OpenAI· Technical Program Management· San Francisco
Technical Program Manager, Core Network & WAN Infrastructure
Comp$207K – $335K
Classified Tasks (13)
Automate 0%Augment 69%Human-Only 31%
Augment (9)
AI assists, human decides
Drive physical and logical readiness across routers, line cards, optics, cabling, patch panels, cross-connects, provider handoffs, cloud interconnects, BGP sessions, routing policy, and production turn-up.
technical
Maintain clear ownership of timelines, dependencies, risks, blockers, escalation paths, and readiness milestones for active network deployments.
operational
Translate network capacity needs and deployment plans into concrete execution workstreams with owners, dates, test expectations, and acceptance criteria.
operational
Partner closely with network engineers to validate link state, optics health, FEC/BER signals, light levels, interface configuration, routing readiness, and handoff completeness.
technical
Provide vendors and datacenter teams with port maps, rack elevations, LOAs/CLOAs, diagrams, install windows, test plans, access details, and acceptance criteria.
administrative
Build durable operational mechanisms, including PoP readiness checklists, deployment trackers, vendor instruction templates, escalation playbooks, and standard operating procedures.
operational
Identify recurring bottlenecks in PoP deployment and network capacity delivery.
analytical
Drive and implement fixes to make future builds faster, more predictable, and less dependent on tribal knowledge.
leadership
Communicate status, impact, owners, next steps, and requested decisions for escalations to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
communication
Human-Only (4)
Requires human judgment
Own delivery of OpenAI's WAN infrastructure across PoPs, long-haul fiber routes, cloud interconnects, colocation environments, and provider handoffs.
operational
Drive PoP readiness end-to-end, including equipment, cabling, optics, cross-connects, port maps, vendor dependencies, cloud connectivity, test plans, operational runbooks, and escalation paths.
operational
Coordinate with network engineers, datacenter operators, cloud providers, fiber vendors, finance, procurement, and business teams while maintaining ownership of what is live, blocked, at risk, and needed next.
communication
Own end-to-end execution for PoP buildouts, expansions, and network capacity delivery across internal teams, vendors, colocation providers, fiber providers, and cloud providers.
operational
Job description
Technical Program Manager, Core Network & WAN Infrastructure | OpenAI Careers ## Technical Program Manager, Core Network & WAN Infrastructure Technical Program Management - San Francisco Apply now(opens in a new window) **About the Team** The compute infrastructure team runs the GPU fleet and supercomputers that serve the models backing ChatGPT and API while also supporting training workloads for our next generation models. We manage one of the largest cutting edge GPU fleets in the world, exposing it as a singular platform for other OpenAI teams to seamlessly run production Applied AI and Research training workloads. We seek to learn from deployment and distribute the benefits of AI, while ensuring that this powerful tool is used responsibly and safely. Safety is more important to us than unfettered growth. **About the Role** We're hiring a Technical Program Manager to own delivery of OpenAI's WAN infrastructure across PoPs, long-haul fiber routes, cloud interconnects, colocation environments, and provider handoffs. This is a hands-on infrastructure execution role. You will drive PoP readiness end-to-end: equipment, cabling, optics, cross-connects, port maps, vendor dependencies, cloud connectivity, test plans, operational runbooks, and escalation paths. You should be comfortable working with network engineers, datacenter operators, cloud providers, fiber vendors, finance, procurement, and business teams, while maintaining crisp ownership of what is live, blocked, at risk, and needed next. The right person has enough technical depth to reason through physical and logical network readiness, enough program discipline to keep complex builds moving, and enough ownership to improve how we scale instead of only tracking status. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees. **In this role, you will:** * Own end-to-end execution for PoP buildouts, expansions, and network capacity delivery across internal teams, vendors, colocation providers, fiber providers, and cloud providers. * Drive physical and logical readiness across routers, line cards, optics, cabling, patch panels, cross-connects, provider handoffs, cloud interconnects, BGP sessions, routing policy, and production turn-up. * Maintain clear ownership of timelines, dependencies, risks, blockers, escalation paths, and readiness milestones for active network deployments. * Translate network capacity needs and deployment plans into concrete execution workstreams with owners, dates, test expectations, and acceptance criteria. * Partner closely with network engineers to validate link state, optics health, FEC/BER signals, light levels, interface configuration, routing readiness, and handoff completeness. * Ensure vendors and datacenter teams have the instructions they need: port maps, rack elevations, LOAs/CLOAs, diagrams, install windows, test plans, access details, and acceptance criteria. * Build durable operational mechanisms, including PoP readiness checklists, deployment trackers, vendor instruction templates, escalation playbooks, and standard operating procedures. * Identify recurring bottlenecks in PoP deployment and network capacity delivery, then drive fixes that make future builds faster, more predictable, and less dependent on tribal knowledge. * Communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders, including crisp status, impact, owner, next step, and requested decision for escalations. **You might thrive in this role if you have:** * Deep experience driving infrastructure, networking, datacenter, cloud connectivity, telecom, fiber, or technical operations programs. * Strong technical intuition across physical networking, WAN/backbone infrastructure, colocation environments, cloud interconnects, cross-connects, optics, cabling, routing, and operational readiness. * A track record of independent