Senior Manager, Technical Accounting, Compute Infrastructure
$240k+Application analysis
Senior Manager, Technical Accounting, Compute Infrastructure at OpenAI is a forward deployed ai research lab role for engineers who want customer-facing technical work with real deployment ownership.
Reading this role
This DevOps / SRE / Platform role centers on reliable infrastructure, deployment pipelines, observability, and production operations. Key signals from the listing: Senior scope.
About OpenAI
OpenAI ships frontier models to real customers through small, high-trust engineering teams. Forward deployed roles sit between product, research, and enterprise buyers. The role is anchored in San Francisco, so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Signals in the listing
Stand out for Senior Manager, Technical Accounting, Compute Infrastructure
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying Senior Manager, Technical Accounting, Compute Infrastructure to a specific customer or deployment you owned — OpenAI hires for shipped outcomes, not tool lists.
- Document a production incident or rollout you led: architecture diagram, what broke, how you mitigated, and what guardrails you added afterward.
- Reference the stack named in the posting (Kubernetes, Terraform, cloud provider) with version-specific details — generic “cloud experience” reads weak here.
- This role is tied to San Francisco — mention willingness to work on-site with customers and any existing ties to that market (clients, partners, or domain knowledge).
- Compensation is in a senior band — emphasize staff-level scope: cross-team influence, architecture decisions, and customer exec communication.
Stand out at OpenAI
- Demonstrate customer obsession with safety constraints with a concrete example — OpenAI will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Demonstrate writing and communication with a concrete example — OpenAI will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Interview loops emphasize problem decomposition, taste in product, and whether you can earn trust with technical and non-technical stakeholders quickly.
- Read recent engineering blog posts, product launches, and customer stories on openai.com — reference one explicitly in your outreach to show genuine interest.
Tailored from this listing’s title, company, and description. Always verify requirements on the company careers page before applying.
Role description
About the Team
OpenAI Finance is responsible for ensuring the organization is set up for success in pursuit of its mission. The Technical Accounting team plays a crucial role in helping OpenAI navigate complex, judgmental, and rapidly evolving accounting matters with rigor and clarity. We aim to bring both technical excellence and strong business partnership to some of the most novel accounting questions in the industry.
About the Role
As a Technical Accounting Manager, Compute Infrastructure, you will lead the evaluation, documentation, and operationalization of complex accounting matters related to OpenAI’s compute infrastructure and other strategic business activities. This is a high-impact role at the intersection of technical accounting, infrastructure strategy, financial reporting, and cross-functional execution. You will be responsible for analyzing complex and non-routine transactions under U.S. GAAP, developing well-supported accounting conclusions, and translating those conclusions into practical guidance for accounting operations, financial reporting, controls, and business partners. Areas of focus may include leases, cloud compute arrangements, power purchase agreements, related strategic investments, consolidation evaluations, and other emerging or non-standard arrangements. 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:
- Evaluate complex, judgmental, and non-routine transactions and document accounting conclusions under U.S. GAAP.
- Partner with Controllership, Tax, Legal, FP&A, Procurement, Infrastructure, and other cross-functional teams to assess the accounting implications of new products, commercial arrangements, strategic transactions, and business initiatives.
- Translate technical accounting conclusions into practical operational guidance, including journal entries, close procedures, disclosure considerations, and control requirements.
- Lead the preparation and review of technical accounting memoranda, position papers, and other documentation for management, auditors, and internal stakeholders.
- Maintain and enhance OpenAI’s technical accounting framework, including policies, interpretive guidance, and documentation for both recurring and non-recurring accounting matters.
- Advise on financial reporting implications of complex accounting areas, including financial statement presentation and footnote disclosures.
- Help design and implement scalable processes to support new accounting requirements, evolving business activities, and continued organizational growth.
- Serve as a trusted thought partner on novel, high-impact accounting issues across the organization.
You might thrive in this role if you have:
- CPA or equivalent accounting qualification.
- 10+ years of progressive accounting experience, with at least 2 years in technology company environments.
- Prior experience in a public accounting firm at a manager or senior manager level.
- National office or Accounting Advisory background preferred.
- A strong foundation in technical accounting under US GAAP, with expertise in financial instruments, consolidation and lease accounting.
- Demonstrated ability in managing and supporting high-velocity, cross-functional teams on impactful projects.
- Exceptional problem-solving capabilities, strategic thinking, and the ability to work in a fast-paced, innovative environment.
Compensation Range: $216K - $240K USD
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 https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf. 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. To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form https://form.asana.com/?d=57018692298241&k=5MqR40fZd7jlxVUh5J-UeA. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link https://form.asana.com/?k=bQ7w9h3iexRlicUdWRiwvg&d=57018692298241. OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy https://cdn.openai.com/policies/global-employee-and-contractor-privacy-policy.pdf 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.