Deal Lead, Special Situations (Semiconductors)

About the team Special Situations at OpenAI is the company’s commercial engine for its most complex and consequential opportunities. The team operates where new verticals, partnership models, and customer motions must be invented, before a repeatable GTM or delivery playbook exists, by bringing together product, research, engineering, and GTM leaders around a single outcome.

Many of these efforts begin as “new bets” (new verticals, new customer motions, new partnership models) and mature into repeatable ways of working that shape how OpenAI operates at scale. The team acts as a force-multiplier for the company by accelerating decision-making, aligning stakeholders, and converting complex opportunities into durable results.

About the role We’re hiring a Deal Lead, Special Situations to help stand up new vertical bets, with a particular focus on partnership development in the semiconductor industry. You will identify where AI can create step-change value for semiconductor companies and ecosystem partners, originate and shape multi-project programs with FDEs and applied researchers, package them into compelling commercial proposals, and execute creative, complex partnerships while keeping executives and cross-functional teams tightly aligned.

This role is especially focused on building strategic partnerships in semiconductors. You do not need to be a technical engineer, but you do need to be able to speak the language of the semiconductor industry, build credibility quickly with technical and business stakeholders, and come up the learning curve fast on industry dynamics, workflows, and constraints.

A key part of the role is crafting deals with semiconductor companies that demonstrate our unique competitive advantages. To do this effectively, you will need to develop a strong point of view on the market, understand the competitive landscape, and clearly articulate OpenAI’s differentiated value and strategic advantage.

Special Situations owns the overall success of each program, including commercial outcomes, while functional teams own execution decisions within their domains. You will engage executive sponsors when decisions have org- or company-level implications. You will set direction, build the coalition required to achieve it, structure the partnership, and improve decision quality and velocity. When the work can move without Special Situations, you’ll shift to the next highest-leverage opportunity.

In this role, you will:

Identify and size high-value partnership opportunities in the semiconductor industry, translating industry pain points into concrete AI-driven commercial theses

Map the semiconductor partnership and competitive landscape, including internal AI teams and AI automation startups, and design differentiated partnership strategies that OpenAI can win and scale

Learn the language, workflows, and commercial dynamics of the semiconductor ecosystem quickly enough to build trust with both technical and business leaders

Work with FDEs and applied researchers to design multi-project programs that combine models, tooling, data, and services into outcomes partners will pay for

Define use cases, scope, sequencing, and success metrics that turn ambiguous opportunities into executable programs

Create the commercial and strategic narratives (decks, demos, proposals, and deal memos) that align partners, executives, and internal teams around a single plan

Articulate why OpenAI is the right partner versus a build-it-internally approach or external AI automation vendors serving the semiconductor market

Structure and negotiate non-standard partnerships, including revenue share, royalties, and bespoke commercial terms, through contract signature

Drive executive-level alignment and decision-making on tradeoffs, resourcing, and risk

You might thrive in this role if you:

Have 10+ years in business development, partnerships, corporate development, private equity, or founding roles where you personally drove and closed complex, high-dollar deals from concept through delivery

Have meaningful experience in semiconductors or closely adjacent industries, including an understanding of how large companies in the sector buy, partner, and deploy technology

Do not need to be an engineer, but can speak credibly with technical teams and learn specialized industry language and concepts very quickly

Can take a vague opportunity and turn it into a clear commercial thesis that customers, executives, and technical teams can buy into and commit budget against

Can develop a sharp view of the competitive market and persuasively explain why OpenAI is better positioned than internal AI automation efforts or semiconductor-focused AI services startups

Excel at building and closing non-standard deals that combine product, services, and long-term strategic value rather than off-the-shelf SKUs

Know how to navigate large, sophisticated buyers, align multiple stakeholders, and keep deals moving when no one has full authority or clarity