Strategic Finance, B2B Transactions Lead at OpenAI

San Francisco, California, United States

OpenAI Logo
$265,000 – $325,000Compensation
Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level
Full TimeJob Type
UnknownVisa
Technology, AIIndustries

Requirements

  • 12+ years of relevant experience (inferred from context)

Responsibilities

  • 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

Skills

Key technologies and capabilities for this role

Financial ModelingValuationUnit EconomicsScenario ModelingSensitivity AnalysisDeal StructuringCorporate DevelopmentStrategic PartnershipsPricing StrategyB2B FinanceFP&AExcel

Questions & Answers

Common questions about this position

What is the salary range for the Strategic Finance, B2B Transactions Lead role?

The salary range is $265K - $325K.

Is this role remote or based in an office, and what is the work arrangement?

This role is based in San Francisco, CA, with a hybrid work model requiring 3 days in the office per week. OpenAI offers relocation assistance to new employees.

What key skills are required for this Strategic Finance position?

Key skills include building and owning detailed financial models for complex deals, leading financial workstreams with valuation, unit economics, scenario modeling, and sensitivity testing, and designing bespoke commercial structures like multi-year commitments and usage-based pricing.

What is the team structure and focus for this role at OpenAI?

The role is on the Strategic Finance team, focusing on B2B products and GTM functions, and serves as the primary financial partner to the Special Situations B2B team. It reports to the Head of B2B Strategic Finance and partners with executive stakeholders like the COO, CFO, and Chief Commercial Officer.

What makes a strong candidate for this B2B Strategic Finance Lead role?

Strong candidates bring rigor and structure to ambiguous, first-of-its-kind transactions, partner across functions like Product, Research, Legal, and Finance, and can translate complex deal structures into clear financial narratives for executives and the Board.

OpenAI

Develops safe and beneficial AI technologies

About OpenAI

OpenAI develops and deploys artificial intelligence technologies aimed at benefiting humanity. The company creates advanced AI models capable of performing various tasks, such as automating processes and enhancing creativity. OpenAI's products, like Sora, allow users to generate videos from text descriptions, showcasing the versatility of its AI applications. Unlike many competitors, OpenAI operates under a capped profit model, which limits the profits it can make and ensures that excess earnings are redistributed to maximize the social benefits of AI. This commitment to safety and ethical considerations is central to its mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) serves all of humanity.

San Francisco, CaliforniaHeadquarters
2015Year Founded
$18,433.2MTotal Funding
LATE_VCCompany Stage
AI & Machine LearningIndustries
1,001-5,000Employees

Benefits

Health insurance
Dental and vision insurance
Flexible spending account for healthcare and dependent care
Mental healthcare service
Fertility treatment coverage
401(k) with generous matching
20-week paid parental leave
Life insurance (complimentary)
AD&D insurance (complimentary)
Short-term/long-term disability insurance (complimentary)
Optional buy-up life insurance
Flexible work hours and unlimited paid time off (we encourage 4+ weeks per year)
Annual learning & development stipend
Regular team happy hours and outings
Daily catered lunch and dinner
Travel to domestic conferences

Risks

Elon Musk's legal battle may pose financial and reputational challenges for OpenAI.
Customizable ChatGPT personas could lead to privacy and ethical concerns.
Competitors like Anthropic raising capital may intensify market competition.

Differentiation

OpenAI's capped profit model prioritizes ethical AI development over unlimited profit.
OpenAI's AI models, like Sora, offer unique video creation from text descriptions.
OpenAI's focus on AGI aims to create AI systems smarter than humans.

Upsides

OpenAI's $6.6 billion funding boosts its AI research and computational capacity.
Customizable ChatGPT personas enhance user engagement and satisfaction.
OpenAI's 'Operator' AI agent could revolutionize workforce automation by 2025.

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