Location

San Francisco

Employment Type

Full time

Department

Finance

Compensation

• $180K – $200K • Offers Equity

The base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. If the role is non-exempt, overtime pay will be provided consistent with applicable laws. In addition to the salary range listed above, total compensation also includes generous equity, performance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees, and the following benefits.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family, with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts

• Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses (parking and transit)

• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match

• Paid parental leave (up to 24 weeks for birth parents and 20 weeks for non-birthing parents), plus paid medical and caregiver leave (up to 8 weeks)

• Paid time off: flexible PTO for exempt employees and up to 15 days annually for non-exempt employees

• 13+ paid company holidays, and multiple paid coordinated company office closures throughout the year for focus and recharge, plus paid sick or safe time (1 hour per 30 hours worked, or more, as required by applicable state or local law)

• Mental health and wellness support

• Employer-paid basic life and disability coverage

• Annual learning and development stipend to fuel your professional growth

• Daily meals in our offices, and meal delivery credits as eligible

• Relocation support for eligible employees

• Additional taxable fringe benefits, such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends, may also be provided.

More details about our benefits are available to candidates during the hiring process.

This role is at-will and OpenAI reserves the right to modify base pay and other compensation components at any time based on individual performance, team or company results, or market conditions.

About the Team

OpenAI Finance is responsible for ensuring the organization is set up for success in pursuit of its mission.

OpenAI’s Payroll team is responsible for timely and accurate processing of payroll and ensuring compliance with all statutory regulations.

About the Role

At OpenAI, payroll is not a back-office function — it is mission-critical infrastructure. We are seeking a seasoned US Payroll Operations expert to scale, and continuously improve the payroll and payroll-support ecosystem that serves one of the fastest-growing and most technically sophisticated organizations in the world.

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:

• Execute end-to-end payroll processing for bi-weekly payroll cycles, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance across multiple jurisdictions.

• Review and validate employee data changes (new hires, terminations, compensation changes, time and attendance inputs) to ensure payroll accuracy.

• Proactively identify and resolve payroll discrepancies, working directly with employees and internal partners to troubleshoot and prevent recurrence.

• Manage employee payroll support inquiries with a high degree of professionalism, clarity, and service orientation.

• Lead day-to-day workflows with outsourced payroll/BPO partners to ensure SLAs are met, quality standards are upheld, and escalations are handled efficiently.

• Partner closely with HR and other cross-functional teams to ensure clean upstream inputs and accurate downstream reporting.

• Maintain documentation, process maps, and internal controls to support audit readiness and compliance.

• Recommend process improvements and identify automation or efficiency opportunities to drive continuous improvement in payroll operations.

You might thrive in this role if you have:

• 6+ years of progressive experience in payroll operations, preferably in a fast-paced or high-growth environment.

• Strong working knowledge of U.S. federal, state, and local payroll regulations, tax requirements, and standard payroll practices.

• Hands-on experience with Workday Payroll or other large HCM/payroll systems; ADP or SmartCompliance experience is a plus.

• Ability to independently manage priorities, take ownership of outcomes, and deliver high-quality work under tight deadlines.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with excellent attention to detail.

• Clear and concise communication skills, with the ability to partner effectively with internal and external stakeholders.

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, HR, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. CPP certification is a plus.

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.

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