Strategic Sourcing Leader, Go-to-Market

Job description

About the Team OpenAI Finance ensures the organization is positioned for long-term success as we pursue our mission. The Strategic Sourcing & Procurement function plays a critical role in enabling OpenAI to deliver impact across research, product development, technology infrastructure, and services by helping the company scale responsibly, securely, and with strong commercial discipline. Our work sits at the intersection of innovation and execution. We partner closely with teams across OpenAI to translate rapidly evolving business needs into scalable, compliant, and economically sound external partnerships. As OpenAI continues to grow at pace, services sourcing is becoming increasingly strategic across the company. Every business unit relies on external service providers in different ways — to extend capacity, access specialized expertise, support operations, and accelerate execution. Done well, Procurement becomes a source of trust and momentum, helping OpenAI move faster with the right partners, stronger commercial outcomes, and the right level of protection. About the Role We are seeking an experienced Strategic Sourcing (GTM) Leader to lead strategic sourcing and commercial enablement for OpenAI’s Go-to-Market organization across B2B and B2C channels. You will manage substantial and rapidly growing spend while shaping sourcing strategies and scalable commercial pathways across Media, Creative, Production, Influencer, Agency, Sponsorships, Analytics, Communications, and Event suppliers in support of high-impact global initiatives. You’ll help evolve our GTM procurement function from reactive deal support into a speed-enabling, scalable commercial engine that delivers cost efficiency, launch readiness, and strong governance in a fast-moving environment. In this role, you will: - Develop and execute sourcing strategies across GTM, Brand, Global Affairs, Events, Growth, and Partnership activities—spanning both B2B and B2C channels—that align with our mission and business objectives. - Lead the strategic sourcing, procurement, and supplier relationship management of key partners across media planning and buying, creative and production, creator/influencer, agencies, communications, sponsorships, partnerships, events, research, and analytics. - Lead and develop a lean, high-performing team of direct reports and contractors while remaining deeply hands-on in complex negotiations and high-volume deal execution; accountable for team output, execution quality, stakeholder experience, and scaling the function effectively. - Negotiate high-value and high-visibility commercial agreements that optimize cost, improve flexibility, and support time-sensitive launches, campaigns, placements, and partnerships. - Partner closely with Marketing , Creative & Production, Growth, Partnerships, Finance, Legal, and other cross-functional stakeholders to understand business priorities and align sourcing strategies accordingly. - Oversee a complex GTM supplier ecosystem, ensuring supplier scalability, rapid onboarding, seamless activation, and timely service delivery across multiple concurrent workstreams. - Identify and implement cost and commercial optimization strategies without compromising quality, speed, business impact, or launch readiness. - Enable major campaigns, brand moments, partnerships, and events by building sourcing approaches that can operate effectively under compressed timelines and evolving business requirements. - Monitor market trends, supplier capabilities, and emerging GTM commercial models to inform sourcing decisions and maintain a competitive advantage. - Provide strategic insights on spend, supplier performance, cycle times, savings, and sourcing initiatives to senior leadership to support fast, informed decision-making. - Ensure compliance with internal policies and external regulations while designing fit-for-purpose procurement pathways that reduce friction and maintain appropriate risk controls. - Build repeatable commercial pathways, templates, and approval mechanisms that reduce cycle time and minimize repeated Legal, Finance, and Procurement review. - Standardize sourcing and contracting approaches for recurring GTM motions such as media activations, production SOWs, creator/influencer engagements, and partnership structures. - Manage a portfolio that includes both large strategic negotiations and high-throughput transaction volume, balancing speed, rigor, and stakeholder experience. - Support executive-priority GTM and brand initiatives that may involve nontraditional suppliers, culturally relevant activations, and bespoke commercial structures. You might thrive in this role if you have: - 12+ years of progressive procurement experience. - 10+ years of experience in strategic sourcing across marketing, advertising, communications, media, creator/influencer, sponsorships, partnerships, production, and events within major consumer or business brands. - 5+ years of people leadership experience. - Deep knowledge of both B2B and B2C GTM channels, supplier landscapes, and the commercial dynamics of paid media, production, creator ecosystems, agencies, and partnerships. - Proven expertise supporting large and fast-growing GTM budgets and enabling high-impact campaigns, partnerships, activations, and events rapidly and effectively. - Experience managing a broad GTM supplier landscape, including identifying, evaluating, and scaling relationships with key suppliers across media, production, creator/influencer, agencies, sponsorships, partnerships, and insights/analytics. - Strong negotiation and cross-functional stakeholder management skills, with a track record of securing high-value, favorable agreements in ambiguous and fast-moving environments. - Excellent analytical abilities to generate strategic insights from spend data, supplier performance, market trends, cycle times, and the effectiveness of GTM investment decisions. - Superior organizational and project management skills, with the ability to manage both strategic negotiations and high-throughput execution across multiple complex priorities. - A proactive approach to problem-solving and a strong instinct for designing scalable processes, templates, and workflows that improve speed and reduce friction in GTM procurement. About OpenAI OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf. Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations. To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form https://form.asana.com/?d=57018692298241&k=5MqR40fZd7jlxVUh5J-UeA. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link https://form.asana.com/?k=bQ7w9h3iexRlicUdWRiwvg&d=57018692298241. OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy https://cdn.openai.com/policies/global-employee-and-contractor-privacy-policy.pdf At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.