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OpenAI · 3 months ago

Strategic Sourcing & Partnerships - Software Tools & Licenses

San Francisco

Full-time

Onsite

Senior Level, Lead/Staff

$230K/yr - $355K/yr

8+ years exp

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. They are seeking an experienced EDA/IP Licensing Strategy & ASIC Partner Manager to lead strategy, sourcing, and vendor partnerships across OpenAI’s chip, system, and emulation ecosystem, driving supplier selection, contract negotiations, and ongoing vendor management for critical hardware programs.

Agentic AIArtificial Intelligence (AI)Foundational AIGenerative AIMachine LearningNatural Language ProcessingSaaS

Growth Opportunities

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end supplier and licensing strategy for EDA, IP, and large rack systems supporting OpenAI’s ASIC and infrastructure programs. Act as the single intake point for all license requests and partner engagements, maintaining inventory, rights management, and reuse policies across OpenAI

Own supplier selection, evaluation, pricing, contracting, renewals, and performance management across current and future partners. Rationalize licensing across organizations to maximize efficiency and eliminate duplicate spend, influencing engineering to support strategic consolidation efforts

Drive commercial structures and contracts for IP blocks, design services, verification, foundry/OSAT engagements, and NPI ramp support—ensuring shortened contract cycles and timely resource and capacity commitments

Lead emulator negotiations, capacity planning, and usage agreements; develop escalation paths to meet critical engineering needs

Build durable executive relationships with vendors, run QBRs, negotiate early-access programs, and align on joint roadmaps to provide visibility into OpenAI’s evolving supplier needs. Translate engineering requirements into sourcing specifications, terms, and license structures; manage vendor escalations and hold suppliers accountable for commitments

Partner closely with engineering, legal, and finance to balance trade-offs, serve as the single point of contact for Research/Scaling and other orgs, and ensure engagements are strategic rather than transactional to maximize OpenAI’s long-term leverage

Provide clear dashboards and reporting on spend, utilization, capacity, and risk

Potential expansion to include ASICs, custom silicon

Structure commercials and contracts for IP blocks, design services, verification, foundry/OSAT engagements, and NPI ramp support

Ensure contract cycles shorten and resources/capacity are secured on time to support development and ramp schedules

Qualification

EDA/IP licensingStrategic sourcingCommercial negotiationVendor managementASIC partnershipsExecutive presenceTechnical translationOrganizational skills