Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
This role stands out in the SaaS ecosystem because it sits upstream of product delivery, focusing on the physical and regulatory foundations that enable large-scale compute. While many SaaS careers concentrate on software, this position reflects how modern SaaS and AI services increasingly depend on data center capacity, site readiness, and infrastructure strategy to meet reliability and growth demands.
For a long-term SaaS career, the work builds a rare blend of operational rigor and cross-functional influence. Leading structured diligence, shaping go or no-go decisions, and creating repeatable playbooks mirrors the kind of systems thinking that later translates into platform operations, infrastructure program leadership, and enterprise-scale risk management. The emphasis on templates, KPIs, and vendor governance also aligns with how SaaS organizations institutionalize processes as they expand.
The strongest fit is for professionals who prefer ambiguity-to-clarity work, enjoy coordinating external specialists, and are comfortable translating technical constraints into executive-ready recommendations. It also suits candidates who want to operate at the intersection of strategy and execution, where outcomes are measured by reduced risk, predictable timelines, and scalable decision frameworks rather than feature velocity.
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, in close collaboration with our capital partners, is embarking on a journey to build the world’s most advanced AI infrastructure ecosystem. The Industrial Compute team is central to this mission, setting the core infra strategy and implementing this vision. From site selection to the buildout process, this team sits at the intersection of commercial, technical, strategy, and operations, interacting with teams and executives inside and outside of OpenAI.
About the Role
Responsible for validating that proposed sites are buildable, compliant, and cost-effective. You will lead diligence across civil, geotechnical, environmental, and entitlement dimensions, identifying risks and driving mitigation strategies.
Key Responsibilities
Lead all technical diligence: geotech, soils, title/ALTA surveys, mineral rights, and access.
Oversee permitting/entitlement path and schedule governance with agencies.
Evaluate generator air permits, wetlands, floodplain, and stormwater constraints.
Manage consultants performing feasibility studies and environmental assessments.
Deliver go/no-go recommendations with risk and mitigation options.
Build diligence templates and playbooks to scale future site reviews.
Qualifications
8+ years in land development, civil/environmental engineering, or data center diligence.
Knowledge of permitting, entitlements, and AHJ engagement.
Strong project management and technical review skills.
Experience managing consultants and interpreting complex studies.
Regularly communicate site readiness updates, risks, and milestones to executive stakeholders
Establish and track key performance indicators to assess the effectiveness of the site selection program and the contributions of external vendors and partners.
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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