Frontier AI Research · San Francisco
OpenAI’s certification initiative is a major strategic program that spans multiple parts of the company. The Director of Certifications will own this initiative as a company-level program across Product, Customer Education, GTM, and Partnerships.
This role is responsible for defining the architecture, operating model, and long-term trajectory of OpenAI’s certification program. You will set vision for how OpenAI certifications are structured, how they integrate with product capabilities, and how the system scales to reach millions of learners while maintaining credibility and rigor. The role requires operating across all of OpenAI to build a coherent certification system that reflects real product capability.
The role reports to the Head of Customer Readiness and works closely with leaders across Product, GTM, and Partnerships.
Lead the development of OpenAI’s certification system as a company-wide initiative.
Define the program’s structure, roadmap, and operating model.
Ensure that certifications evolve alongside OpenAI’s rapidly developing products.
Develop frameworks for evaluating practical AI capability using OpenAI products.
Ensure certifications measure real workflows and product usage rather than theoretical knowledge.
Translate product capabilities into meaningful certification pathways.
Partner closely with product teams to ensure certification systems integrate with OpenAI’s platform and learning tools.
Influence product features that support learning, evaluation, and skill development.
Ensure certifications remain tightly aligned with real product capabilities.
Design a program architecture capable of reaching millions of learners while maintaining credibility and signal value.
Ensure certification pathways integrate with OpenAI learning programs and educational initiatives.
Establish systems that allow certification programs to scale globally.
Operate across Product, GTM, Customer Education, and Partnerships to align strategy and execution.
Ensure certification initiatives reinforce enterprise adoption and workforce readiness.
Build shared understanding across teams of how certification programs support OpenAI’s broader mission.
Have led large, cross-functional strategic initiatives involving product, education, and go-to-market teams
Are comfortable defining new programs where the operating model does not yet exist
Can influence multiple teams and senior leaders without direct authority
Enjoy working at the intersection of technology, education, and workforce transformation
Experience leading high-impact, high-visibility cross-functional programs
Experience building for developer or technical audiences
Experience leading large-scale learning or credential systems
Experience working closely with product teams on customer-facing tools
Familiarity with developer platforms, AI systems, or emerging technology ecosystems
AI is rapidly becoming a foundational capability across the global economy. As organizations adopt AI technologies, the ability to demonstrate real skills with these systems will become increasingly important.
The certification system being built at OpenAI will help define how AI capability is measured and recognized.
The person in this role will shape how millions of people demonstrate practical AI skills and how organizations evaluate those capabilities.
Compensation Range: $239.4K - $335K 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.
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