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Manager, Applied AI Engineering (Digital Natives)

OpenAI· Go To Market
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Hybrid (San Francisco), Hybrid (New York City), Hybrid (Seattle), Hybrid (Mountain View)$302k - $335k + equityFull-timePosted 11mo ago

About the role

Manager, Applied AI Engineering leading a team delivering AI applications for Digital Natives customers across the Americas, partnering with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Research to drive production-ready AI solutions and scalable patterns.

Responsibilities

  • Own the strategy and operating model for the Digital Natives Applied AI Engineering team, ensuring alignment with OpenAI’s objectives and the evolving needs of technology and software customers.
  • Lead, hire, mentor, and develop a team of high-performing Applied AI Engineers responsible for delivering meaningful technical and customer outcomes.
  • Guide the team in working hands-on with customers to identify high-impact use cases, design and build AI applications, solve technical challenges, and scale successful solutions into production.
  • Partner closely with Sales to prioritize technical engagement across strategic customers and identify where Applied AI Engineering can unlock adoption, usage, and long-term customer growth.
  • Serve as a senior technical partner and escalation point for priority customers, building trusted relationships with engineering leaders, CTOs, and other executive stakeholders.
  • Represent the technical voice of Digital Native customers by synthesizing insights around model performance, developer experience, product gaps, emerging use cases, and technical blockers for Product, Engineering, and Research.
  • Translate recurring customer needs and successful implementations into repeatable technical patterns, reference architectures, playbooks, tooling, and best practices that allow the team to scale its impact.
  • Coach Applied AI Engineers on technical quality, customer judgment, prioritization, executive communication, and cross-functional partnership.
  • Help customers understand and apply OpenAI’s newest capabilities, identifying opportunities to build differentiated products and experiences with frontier models.
  • Champion the safe, reliable, and effective application of OpenAI’s technology across the Digital Natives ecosystem.

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of experience in deeply technical, customer-facing roles such as applied engineering, solutions architecture, deployment engineering, technical consulting, or similar roles.
  • 2+ years of experience leading technical teams, with a demonstrated ability to hire, develop, mentor, and manage high-performing engineers.
  • Experience building or deploying generative AI, machine learning, developer platforms, or cloud-based software solutions in production environments.
  • Strong technical depth across APIs, AI/ML systems, application architecture, cloud infrastructure, and modern developer workflows.
  • Hands-on software engineering experience and fluency with programming languages such as Python or JavaScript.
  • Comfortable working directly with highly technical engineering and product teams as well as CTOs and other executive stakeholders.
  • Ability to translate ambiguous customer and business problems into clear technical approaches and guide teams from exploration through implementation and production.
  • Strong judgment about when to invest deeply in an individual customer challenge versus when to develop a repeatable solution for the broader segment.
  • Effective communication skills to translate complex technical and business topics across audiences and coach others to do the same.
  • Thrives in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and is energized by working with customers at the forefront of AI adoption.
  • Demonstrates strong ownership, humility, curiosity, and a commitment to helping both customers and teammates succeed.
  • Personally committed to fostering the safe and beneficial development of AI.

Skills

Required:Technical leadershipGenerative AI / AI applicationsAPIs and AI/ML systemsPython or JavaScript

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 and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees
  • 13+ paid company holidays, and additional paid office closures 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
  • Daily meals in offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible
  • Relocation assistance for eligible employees
  • Additional taxable fringe benefits such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends
Last updated Sep 24, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

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