, with demonstrated ability to use AI tools to improve how work gets done, reduce manual effort, strengthen analysis, improve documentation, and create scalable operating leverage.
• Experience leading cross-functional operational programs with measurable improvements in service quality, operating effectiveness, cycle time, compliance, or stakeholder experience.
• Advanced procurement operations judgment and the ability to independently resolve complex tasks while knowing when to seek guidance on higher-risk issues.
• Strong understanding of how procurement decisions affect downstream financial outcomes, supplier experience, accounting accuracy, invoice readiness, commitment visibility, and business velocity.
• Strong systems orientation, with experience using procurement, ERP, intake, ticketing, supplier, or workflow tools such as Zip, Oracle, Coupa, SAP, NetSuite, Jira, ServiceNow, or similar platforms.
• High attention to detail and a strong sense of ownership for documentation quality, fiscal controls, audit readiness, and operating discipline.
• Ability to identify patterns in operational issues and translate them into better processes, standards, workflows, and system improvements.
• Practical judgment around AI adoption: knowing where AI can accelerate work, where human review matters, and how to build trust in new ways of working.
• Comfort working across Procurement, Finance, Legal, Security, Accounting, Accounts Payable, Systems, and business stakeholders.
• Clear communication skills and the ability to explain tradeoffs between speed, control, policy, and risk in a practical, enablement-focused way.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity, bring structure to evolving processes, and raise the bar as the business scales.

In this role, you will:

• Lead cross-functional procurement operations programs that support business priorities and functional strategy.
• Own end-to-end execution of complex procurement operations initiatives across intake, request review, request updates, PO creation, PO maintenance, supplier coordination, approvals, documentation, and downstream handoffs.
• Review requests in procurement systems, make or guide request and PO updates, resolve operational issues, and use those patterns to improve how the lifecycle works.
• Design scalable processes, metrics, operating cadences, control checkpoints, and AI-enabled workflows that reduce friction while improving compliance, accountability, and operating effectiveness.
• Identify recurring operational issues, separate symptoms from root causes, and build systems, playbooks, or process improvements that prevent repeat problems.
• Partner with business stakeholders to clarify requirements, resolve blockers, and keep procurement activity moving with the right level of control.
• Balance urgent business needs with policy requirements, approval controls, auditability, financial accuracy, and responsible risk management.
• Improve service delivery and operating leverage in measurable ways, including cycle time, PO quality, exception rates, documentation completeness, invoice readiness, commitment visibility, and close readiness.
• Work closely with Procurement, Finance, Legal, Security, Accounting, AP, and Systems teams to improve handoffs, governance, reporting, and stakeholder experience.
• Build practical documentation, SOPs, playbooks, dashboards, templates, self-service guidance, and intake logic that make procurement easier to navigate.
• Influence stakeholders without formal authority, driving alignment through clear communication, sound judgment, and strong relationships.
• Mentor peers and junior teammates by raising execution quality, sharing context, and modeling thoughtful decision-making in ambiguous situations.