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Physical Engineering Business Lead (Special Situations)

OpenAI· Partnerships
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Hybrid (San Francisco)$333k - $370k + equityFull-timePosted 3w ago

About the role

OpenAI is hiring a Physical Engineering Business Lead to bring firsthand product engineering experience into customer work, combining CAD/simulation expertise with the ability to lead customer discovery and translate use cases into high-impact projects.

Responsibilities

  • Lead discovery and workshops with customer engineering teams and senior leaders to identify high-value design and simulation use cases
  • Develop promising use cases into significant projects with FDE and account teams, forming clear hypotheses about value, feasibility, engineering constraints, and adoption
  • Work alongside FDEs and customer teams through delivery, bringing practical engineering context, surfacing risks early, and helping projects achieve measurable outcomes
  • Explain how AI can improve physical-product engineering, grounded in real experience with CAD, simulation, engineering workflows, and design tradeoffs
  • Build customer confidence through clear technical storytelling, compelling use cases, and credible engineering judgment
  • Maintain a clear operating cadence across priority projects, with explicit owners, risks, decisions, and success measures
  • Turn customer insights into reusable discovery methods, FDE guidance, product feedback, and recommendations for our product, go-to-market, and partnership strategies
  • Build relationships across physical-product engineering teams and the broader design and simulation ecosystem
  • Move fluidly between executive conversations, technical working sessions, analysis, writing, and delivery follow-through

Qualifications

  • Firsthand experience designing or building physical products, including substantial hands-on work with CAD, simulation, or related engineering tools
  • Deep understanding of engineering workflows and tradeoffs, with clear examples of your personal contributions and their impact on products or projects
  • Strong discovery and problem-framing skills, including the ability to connect engineering details to customer needs and business value
  • The ability to work directly with FDEs and customer technical teams, contribute practical engineering judgment, and stay engaged through implementation
  • Strong customer presence and the ability to explain complex technical ideas clearly to senior leaders
  • Technical curiosity and the ability to learn quickly in a fast-moving environment; prior AI experience is not required
  • High agency, low ego, sound judgment, and a willingness to do the detailed work needed to move outcomes forward
  • Clear communication and reliable follow-through across technical, commercial, and executive teams

Skills

Required:CADSimulationCustomer discoveryTechnical storytelling

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 (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)
  • 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, may also be provided
Last updated Oct 15, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About OpenAI

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