Demo

Technical Program Manager, Data Acquisition

OpenAI
OpenAI Salary
San Francisco, CA Full Time
POSTED ON 6/15/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 7/21/2026
About The Team

OpenAI's Research Data Team exists to accelerate the evaluation, safety and capabilities of our models and products. Made up of technical operators and software engineers, we design the methods in which we acquire and create data.

About The Role

As a Technical Program Manager (TPM), Data Acquisition, you will partner with research, engineering, and operations to design and implement pragmatic solutions for acquiring data. You will be a key interface between our research roadmap and external data offerings.

This role is based in our San Francisco HQ and will be part of a team of TPMs pushing the frontier of data acquisition.

In This Role, You Will

  • Partner deeply with research: Work with researchers to scope data needs, define success criteria, and translate priorities into clear execution plans.
  • Shape the data acquisition pipeline: Identify, evaluate, and advance high impact data opportunities - balancing research value, feasibility, quality, and responsible execution.
  • Unblock yourself: Move work forward even when the path is unclear — using technical judgement, creative problem solving, and scrappy execution to make progress while longer-term solutions are still forming.
  • Build lightweight systems and visibility: Use SQL, Python, dashboards, and simple tooling to track performance, quality, and blockers.
  • Drive technical roadmaps: Collaborate with engineers to enhance data platforms, resolve blockers, and ensure security best practices such as access management.
  • Scale your impact: Equip vendors and internal teams with the context, standards, and operating rhythms needed to focus on the most important problems.

You’ll Thrive In This Role If You

  • Are proficient in SQL and Python for analysing datasets, querying databases, building dashboards, and generating actionable insights.
  • Are comfortable using APIs, automation, and AI tools such as Codex to accelerate workflows, remove manual overhead, and upskill quickly in unfamiliar technical areas.Experience sourcing, evaluating, or working with startups, founder and vendors
  • Are excited to understand the technicalities of cutting-edge AI research and work alongside researchers from instantiation to launch.
  • Can move fluidly between research context, commercial execution, and data operations.
  • Want to get your hands dirty; grit and creative problem solving will be required daily
  • Learn technical concepts exceptionally quickly, seeking out knowledge to become proficient in areas that are new to you
  • Operate with high horsepower, are adept at frequent context switching and working on multiple projects at once with expansive ownership, and ruthless prioritization
  • Thrive in dynamic environments and can navigate ambiguity with ease

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.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

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

OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Compensation Range: $257K - $335K

Salary : $257,000 - $335,000

If your compensation planning software is too rigid to deploy winning incentive strategies, it’s time to find an adaptable solution. Compensation Planning
Enhance your organization's compensation strategy with salary data sets that HR and team managers can use to pay your staff right. Surveys & Data Sets

What is the career path for a Technical Program Manager, Data Acquisition?

Sign up to receive alerts about other jobs on the Technical Program Manager, Data Acquisition career path by checking the boxes next to the positions that interest you.
Income Estimation: 
$168,545 - $198,692
Income Estimation: 
$182,502 - $249,036
Income Estimation: 
$207,946 - $249,343
Income Estimation: 
$175,165 - $219,883
Income Estimation: 
$182,642 - $260,237
Income Estimation: 
$157,357 - $212,690
Income Estimation: 
$196,356 - $280,529
Employees: Get a Salary Increase
View Core, Job Family, and Industry Job Skills and Competency Data for more than 15,000 Job Titles Skills Library

Job openings at OpenAI

  • OpenAI Washington, DC
  • About The Team OpenAI builds powerful AI systems like ChatGPT, the OpenAI API, and enterprise products that serve millions of users across the globe. As we... more
  • 1 Day Ago

  • OpenAI Seattle, WA
  • About The Team OpenAI’s mission is to build safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity. Achieving this requires bringing the ... more
  • 1 Day Ago

  • OpenAI York, NY
  • About The Team OpenAI’s mission is to build safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity. Achieving this requires bringing the ... more
  • 1 Day Ago

  • OpenAI San Francisco, CA
  • About The Team The Frontier Systems team at OpenAI builds, launches, and supports the largest supercomputers in the world that OpenAI uses for its most cut... more
  • 1 Day Ago


Not the job you're looking for? Here are some other Technical Program Manager, Data Acquisition jobs in the San Francisco, CA area that may be a better fit.

  • OpenAI San Francisco, CA
  • About Team Our Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and advancing toward AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world environmen... more
  • 14 Days Ago

  • Sesame San Francisco, CA
  • About Sesame Sesame believes in a future where computers are lifelike - with the ability to see, hear, and collaborate with us in ways that feel natural an... more
  • 15 Days Ago

AI Assistant is available now!

Feel free to start your new journey!