Research Communications Manager - San Francisco

About the Team · OpenAI's mission is to ensure that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. · Our Communications team's ethos is to support OpenAI's mission and goals by clearly and authentically explaining our technology, values, and approach to safely ...

Job description

About the Team

OpenAI's mission is to ensure that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity.

Our Communications team's ethos is to support OpenAI's mission and goals by clearly and authentically explaining our technology, values, and approach to safely building powerful AI.

About the Role

OpenAI is seeking an experienced communications professional to join our Platform & Research Communications team. This role will work closely with the Research Communications Lead and in partnership with applied and engineering teams to shape how OpenAI's scientific work is understood by researchers, journalists, policymakers, and the broader public.

This position is responsible for developing and executing external communications strategies around OpenAI's research—from foundational model advances to applied science collaborations—ensuring accuracy, nuance, and alignment with OpenAI's long-term goals. The ideal candidate brings strong science or technical fluency, excellent storytelling instincts, and experience navigating complex, high-stakes narratives.

You will partner closely with research leadership, individual researchers, policy, product, and cross-functional communications teams. This role requires both strategic judgment and hands-on execution in a fast-moving environment where research, product, and public discourse intersect.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA and follows a hybrid schedule (three days per week in office). Relocation assistance is available.

In this role you will:

Shape Research Narratives

• Develop clear, credible external narratives around OpenAI's research roadmap, breakthroughs, and long-term scientific direction.

• Translate complex technical work into accessible stories without oversimplifying or overstating impact.

• Help define and reinforce OpenAI's POV on key research topics (e.g., reasoning, alignment, interpretability, scientific discovery).

Lead Research-Focused Media Engagement

• Build and maintain trusted relationships with top-tier science, technology, and business journalists.

• Manage proactive and reactive media engagement related to research announcements, papers, collaborations, and emerging narratives.

• Prepare researchers and executives for interviews, briefings, and public appearances.

Support Research Launches & Publications

• Partner with research teams to plan communications for major papers, model releases, evaluations, and science initiatives.

• Collaborate with design, editorial, and social teams on blogs, explainers, visuals, and supporting materials.

• Ensure launches are grounded in evidence, aligned with policy and safety considerations, and appropriately scoped.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Work closely with Product, Policy, Safety, Legal, and Marketing to align research communications with broader company goals.

• Serve as a communications thought partner to researchers—helping them anticipate questions, risks, and opportunities.

Risk Anticipation & Mitigation

• Identify potential reputational, scientific, or misinterpretation risks early.

• Develop mitigation strategies, Q&A, and guidance for sensitive or high-profile research topics.

• Help ensure OpenAI communicates responsibly about frontier capabilities and limitations.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• 7+ years of experience in research, science, or technology communications

• Demonstrated experience working directly with scientists, engineers, or technical leaders.

• Strong understanding of AI, machine learning, or adjacent scientific domains

• Exceptional writing and editing skills, with the ability to adapt tone for expert and general audiences

• Proven judgment handling complex, ambiguous, or high-stakes narratives

• Experience managing multiple workstreams in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities

• Strong project management and cross-functional collaboration skills

• Comfort operating at both strategic and executional levels

• Familiarity with academic publishing, peer review, or research collaborations

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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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.