Applied AI Engineering Manager, Startups | Greenfield (AI)

Location: Hybrid in London, UK; other locations: Munich, Germany and Paris, France

Company

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company developing general-purpose AI systems and products with a focus on safe and beneficial deployment.

What you will do

• Define and refine the strategic vision and operating model for the Startups Applied AI Engineering team.
• Lead, mentor, and grow technical individual contributors supporting AI-native, developer-led, and product-led startups.
• Help startups move from experimentation to production by resolving technical blockers, advising on architecture, and guiding deployment.
• Lead technical strategy for competitive pursuits, including workload discovery, evaluations, quality and cost optimization, and migration planning.
• Partner with Sales, Product, Engineering, Research, VC Partnerships, Marketing, and developer-facing teams to drive adoption and customer feedback.
• Create repeatable playbooks, starter packs, reference architectures, internal tools, workshops, and customer-facing assets.

Requirements

• Experience founding, scaling, or operating within early-stage startups, ideally in technical leadership roles owning product or customer outcomes and technical execution.
• Strong track record of building and leading technical, customer-facing teams in high-growth, ambiguous, or startup-heavy environments.
• Strong technical depth across APIs, platform products, AI/ML systems, developer workflows, and production deployment.
• Experience creating scalable operating models rather than only managing one-off customer escalations.
• Comfort working directly with founders, CTOs, technical executives, and highly technical individual contributors.
• Strong judgment in deciding when to pursue deep engagement for strategic customers and when to build repeatable mechanisms for the broader segment.
• Ability to translate complex technical and product considerations into clear decisions, practical guidance, and customer recommendations.
• Ability to work with speed and pragmatic customer impact while maintaining quality, safety, and long-term platform strategy.
• Personal commitment to the safe and beneficial development of AI.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time hybrid role based in London, with additional locations in Munich and Paris.
• Work involves close collaboration across customer-facing, product, engineering, research, and go-to-market functions.
• Success is measured through customer sprints, first production deployments, competitive migrations, startup usage growth, and customer satisfaction.
• Role includes building a healthy, high-performing team with clear prioritization and scalable operating mechanisms.
• OpenAI is an equal opportunity employer committed to inclusive hiring, reasonable accommodations, and safe development of AI.