Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
This Head of People Science and Operations role stands out in the SaaS ecosystem because it treats the People function as a data and systems discipline, not only a service layer. The remit spans people analytics, experimentation, and operational infrastructure, reflecting how software companies increasingly rely on measurable operating mechanisms to scale hiring, mobility, and employee support with auditability and consistency. The cross-functional partnerships named, including Finance, Legal, IT, and Security, signal a modern SaaS operating model where workforce systems sit alongside core business systems.
For a long-term SaaS career, the role offers durable leverage: building governance, metrics, and service delivery models that remain valuable across companies and stages. Experience designing experimentation frameworks and translating insights into operating changes maps directly to product and growth ways of working, but applied to the employee lifecycle. The emphasis on automation and workflow modernization also aligns with the broader SaaS shift toward platform thinking inside internal functions.
This position fits a leader who prefers structured problem solving, evidence-based decisions, and multi-stakeholder execution over ad hoc interventions. It will suit someone comfortable owning sensitive data stewardship while balancing speed with rigor, and who wants scope that combines strategy definition with the mechanics of scalable delivery in an in-office, hybrid rhythm.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
Job Description
About the Team
OpenAI’s People team is committed to hiring, engaging, and supporting world-class talent to help safely build and deploy universally beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
The People Science and Operations team is responsible for the systems, data, and operational rigor that underpin every stage of the employee lifecycle. Our work sits at the intersection of employee experience, regulatory compliance, and business velocity — ensuring that as OpenAI scales rapidly and globally, our foundations remain accurate, auditable, and human-centered.
This is a high-trust, high-impact function. We partner closely with Finance, Legal, IT, Security, and the broader People team to support growth in a dynamic environment with significant internal and external scrutiny. Operational excellence here is not about process for process’s sake — it is about building durable infrastructure that enables fairness, transparency, and responsible scale.
About the Role
The Head of People Science and Operations is responsible for building and leading an integrated function spanning People Data Science and People Operations. Reporting to the Chief People Officer, this executive will define how the company uses experimentation, analytics, process design, technology, and service delivery to improve employee experience and organizational effectiveness.
They will serve as the connective tissue between people strategy and execution, ensuring that ideas are translated into durable operating models, that decisions are grounded in evidence, and that core people systems scale with the business.
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:
Lead a unified strategy across People Data Science, Analytics, and People Operations.
Inject science into all aspects of People processes ranging from how we interview, how we compensate, grow, promote, reward, and recognize Talent.
Partner with Research, Engineering, and Product teams to apply OpenAI’s own technology internally—driving automation, intelligent workflows, and system improvements across People Operations, data science, and employee experience platforms.
Build an operating model that links experimentation, insight generation, process design, and service delivery.
Oversee the development of people analytics, dashboards, research agendas, and experimentation frameworks that improve decision quality.
Establish clear service standards, workflows, and controls across core people operations processes.
Partner with HRBPs, Talent, Total Rewards, Legal, Finance, IT, and Security to improve end-to-end execution on critical people programs.
Drive simplification and automation across onboarding, job changes, offboarding, case management, employee support, and data governance.
Create mechanisms to test new people programs quickly, learn from results, and scale what works.
Ensure people data is reliable, well-governed, and translated into actionable insights for executives and managers.
Lead teams in experimenting with and deploying OpenAI technology to modernize People systems and operations—embedding AI-enabled automation, decision support, and scalable operational infrastructure across the People function.
Build a high-performing leadership team with strong capabilities in operations, analytics, research, and change management.
Define success metrics for operational quality, employee experience, experimentation throughput, and impact on business outcomes.
Serve as a strategic advisor to the CPO on organizational health, workforce insights, and operating effectiveness.
You might thrive in this role if you:
15+ years of experience across People Operations, HR Operations, People Analytics, organizational effectiveness, or related functions.
Significant leadership experience running scaled people systems in a complex, fast-moving environment.
Strong command of analytics, experimentation, and evidence-based decision-making.
Proven ability to redesign processes and build durable operating mechanisms across functions.
Experience leading through ambiguity, managing sensitive people data, and balancing speed with rigor.
High executive presence with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and align cross-functional partners.
Track record of building and developing senior leaders across multiple disciplines.
Experience with global operations, workforce systems, compliance considerations, and service delivery models preferred.
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.
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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.
