Strategic Sourcing Lead, Professional Services – Human Data

OpenAI is an AI research organization building toward artificial general intelligence. The Finance team ensures the company has the operational and commercial infrastructure to scale responsibly and at speed. You'd join the Strategic Sourcing & Procurement group as a sourcing leader focused on the Professional Services category—managing a complex, high-volume portfolio of consulting, advisory, managed services, and Human Data engagements across the organization.

In this role, you'll own the end-to-end Professional Services strategy and execution. That means setting category priorities based on business needs and market conditions, managing multiple concurrent sourcing workstreams, and leading complex negotiations with vendors. You'll design fit-for-purpose commercial structures—master services agreements, statements of work, outcome-based pricing models, and the guardrails that protect OpenAI legally and operationally. You'll build scalable mechanisms that enable speed: intake processes, preferred-partner models, tiering systems, negotiation playbooks, and clear escalation paths. You'll also partner across Finance, Accounting, Legal, People, and business teams to clarify tradeoffs and redirect services models when a better approach exists.

Your day-to-day involves

• Owning the Professional Services category strategy and continuously evolving the roadmap based on operating goals, market insight, and risk
• Balancing high-value strategic negotiations with high-throughput transactional work across a broad portfolio
• Leading contract negotiations and designing commercial terms, pricing structures, and acceptance criteria
• Building and refining category operating mechanisms—intake, segmentation, playbooks, and approval workflows
• Strengthening the supplier ecosystem through competitive sourcing, consolidation, performance reviews, and value realization
• Partnering with Finance and Accounting on spend visibility, forecasting, invoice matching, and accounting alignment
• Working with Legal and People teams to distinguish professional services from contingent labor and reduce compliance risk
• Producing executive reporting on pipeline, savings, cycle time, supplier performance, and forecast accuracy
• Using AI tools to redesign sourcing workflows for speed and consistency

You'll bring

• 8+ years of progressive strategic sourcing, procurement, or category management experience with substantial Professional Services depth
• Proven track record owning Professional Services sourcing end to end, from intake through governance and renewals
• Ability to lead complex, high-stakes services negotiations while balancing cost, speed, quality, and partnership value
• Deep understanding of consulting, advisory, and managed services models, including how they differ from contingent labor
• Experience building or improving category operating mechanisms and knowing when to standardize versus stay flexible
• Comfort operating independently across multiple concurrent deals and influencing senior stakeholders
• Strong judgment and the ability to turn ambiguous priorities into disciplined execution

The role is hybrid based in San Francisco: three days in office per week. OpenAI offers relocation assistance.