# Senior Program Manager, Consumer Device Safety Operations

**Company:** [OpenAI](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/openai)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** Technical Program Management
**Salary:** $252k – $335k/yr
**Experience:** 8+ years
**Skills:** Program Management, Technical Program Management, Operations Strategy, Trust And Safety, Risk Operations, Incident Response, Product Operations, Data Analysis, Telemetry, Workflow Automation, Quality Assurance, AI Tools, Executive Communication, Roadmapping, Case Management
**Posted:** 2026-08-11

> Build and scale the safety and risk operating model for a new category of consumer devices, defining incident workflows, escalation mechanisms, launch readiness, controls, and measurement. The role requires 8+ years of experience managing ambiguous cross-functional programs and strong judgment in sensitive, high-severity situations.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Lead strategic operational builds for device-safety priorities from problem statement through implemented operating model, including scope, owners, milestones, risks, success measures, and execution cadence.
- Define intake, severity criteria, decision rights, evidence requirements, escalation paths, response standards, closure criteria, and post-incident learning for high-risk cases.
- Translate product, engineering, legal, privacy, policy, support, and operational constraints into executable workflows, requirements, playbooks, and controls.
- Build launch-readiness plans, training, quality controls, reporting, monitoring, and early-life response mechanisms.
- Coordinate across Product, Hardware and Software Engineering, Product Quality, Legal, Privacy, Product Policy, Support, Logistics, vendors, and USRO.
- Use operational data, customer signals, product telemetry, case outcomes, and qualitative evidence to identify patterns, assess risk, and recommend action.
- Drive critical escalations and cross-functional decisions to closure with accountable owners, documented decisions, and durable follow-through.
- Create roadmaps, decision logs, risk registers, operating reviews, status updates, and executive communications.
- Identify opportunities for AI tools, automation, lightweight systems, and simpler workflows to improve speed, consistency, investigation, and quality while preserving human judgment.
- Stand up priority workflows, operate them through launch and stabilization, and transition mature capabilities to durable owners.

## Requirements
- 8+ years of experience in program management, strategy and operations, product operations, technical program management, trust and safety, risk operations, incident operations, support operations, implementation, or a related field.
- Technical and analytical fluency sufficient to reason about data flows, telemetry, logs, dashboards, access controls, case systems, automation, and failure modes.
- Track record of taking complex, ambiguous, and unstructured work from problem framing through launch and scaled operation.
- Ability to create clarity across many moving pieces while maintaining focus on key decisions, risks, and dependencies.
- Sound judgment in high-severity or sensitive situations and ability to make practical, risk-based decisions with incomplete information.
- Ability to build trust and alignment across teams without direct authority while maintaining clear ownership and escalation paths.
- Clear communication with technical, operational, legal, policy, and executive audiences.
- Practical approach to building, operating, learning from, and improving workflows.
- Calm, rigorous execution in fast-moving environments.
- Strong discretion, judgment, and resilience when exposed to sensitive or concerning material.

## Nice to Have
- Experience with consumer hardware, connected devices, IoT products, wearables, robotics, mobility, gaming, or another technically complex physical product.
- Experience with device launches, product quality, field incidents, repairs, warranty, returns, fraud, reverse logistics, or privacy-sensitive sensor and diagnostic data.
- Technical degree or equivalent experience partnering with hardware, software, data, or systems engineering teams.
- Experience with vendor operations, quality-assurance programs, incident response, workflow automation, or AI-assisted operations.

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