Research Program Manager, Data Acquisition

Research Program Manager, Data Acquisition

Research Program Management – San Francisco

About the Team

OpenAI’s Research Data Team exists to accelerate the evaluation, safety and capabilities of our models and products. Made up of technical operators and software engineers, we design the methods in which we acquire and create data.

About the Role

As a Research Program Manager (RPM), Data Acquisition, you will partner with research, engineering, and operations to design and implement pragmatic solutions for acquiring data. You will be a key interface between our research roadmap and external data offerings.

This role is based in our San Francisco HQ and will be part of a team of RPMs pushing the frontier of data acquisition.

Responsibilities

• Partner deeply with research: Work with researchers to scope data needs, define success criteria, and translate priorities into clear execution plans.
• Shape the data acquisition pipeline: Identify, evaluate, and advance high‑impact data opportunities – balancing research value, feasibility, quality, and responsible execution.
• Unblock yourself: Move work forward even when the path is unclear – using technical judgement, creative problem solving, and scrappy execution to make progress while longer‑term solutions are still forming.
• Build lightweight systems and visibility: Use SQL, Python, dashboards, and simple tooling to track performance, quality, and blockers.
• Drive technical roadmaps: Collaborate with engineers to enhance data platforms, resolve blockers, and ensure security best practices such as access management.
• Scale your impact: Equip vendors and internal teams with the context, standards, and operating rhythms needed to focus on the most important problems.

Qualifications

• Proficient in SQL and Python for analysing datasets, querying databases, building dashboards, and generating actionable insights.
• Comfortable using APIs, automation, and AI tools such as Codex to accelerate workflows, remove manual overhead, and upskill quickly in unfamiliar technical areas.
• Experience sourcing, evaluating, or working with startups, founders, and vendors.
• Excited to understand the technicalities of cutting‑edge AI research and work alongside researchers from instantiation to launch.
• Can move fluidly between research context, commercial execution, and data operations.
• Want to get your hands dirty – grit and creative problem solving will be required daily.
• Learn technical concepts exceptionally quickly, seeking out knowledge to become proficient in areas that are new to you.
• Operate with high horsepower, are adept at frequent context switching and working on multiple projects at once with expansive ownership, and ruthlessly prioritise.
• Thrive in dynamic environments and can navigate ambiguity with ease.

Compensation

$239K – $328K + Offers Equity

Equal Opportunity Statement

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.

OpenAI is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via the provided link. Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law. 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.

Further Information

OpenAI’s affirmative action and anti­employment‑discrimination policy can be found in the OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy. Please refer to the policy for additional information about non‑compliance reporting and other legal matters.

Mission Statement

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.