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OpenAI's Industrial Compute organization is building and operating infrastructure to support frontier AI at unprecedented scale. The organization spans data center development, power, design and construction, hardware, supply chain, deployment, facilities operations, and external partnerships.
As the infrastructure footprint grows, OpenAI must embed sustainability, operational reliability, and responsible development into infrastructure decisions from inception rather than treating them as downstream initiatives.
You will develop and execute the sustainability strategy for OpenAI's global infrastructure portfolio. This role translates environmental priorities and external commitments into practical operating requirements across site selection, data center design, construction, equipment procurement, deployment, and ongoing operations. You will build the frameworks, metrics, governance, and cross-functional programs required to improve environmental performance while preserving the speed, reliability, and scalability demanded by OpenAI's infrastructure roadmap.
Key responsibilities include:
- Developing and maintaining a comprehensive sustainability strategy for global compute infrastructure
- Translating sustainability objectives into actionable requirements for site selection, design, construction, procurement, commissioning, and operations
- Establishing decision frameworks that balance environmental impact with infrastructure reliability, deployment speed, cost, and scalability
- Developing strategies addressing operational and embodied carbon, water stewardship, materials, construction impacts, waste, circularity, and equipment lifecycle management
- Partnering with data center engineering and operations teams to identify practical improvements in infrastructure efficiency, resource use, resilience, and operational performance
- Incorporating sustainability considerations into self-build, colocation, cloud, and strategic infrastructure-partner decisions
- Establishing measurable goals, operating metrics, dashboards, and governance mechanisms for infrastructure sustainability programs
- Improving the quality, consistency, and auditability of environmental and operational data across internal teams and external partners
- Working with hardware, manufacturing, and supply chain teams to develop supplier requirements and lifecycle strategies
- Evaluating emerging technologies, design approaches, and operating practices for scaled deployment
- Developing business cases that communicate environmental impact, implementation requirements, cost, schedule, and operational tradeoffs
- Partnering with Public Policy and Government Affairs on infrastructure-related sustainability positions and regulatory developments
- Representing OpenAI in conversations with infrastructure partners, industry organizations, policymakers, and community stakeholders
- Providing executive leadership with clear assessments of progress, material risks, strategic choices, and recommended actions
- Building repeatable playbooks that allow sustainability practices to scale across sites, geographies, infrastructure partners, and technology generations
This is a senior leadership role requiring infrastructure fluency, sustainability expertise, executive judgment, and the ability to drive complex initiatives across organizational boundaries. You will partner closely with infrastructure operations, site development, engineering, construction, power, hardware, supply chain, finance, legal, public policy, government affairs, communications, and external infrastructure partners.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 12+ years of experience in sustainability, infrastructure operations, environmental strategy, data center infrastructure, the built environment, or a related field
- Experience leading sustainability or operational-improvement programs across a large, complex, and geographically distributed organization
- Demonstrated ability to translate high-level environmental objectives into practical engineering, procurement, construction, and operational requirements
- Strong understanding of carbon, water, materials, waste, circularity, and lifecycle considerations within physical infrastructure
- Experience building metrics, governance systems, and executive reporting for complex operational programs
- Ability to evaluate technical, financial, environmental, regulatory, and reputational tradeoffs together
- Strong cross-functional leadership and the ability to influence senior stakeholders without relying on direct authority
- Experience working with external partners, suppliers, regulators, policymakers, or industry organizations
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to make complex subjects clear and decision-ready for executives
- Comfort operating in a fast-moving environment with incomplete information, changing priorities, and significant external scrutiny
PREFERRED:
- Experience with hyperscale data centers, cloud infrastructure, industrial facilities, or another power- and resource-intensive operating environment
- Familiarity with data center design, construction, facilities operations, hardware supply chains, and infrastructure-development lifecycles
- Experience with embodied-carbon reduction, sustainable construction materials, water-positive programs, equipment circularity, or infrastructure-efficiency initiatives
- Knowledge of greenhouse-gas accounting, environmental disclosure frameworks, lifecycle assessment, and sustainability-related data systems
- Experience developing external partnerships or industry initiatives that produced measurable operational outcomes
- Familiarity with energy procurement and utility policy sufficient to partner effectively with dedicated power and energy teams
- Experience building or leading multidisciplinary sustainability and infrastructure programs through periods of rapid organizational growth
