Applied AI Architect, Government

About the Role

OpenAI is hiring an Applied AI Architect to serve as the senior technical owner for a portfolio of public sector customers, guiding AI strategy from pre-sales discovery through production adoption. The role focuses on designing secure, scalable applied AI architectures using OpenAI products and coordinating cross-functional teams to deliver measurable mission impact.

Job Description

Role

As an Applied AI Architect (Government) you will be the senior technical owner for a named portfolio of public sector customers, shaping AI strategy and guiding customers from pre-sales discovery and technical evaluation through deployment, adoption, and measurable mission impact. You will own technical account plans across OpenAI products and coordinate specialists to enable production-ready solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as primary technical advisor and long-term technical relationship owner for a portfolio of public sector customers and pre-sales prospects.
• Partner with Account Directors to translate mission priorities into use-case portfolios, adoption roadmaps, and technical milestones.
• Lead discovery with agency leaders, executives, and engineering teams to identify and prioritize use cases tied to mission outcomes.
• Design Applied AI Architectures covering models, applications, data, integration, identity, security, privacy, governance, evaluation, and deployment.
• Guide customers through technical evaluations, demos, workshops, prototypes, and proofs of value to build confidence and a path to production.
• Help customers navigate security, compliance, governance, and procurement constraints specific to the public sector.
• Maintain focused use-case portfolios with decision criteria, ownership, blockers, success measures, and adoption plans.
• Coordinate support from Deployment Engineering, implementation, enablement, security, product, domain specialists, and partners.
• Track adoption, usage, account health, production readiness, and measurable mission impact; intervene to mitigate risks.
• Capture and share customer insights with Product, Engineering, and Research to inform product and architecture guidance.

Requirements

• Significant experience in customer-facing technical roles (solutions architecture, solutions engineering, technical account leadership, AI deployment, or technical customer success).
• Track record guiding complex organizations from technical evaluation through production adoption and measurable impact.
• Experience working with government agencies, public institutions, or government contractors, and familiarity with mission priorities, security, compliance, governance, and procurement.
• Strong communication skills for engaging both senior technical/government leaders and hands-on engineers.
• Solid software and cloud architecture foundations (APIs, distributed systems, data integration, identity, security, privacy).
• Understanding of modern AI systems, frontier models, agentic applications, model evaluation, retrieval, and enterprise AI workflows.
• Experience developing technical account plans and connecting adoption to measurable outcomes.
• Public sector mission expertise is strongly preferred; existing security clearance may provide additional opportunities.

Location & Work Model

• Based in Washington, D.C.
• Hybrid work model: three days in the office per week.
• Relocation assistance offered for new employees.

Team & Context

• The OpenAI for Government AI Architect team partners with public sector organizations to design secure, scalable AI solutions and drive adoption across agencies. The role collaborates closely with Sales, Product, Engineering, Research, Security, Global Affairs, and delivery teams.

Skills

Technical strategy Solutions architecture Technical account management Pre-sales support Stakeholder management Cross-functional collaboration Customer-facing communication Cloud architecture Security & compliance Data integration Identity & access management Prototyping & proofs of value Model evaluation Program & project management Deployment & production adoption

Experience Level

Senior

Employment Type

FullTime

Benefits

• Hybrid work (3 days/week in office)
• Relocation assistance
• Background checks (as required)
• Reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities