M&A Integration Lead

About the Team

The Corporate Development team sits at the intersection of OpenAI’s strategy and the global AI ecosystem. Partnering closely with research, engineering, product, GTM and business leaders, we analyze markets, technologies, and companies to identify opportunities that accelerate OpenAI’s mission and long-term strategy. Bringing together expertise in strategy, M&A, and integration, the team leads the end-to-end process of sourcing, evaluating, negotiating, and integrating acquisitions and other strategic transactions.

About the Role

This is a high-visibility, strategically critical, cross-functional role at the intersection of M&A execution, enterprise go-to-market, and operational excellence. You will lead the critical phase from diligence through integration planning and post-close follow-through, define repeatable integration playbooks, and partner directly with senior stakeholders to ensure each transaction delivers intended value. The ideal candidate brings structured, hands-on integration experience, with particular expertise in enterprise / B2B transactions and a passion for AI, including building an AI-native corp dev platform.

This role is based in our San Francisco HQ. We use a hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Lead integration planning and strategic execution for acquisitions from diligence through post-close follow-through, with clear owners, milestones, risks, and decision points.

• Translate deal rationale into practical integration goals and plans across product, engineering, sales, partnerships, customer success, people, finance, legal, security, systems, and communications.

• Partner with deal leads during evaluation and diligence to assess integration considerations, including tech stack, talent assessment, GTM alignment, transaction structure, operational readiness, and execution risk.

• Advise sponsors on how best to bring onboard acquisitions to accelerate priorities.

• Build relationships with trusted cross-functional partners to drive alignment and manage trade-offs.

• Serve as a trusted partner to acquired teams during transition, helping them navigate OpenAI, maintain momentum, and connect with the right stakeholders.

• Utilize AI to build and scale repeatable integration playbooks, templates, governance, and operating rhythms that can support future transactions.

• Track integration KPIs and communicate progress, risks, blockers, and recommendations to executive stakeholders.

• Run retrospectives after major integration milestones and feed lessons learned back into future diligence and integration planning.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• 12+ years of experience in corporate development integration, consulting, or similar roles.

• Hands-on experience leading M&A integrations across all aspects and functions, including talent-focused, tech-focused and platform/business transactions. Experience with international deals, joint ventures / divestitures and large transactions a plus.

• Expertise with integrating enterprise / B2B acquisitions, and understanding of GTM function and related integration activities (e.g. migrating contracts and systems, aligning sales targets and commission structures,, integrating sales teams).

• Strong operating judgment and the ability to move fluidly between strategy and execution.

• Comfort building structure in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.

• Clear, concise communication with senior stakeholders, functional leaders, customers, and acquired teams.

• A track record of building trust quickly and driving outcomes through influence rather than authority.

About OpenAI

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. 

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.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. 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.

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We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.