Head of First Party Chip Finance (AI)

Location: San Francisco, United States; Hybrid

Salary: $293K–$342K per year, plus equity and eligible bonuses

Company

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company developing general-purpose artificial intelligence products with a focus on safe deployment and broad human benefit.

What you will do

• Lead financial evaluation of custom silicon programs, including development investment, production economics, deployment assumptions, expected returns, and comparisons with alternative compute options.
• Build and own program-level financial models and multiyear forecasts connecting engineering milestones, development spending, manufacturing volumes, supplier commitments, and cash requirements.
• Partner with chip design and engineering leaders to evaluate performance, power, cost, and deployment-time tradeoffs and translate them into financial recommendations.
• Develop detailed chip and system cost models covering wafers, manufacturing yields, packaging, memory, testing, and integration, and identify opportunities to improve program economics.
• Partner with Supply Chain, Procurement, Treasury, Corporate Finance, Accounting, Tax, and Legal on supplier strategy, negotiations, financing, payment structures, financial exposure, and program execution.
• Establish budgets, reporting, and financial controls; support pricing and commercial deployment decisions; and build a small, high-performing team while remaining directly involved in analysis.

Requirements

• Prior experience leading finance for semiconductor or custom silicon programs, including direct ownership of investment analysis, program budgets, and financial decisions across chip development and production.
• 10+ years of experience across semiconductor finance, hardware finance, strategic finance, or related fields, with substantial responsibility for complex technical programs.
• Undergraduate degree in a technical discipline, preferably electrical engineering or computer science.
• Strong command of semiconductor economics, including development costs, manufacturing yields, packaging and memory costs, production ramps, and supplier commitments.
• Excellent financial modeling skills, including independently building models, testing technical and commercial assumptions, quantifying uncertainty, and recommending a path forward.
• Technical credibility to work with chip designers and engineering leaders and evaluate tradeoffs across performance, power, cost, and timing.
• Experience supporting supplier negotiations, prepayments, and major investment commitments with supply chain and finance teams.
• Hands-on operating style, clear communication, sound judgment, and the ability to use technology and AI to improve analysis and decision-making.
• Strong track record of hiring, leading, and developing high-performing teams.

Nice to have

• An MBA or equivalent business experience complementing a technical foundation.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid work in San Francisco with daily office meals and eligible meal delivery credits.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match and pre-tax FSA, dependent care, and commuter accounts.
• Paid parental, medical, caregiver, sick, and safe leave; flexible PTO for exempt employees; and 13+ paid company holidays.
• Mental health and wellness support, employer-paid basic life and disability coverage, and an annual learning and development stipend.
• Relocation support for eligible employees, charitable donation matching, and wellness stipends may be available.