Business Affairs Manager

OpenAI OpenAI · AI Frontier · San Francisco, CA · Marketing

This role supports OpenAI's Hardware team by managing Business Affairs workstreams for marketing projects, including confidential product launches. The manager will oversee rights, clearances, contracts, vendor requirements, and risk decisions, ensuring compliance and scalability. The role involves shaping BA processes, partnering with various internal teams and external partners, and managing day-to-day execution of workflows. Experience in advertising/marketing/production business affairs, particularly with hardware or confidential pre-launch work, is required.

What you'd actually do

  1. Own Business Affairs workstreams for Hardware marketing projects, including confidential product launches, campaigns, films, events, experiential activations, partner moments, and emerging creative.
  2. Manage BA requirements from project kickoff through delivery, including rights, clearances, contracts, usage terms, vendor requirements, documentation, approvals, and post-launch asset usage.
  3. Drive the day-to-day execution of project workflows, including clearance trackers, talent and public figure deals, music, locations, third-party IP, product footage, likeness rights, paid media usage, global extensions, and renewal needs.
  4. Inform and manage BA guardrails for confidential and tented Hardware work, including NDA requirements, need-to-know access, vendor onboarding, secure asset handling, prototype or product restrictions, documentation standards, and access removal.
  5. Own project-level risk management, identifying issues early, recommending paths forward and escalating when needed.

Skills

Required

  • Advertising / Marketing / Production Business Affairs roles
  • supporting hardware, consumer technology, product launches or confidential pre-launch work
  • owning Business Affairs workstreams inside complex marketing, creative, production or launch environments
  • managing negotiations, contracts, rights, clearances, talent/public figure deals, usage rights, third-party IP, and production-related legal workflows
  • Strong project-management instincts
  • Excellent judgment in fast-moving, highly confidential, and highly scrutinized environments
  • Comfort operating in ambiguity, building new processes from scratch, and balancing speed, quality, confidentiality, and risk mitigation

Nice to have

  • AI-first mindset finding reliable ways to optimize the function of BA with our tools and scaling them.

What the JD emphasized

  • highly confidential
  • high-visibility
  • confidential product launches
  • confidential and tented Hardware work
  • highly confidential
  • highly scrutinized environments
  • confidential pre-launch work
  • confidential and restricted-access projects
  • confidentiality controls