About this role
Rapid expansion of frontier artificial intelligence infrastructure creates an urgent need to embed environmental sustainability and operational reliability directly into every physical compute decision from inception. OpenAI needs an Infrastructure Operations & Sustainability Lead to define and execute the sustainability strategy for the global compute portfolio, bridging environmental commitments with the speed required for large-scale data center deployment. The person stepping into this position will translate high-level environmental goals into concrete operating requirements across site selection, equipment procurement, construction, and ongoing facilities operations.
Operating within the Industrial Compute organization, this senior leader establishes decision frameworks that balance ecological impact with infrastructure scaling, cost, and reliability. Collaboration happens daily across engineering, hardware supply chain, public policy, finance, and legal teams to build repeatable playbooks and scalable governance metrics. Candidates who thrive in this environment bring deep infrastructure fluency, executive judgment, and a track record of driving complex programs across organizational boundaries while navigating incomplete information and significant external scrutiny.
What you will do
- Develop and maintain a comprehensive sustainability strategy for the global compute infrastructure portfolio.
- Translate environmental objectives into actionable requirements for site selection, design, construction, procurement, and operations.
- Establish decision frameworks that balance environmental impact with reliability, deployment speed, and cost.
- Address operational and embodied carbon, water stewardship, waste, circularity, and equipment lifecycle management.
- Partner with internal engineering, hardware, supply chain, and public policy teams to establish supplier requirements and regulatory positions.
- Build measurable goals, operating metrics, dashboards, and governance mechanisms for infrastructure sustainability programs.
What you need
- Bring twelve or more years of experience in sustainability, infrastructure operations, environmental strategy, data center infrastructure, or the built environment.
- Demonstrate success leading sustainability or operational-improvement programs across large, geographically distributed organizations.
- Possess a strong understanding of carbon, water, materials, waste, circularity, and lifecycle considerations within physical infrastructure.
- Show the ability to evaluate technical, financial, environmental, regulatory, and reputational tradeoffs together.
- Exhibit strong cross-functional leadership and the ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct authority.
- Communicate clearly and effectively, turning complex subjects into decision-ready materials for executives.
Nice to have
- Experience with hyperscale data centers, cloud infrastructure, industrial facilities, or other resource-intensive operating environments.
- 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.
- Familiarity with energy procurement and utility policy sufficient to partner effectively with dedicated power and energy teams.
Benefits
- Offers Equity
Questions candidates ask
What is the remote work policy for this role?
This position is listed as US - Remote.
What is the salary range for the Infrastructure Operations & Sustainability Lead?
The salary ranges from $223K to $385K and includes offers of equity.
What type of organization will this person work within?
The role sits within OpenAI's Industrial Compute organization, which builds and operates the infrastructure required to support frontier AI at unprecedented scale.
What level of experience is required to apply?
This is a senior leadership role requiring 12+ years of experience in sustainability, infrastructure operations, environmental strategy, data center infrastructure, the built environment, or a related field.