Senior Talent & Succession Program Manager

About the Team

The People Programs & Strategy team at OpenAI plays a pivotal role in creating an environment where every employee can thrive, grow, and contribute to our mission of ensuring that AGI benefits all of humanity. This evolving team designs and delivers people programs that support our rapid growth, unique culture, and innovative spirit.

We focus on making it easier for people to do their best work at OpenAI by shaping how performance, growth, onboarding, and related systems come together — moving toward simpler, more continuous, and more useful experiences in the flow of work.

About the Role

This role owns the Talent & Succession layer of OpenAI’s People Operating System — how we identify, differentiate, and invest in talent as we scale.

You will design and evolve the systems that power talent reviews, succession planning, and critical role decisions, building lightweight, scalable approaches that leaders and HRBPs can use effectively. The goal is to translate talent philosophy into clear, usable mechanisms that drive high-quality, timely decisions without adding unnecessary complexity.

This is a highly cross-functional role working closely with adjacent pillars within People Programs & Strategy (especially Performance & Rewards), as well as Compensation, People Analytics, and HRBPs to ensure talent decisions are connected, actionable, and grounded in strong signals.

This role reports to the Head of People Programs & Strategy and operates as a peer to the Performance & Rewards lead.

Your Responsibilities:

• Own and evolve OpenAI’s talent review approach: Design and operationalize a practical, lightweight talent review model that leaders and HRBPs can use effectively.

• Drive differentiation and talent decision quality: Build clear frameworks and guidance for identifying top, critical, and developing talent, and support consistent, high-quality decision-making.

• Build bench and succession systems: Develop scalable approaches for assessing bench strength, succession readiness, and risk across critical roles.

• Define and maintain critical roles frameworks: Partner with leaders and HRBPs to identify key roles, single points of failure, and succession priorities across the company.

• Translate strategy into usable systems: Turn talent philosophy into concrete mechanisms — templates, pre-work, decision trees, and guidance that reduce ambiguity and improve execution.

• Pilot, learn, and iterate quickly: Run targeted pilots, gather feedback, and continuously refine talent processes to improve speed, clarity, and impact.

• Partner deeply with HRBPs and People leaders: Co-design approaches that balance company-wide consistency with local flexibility, preserving HRBP ownership of application and judgment.

• Integrate closely with Performance & Rewards: Ensure talent decisions connect cleanly to performance signals, while partnering with Compensation and People Analytics to align decisions with rewards and insights.

• Design for scale and simplicity: Build systems that increase rigor and signal quality while minimizing administrative burden for managers, leaders, and HRBPs.

We’re looking for someone with:

• 7+ years of experience in talent management, human resources, or related areas, preferably including experience in a fast-growing, early stage company context.

• Proven experience designing and implementing talent systems — including talent review, differentiation, succession planning, and career progression — with a track record of translating strategy into simple, scalable, and usable solutions.

• Strong understanding of talent management best practices and trends.​

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate across all levels of the organization.​

• Strong attention to detail, with the ability to both get into the details while also zooming out to view the entire ecosystem in context.

• Proficiency with HRIS and talent management systems.​

• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment.​

Workplace & Location

This role is based in our San Francisco office and we are not considering remote applications at this time. We offer relocation support to new employees, and we use a hybrid work model: three days in the office per week with optional work from home on Thursdays and Fridays.

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