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Strategic Finance, B2B Transactions Lead

OpenAIOpenAI·Artificial Intelligence

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~7 min

Ashby

Posted

205 days

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About the role

About the Team

The Strategic Finance team provides financial insights and guidance to support OpenAI’s long-term goals and strategies. We partner across the business to allocate and deploy our resources for the highest-impact outcomes. 

Within Strategic Finance, this team focuses on the financial performance of our B2B products and GTM functions, ensuring tight alignment between financial objectives and company strategy. We drive operational and financial planning, deliver actionable insights on B2B performance, and help optimize strategic resource allocation to accelerate growth. 

About the Role

We are hiring a senior leader in B2B Strategic Finance to work at the center of OpenAI’s most important and transformational deals that blend elements of corporate development, strategic partnerships, and large deal-pricing work. This is a highly visible role that reports into the Head of B2B Strategic Finance and supports some of our most critical executive stakeholders, including our COO, CFO, and Chief Commercial Officer.

You will partner closely with the Special Situations deal leads, COO staff, Product and Research leaders, Legal, and the broader Finance organization to:

  • Bring rigor and structure to ambiguous, first-of-its-kind transactions.

  • Build and own detailed financial models for complex, multi-year deals.

  • Shape how OpenAI prices, structures, and approves transformational partnerships and commercial agreements.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA. 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:

  • Serve as the Strategic Finance partner to the Special Situations B2B team, acting as the primary financial thought partner on transformational research, partnership, and commercial transactions.

  • Lead the financial workstream for complex deals — owning valuation, unit economics, scenario modeling, downside protection analysis, and sensitivity testing across revenue, compute cost, and cash flows. 

  • Design and evaluate bespoke commercial structures such as multi-year commitments, usage-based pricing, rev share, co-funded R&D, minimums, take-or-pay constructs, and combinations of commercial and strategic/equity components.

  • Partner with Business Operations / Transactions Leads and deal owners to run end-to-end deal processes: shaping deal strategy, defining success metrics, supporting diligence, and ensuring clean hand-offs into execution and post-close tracking. 

  • Drive internal alignment and approvals by translating complex deal structures into clear financial narratives and decision frameworks for executive leadership and the Board (e.g., investment cases, trade-offs, risk/return profiles, and portfolio-level implications). 

  • Build and maintain robust financial models and templates that make it easier to evaluate future Special Situations opportunities in a consistent, scalable way (e.g., standardizing how we model compute, margin, and long-term value creation). 

  • Develop and refine prioritization frameworks that help the company decide which high-effort opportunities to pursue, when to say no, and how to compare transactions against one another and against “core” growth paths.

  • Partner with Accounting, Tax, and Legal to ensure deal structures align with revenue recognition, compliance, and risk management considerations.

  • Create post-close performance tracking and reporting for Special Situations deals, including dashboards and readouts that help leadership understand whether deals are delivering the intended strategic and financial outcomes.

  • Contribute to long-term partnership and transaction strategy, helping shape how Special Situations fits into our broader B2B and corporate development roadmap. 

  • Help build the B2B Finance function itself, modeling high standards for analytical rigor, cross-functional partnership, and judgment in highly ambiguous environments.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

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Aplyr's read

OpenAI is a pioneering AI research organization focused on developing AGI to benefit humanity, attracting talent keen on ethical and innovative AI solutions.

Synthesized from recent postings & public sources

What's promising

  • OpenAI is at the forefront of AI research, driving innovation in artificial general intelligence.
  • The company emphasizes ethical AI development, appealing to those passionate about responsible technology.
  • OpenAI offers diverse roles across engineering, sales, and creative fields, indicating a dynamic work environment.

What to watch

  • OpenAI's rapid growth may lead to organizational challenges and resource strain.
  • The focus on AGI poses inherent risks and ethical dilemmas that require careful navigation.
  • Limited public information about internal culture and work-life balance may concern potential applicants.

Why OpenAI

  • OpenAI's mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity sets it apart in the tech industry.
  • The organization combines cutting-edge research with a strong emphasis on ethical AI practices.
  • OpenAI's diverse hiring across global markets reflects its commitment to international impact and collaboration.

Aplyr’s read is generated by AI from public sources. Was it useful?

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About OpenAI

OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research organization that aims to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. They develop advanced AI technologies and promote safe and responsible AI practices.

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