Technical Sourcer, Research

About the Team

OpenAI’s mission is to build safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity. Achieving this requires bringing the world’s most exceptional talent under one roof to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

Our Research Recruiting team plays a critical role in this effort. We are an embedded part of the research organization—working side by side with our research staff to deeply understand evolving priorities, build trust, and strategically shape the future of OpenAI’s talent.

About the Role

You’ll focus on identifying and engaging world‑class AI researchers and scientists who are advancing the frontier of machine learning and artificial intelligence. In this role, you will drive top‑of‑funnel sourcing efforts, build thoughtful outreach strategies, and cultivate long‑term relationships with highly specialized talent across academia and industry to support our Research teams’ hiring ambitions.

You’ll work across a range of deeply technical and research‑oriented roles, mapping emerging fields, identifying leading contributors, and proactively engaging experts in their respective domains. You’ll partner closely with recruiters, hiring managers, and research leaders to surface exceptional candidates, generate strong pipelines for niche searches, and continuously refine sourcing strategies to help our research teams grow and scale.

Your Responsibilities:

• Build highly targeted searches that deliver candidate profiles with precision.

• Craft thoughtful approaches to candidate outreach that will engage even the most passive talent and cultivate relationships with high priority targets over the long-term.

• Develop and utilize creative strategies to discover non-traditional, research-adjacent, and/or up and coming talent.

• Partner closely with hiring managers across OpenAI to develop customized sourcing strategies and advise them on the market.

• Take a highly organized and data driven approach to candidate tracking and funnel metrics.

• Represent OpenAI and engage with candidates at conferences and events.

We’re Seeking:

• Significant experience sourcing specialized Engineering and/or AI talent across a range of highly technical domains.

• Deep interest in AI research and a desire to engage directly with global research communities.

• Demonstrable success in sourcing and hiring top technical talent at a premier tech company and/or high-growth startup

• Ability to drive multiple complex searches in parallel while maintaining a high quality bar and exceptional stakeholder + candidate experience.

• A passion for the research and mapping components of sourcing; it’s a long game.

Workplace & Location

This role can be based in our San Francisco, New York, or Seattle offices or remotely in the US. When applying, let us know which location(s) work for you. If you’re joining us in person, we offer relocation support and follow a hybrid schedule: three days a week in the office, with the option to work from home on Thursdays and Fridays.

Our offices are set up for focus and connection—with height-adjustable desks, conference rooms, phone booths, well-stocked kitchens full of snacks and drinks, three in-house prepared meals daily, outdoor space for working and socializing, wellness rooms, private bike storage, and more.

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 experie